After the article and the shocking photos published by the Daily News about the horses starving to death in Egypt, we have tried to gather more information with the help of a local contact of ours.

Stefano Salmi has a deep knowledge of horses, and is an expert in natural approach and non-coercive training, with methods improved along the many years spent in close contact with these animals. Most of this time has been spent in Egypt, where he has been able to combine the trail rides business with the priority attention to the horses’ wellbeing, something extremely rare (and not just in Egypt).


Stefano Salmi and his stallion Pegaso, barefoot and biteless

We recently had the pleasure to host Stefano in our estate for a couple of months, and to see him at work with some of our horses, with excellent results. In example, Gilda, who, since her arrival to Filicaja has been so aggressive it was impossible to put a halter on her or vaccinate her, is now a manageable mare (even if we are still working to make her forget the abuses she suffered in the past).

A friendship has been born between Stefano and IHP, and a probable future collaboration too, for the organization of natural approach and management courses. Now he is back in Egypt, which, as we all know, is looking for a new political balance. This is what he wrote us about the horses’ situation in that country.

<<I have had two stables in Sharm El Sheikh for more than 13 years, and I have fought against what is now justified by a temporary crisis. They are trying to explain with the events of the last weeks what instead is a normal, everyday situation of abuse and mistreatment. This way, they are somehow justifying the abusers, making them look as victims, people who, having no money, cannot feed their horses. The reality is, unfortunately, different.
The photos published by the Daily News lead us to the area around the Pyramids, and area with thousands of horses belonging to Egypt’s biggest horse traders, mandatory stop for the tourists visiting the Pyramids and the Sphinx.
The horses in the photos are working horses for the tourists: animals to be exploited without any regard for their needs. Here a seven-eight year old horse is considered old…and in those few years of life, it suffers terrible mistreatments. Coercive methods are normal in Egypt: from whipping to the use of punishing bites as the Arabian curb bit (Legam Arabi), which very often breaks the corners of the mouth and sometimes neatly cuts the tongue, given its extreme severity. And then there a lot of cases of laminitis, horses dying in the desert because of fatigue, or obliged to work on three legs.

The situation in other Egyptian touristic locations as Marsa Alam and Sharm El Sheikh isn’t any better.
The responsibility of this situation falls, first of all, on the horses’ owners, but also on all those tour operators that, instead of offering a professional service, think only about a higher commission, uncaring for the horses. And a huge responsibility falls on those tourists that look for the most convenient ride, ignoring the horses’ health, riding them even if they are emaciated or lame: taking a photo is all that matters!
Riding a horse in the desert is spectacular and suggestive, but as usual people don’t consider they are dealing with an animal that despite its job must be respected, that needs a proper training and that having paid for riding it doesn’t give the right to abuse it.

The situation has surely worsened in the past weeks, but I can assure you I have already seen similar scenes. More, I can tell you they are an everyday sight here. Unfortunately.
On the emotional wave stirred by the images circulating these days, there are foreign people who, naively and rightly, are trying to remedy to the situation or at least to limit the damages, by collecting funds. The huge risk is – because of what I said above – that the money thus collected, won’t go to help the horses, but will just end in their owners’ pockets. I said this, even if it may sound quite harsh, because I find at least strange none of the people circulating in this area have ever seen clearly emaciated or dying animals in the streets, where, in the attempt to make horses stand up, they are whipped till the last moment, instead of being given a tender caress. It’s strange none of the people circulating in these areas have ever noticed that every guide has a whip that quickly cracks in the air to spur thin, saddle-sore, lame horses.
Alas, sad brothers, I could save only a few of them, feeling so powerless about the whole situation …

In order to verify my suspicions, in the past days I have contacted a couple of vets working in the area, two stable owners and a trader, asking about the price of horses: well, the prices went down just a little, a sign the owners don’t feel like they are in a financial crisis and have no interest in getting rid of the horses… More, as soon as I mentioned the interest of some foreign animalist associations, some of them smirked and said, “Come on, you know how it works…”
These owners very seldom spend money for vermifuges or anti-tetanus vaccinations: they just squeeze the animals till they last…and since they don’t eat horse meat in Egypt (but they eat dromedary meat all right!), there is more interest in keeping up the weight of a dromedary than of a horse. As demonstration, look at the dromedaries in the background of the Daily News’ photo…

There would a lot of things to change, but first of all, people’s conscience must change>>.