Meat Eating Horses, second course.

CuChullaine O'Reilly is getting a fair amount of flak for his book Deadly Equines, mostly because it is a book. The standard criticism is that CuChullaine has deliberately made the topic interesting, and focused on the more eccentric dietary habits of horses rather than a carefully tabulated description of the average horse's diet. Yes he has, because Deadly Equines is a book and books only exist because people want to read them. Books that people don't want to read have a short and ignominious shelf life.
CuChullaine has persuaded a lot of people to look at their pony, or horse's diet of choice. The fact that a horse eats all its hay is not a guideline to what it likes, it eats the hay because it is locked in a 12X12 box with nothing else to eat and nothing to do. Under the circumstances I might eat hay.
I experimented with Obama's diet on Tuesday at the Shillingford Organic Farm Open day. Feeling peckish I ordered a burger, one of the West Town Farm organic burgers, made from their own beef, and totally superb. It was served with an extensive salad, hardboiled egg and pasta in tomato sauce. Obama thought it looked delicious, in which he was dead right, and that it was his to share.
One consequence of the journeys we have done together is that Obama sees all food as his, so the few moments when I decide to eat something rapidly descend into a squabble. This was no exception. I tried Obama on  the various exotic and delicious leaves which garnished my burger, every one of which Obama rejected. They were good, it shows how low I have sunk that I am eating lettuce spurned by my pony. The egg, he says is great, he adores the pasta in tomato sauce but absolutely rejects the tomato, will accept cucumber, but isn't over keen, piles into the bread, and absolutely loves the burger.
I only gave him two small bits of meat because it was quite clearly my burger, not his, and I was hungry, and we both agree the burger was delicious, but as I said, it was MINE. I am aware this is not a scientific survey, in the same way that CuChullaine is aware that Daedly Equines is a book, not a peer reviewed research paper.
But it does make me start thinking about the behaviour of an omnivore as opposed to a carnivore. The idea that their digestive systems are totally different seems to be disproved by the cross breeding of Polar Bears and Brown Bears. The Polar Bear is carnivorous while the ferocious Grizzly is omnivorous, yet they can mate and produce offspring.
Maybe the horse's ancestry has omnivores and even carnivores, closer than we think, and some of the behaviour patterns may still be in the genes. And Yes folks this is a blog not a peer reviewed etc. I am chucking out ideas, and thinking that pony and horse behaviour may not be the simple "prey species" pattern we expect.
To the endlessly repeated comments that CuChullaine is talking about captive animals and it is all our fault, while there is certainly an element of that, let us look at the Red Deer on Rum, no not pissed ruminants, but the animals on the island next to Eigg and Muck which have been snacking on the heads and feet of baby Manx Shearwaters. The report makes fascinating reading, mentioning the sheep that eat live Tern and Skua chicks on Foula. I will studiously avoid any discussions about whether it is Foula to eat when it's not your Tern......
If CuChullaine's book makes us think about our pony's diet, and I can work out a way to stop him eating my burger, he will have achieved something worthwhile. Remember, Deadly Equine's is a book, and the natural behaviour of a book is to try to find a buyer. Get yourself a copy of Deadly Equine, it will make you think, and that is always a good thing.