Make 2026 The Year FOR The Horse
The 2026 Lunar New Year celebrates the Year of the Horse in the Chinese zodiac—symbolising strength, energy, vitality and, ironically, freedom. Ironic, because millions of horses in Australia and around the world are far from free.
Instead, they endure lives of exploitation, pain, and neglect for the sake of tourism, entertainment, experiments, their flesh, and for racing profits.
Horses Are Not Tourist Attractions
Horse abuse is rife in the tourism industry. All over the world, horses are forced to work long hours in extreme heat without adequate food, water, shade, or rest. Some are visibly underweight, with ribs and hip bones protruding. Others suffer from open wounds caused by ill-fitting saddles and harnesses that rub their skin raw.
A new video with footage from Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and the U.S. exposes an unmistakable truth: No matter where in the world horses are used for profit, they suffer.
In Egypt, horses pulling carriages near iconic landmarks are whipped and beaten to keep them moving. In Southeast Asia, horses are tied up for hours under the blazing sun, waiting for the next paying tourist.
Horses are sensitive animals who evolved to roam free, form social bonds, and graze throughout the day. In tourism settings, they’re commonly isolated, restrained, overworked, and denied proper veterinary care.
When horses are no longer profitable, because they’re injured, sick, or worn out, they’re often abandoned, sold, or sent to slaughter.
In Horse Racing, Horses Never Win
Australia is so entrenched in horse racing that the state of Victoria has a public holiday dedicated to the Melbourne Cup, even though it has claimed the lives of seven horses in the past decade.
The 2024/25 racing year was Australia’s deadliest, with 174 horses dying on Australian tracks, and many more sustaining injuries. The industry also reported illegal drug use, whipping violations, and betting manipulation.
The Year of the Horse celebrates freedom and vitality, but horses used for racing are denied autonomy, drugged, whipped, and pushed until their bodies break.
Horses Killed for Meat in Australia
Tens of thousands of horses are violently slaughtered in Australian knackeries each year, to be turned into meat for companion animals.
It’s estimated that at least half of the horses killed in Australia come from the racing industry.
This is just one of the outcomes the industry euphemistically refers to as wastage: if a horse isn’t winning money, they’re killed so their owners still profit from their flesh.
Cruel Experiments on Horses
Australia’s records on experiments on animals are far from transparent, so little is known about exactly how many horses are used in experiments and how, but we do know that horses are among the millions of animals forced to endure painful, stressful procedures in Australian laboratories.
Horses have been infected with the Hendra virus, given drugs to see how long it takes them to excrete banned substances in the racing industry, and injected with venom to harvest their antibodies for the development of antivenom.
They’re also forced to run on treadmills to predict racing injuries, and horses no longer used for racing are drained of blood from their jugulars at regular intervals.
Rodeos Harm Horses
Rodeos are an archaic, cruel spectacle that condemns bulls, calves and horses to abuse.
Still legal everywhere except the ACT, rodeos see humans lasso baby animals and drag them to the ground, and goading them into fearful behaviours such as running, bucking, jumping, and charging.
Horses are forced to buck in reaction to being kicked with sharp metal spurs, complete obstacle courses, and “round up” other animals. A rodeo is judged by the drama it delivers, and animals are often seriously injured and even killed in the pursuit of “entertainment”.
Australia’s Wild Horses: From “Icon” to “Pest”
If you’ve ever read The Man from Snowy River, you’ll know how Australia’s wild horses, brumbies, are romanticised in Australian bush poetry. But, like so many animals imported and bred for human use and then discarded, brumbies are now labelled a “problem” by Australian governments, making them the target of fatal aerial shootings.
Brumbies may be shot up to 15 times in a single attack, with the method (long range, from a helicopter) resulting in many brumbies suffering prolonged deaths. Foals are often orphaned when their mothers are shot.
Brumbies are neither icons nor pests – they’re individuals, and human labels don’t determine their worth.
Make This a Year for Horses
There’s so much you can do to help horses this – and every – year.
On holiday, make a compassionate choice: Never ride horses or take animal-drawn carriage rides at tourist sites anywhere in the world.
The Year of the Horse represents a time for bold action. Act now to urge the Egyptian government to remove all animal rides from the pyramids.
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