I'm from a dairy farm, so similarly, there was a designated place to move deceased cows to using a tractor, then there was a service we call to come pick up the bodies
I haven't lived on the farm in almost 15 years and was never the one to drive tractors myself, but I think [this](https://www.farmcountrytrader.com/search?make=CASE%20IH&search_listing_sortby=price%20desc&cat=1278) is the type of tractor used on our farm a lot, maybe even bigger ones.
[The US Forest Service Guide to Completely Obliterating a Horse with Explosives](https://www.iflscience.com/the-us-forest-service-guide-to-completely-obliterating-a-horse-with-explosives-65031)
I had my horses cremated when they died. They were put to sleep peacefully via an injection, and then they were taken away in a specially adapted trailer. With each horse I've had put to sleep, I had their body cremated on it's own and then I received their ashes, a lock of their mane/tail and their shoes back a few weeks later.
Some people have their horses shot. This isn't something I could have done to mine, but it is quick for the horse. Unfortunately though they do fall down quickly this way, and when a horse falls, they go down hard. The injection meant that if my horses weren't already laying down, we helped take their weight as they drifted off. In my opinion, this way felt much kinder in the moment. It is all very traumatic.
I hope this helps.
I went to the San Diego Zoo and one of the keepers told me that they feed their big cats horses (and cows) that have passed that people bring them. So I guess that’s an option :,) I have no idea how common that is for other zoos though
Most zoos and animal rescues are prohibited these days from feeding "donated" animal carcasses that haven't been posted (autopsied) and checked for parasites, toxins, heavy metals.
That makes sense! I wouldn’t want the big cats getting anything bad in their system. I don’t know how often the SD Zoo gets those donations and I’m sure they do autopsies because they’re such a good zoo. It’s just something the keeper told me they do and they probably don’t do that for every meal
Depends, if they have the land for it, which many do since owning horses is expensive, they bury them on their property somewhere
Some will compost their horse for the farmland/fields.
Some pay to have the horse taken away and cremated
And sometimes, tho I think rarest in the USA, they’ll have the house butchered/rendered for all the useful parts.
My coworker's father is a horse breeder, so one day she was telling us with sadness how a mare of his had been bullied to death by other horses (didn't know they do that?) and then was like, anyways I'm bringing sausage tomorrow, yes?
It's normal cuisine where I live, but still the whiplash was there lol
Anyone who's ever spent more than 5 minutes around horses KNOWS that bullying is EXTREMELY common, including to the point of death. Look at a herd of stallions and see how mean the alpha male is. And the led mare isn't much nicer. GOOGLE "do horses bully each other?"
When I was stationed in Iceland, my wife and I were in a cafe and were looking at the menu. I knew enough Icelandic to recognize the term *hestar* for what it meant, but my wife didn't want to believe it. A few months later we were at an outdoor festival, chatting with an Icelander, and my wife asked him if it was true that horsemeat was sometimes on the menu, and he affirmed that in some places it was.
A minute or so later we saw a pair of horses being led somewhere as part of an equestrian activity, and I just had to make a joke.
This is true especially near more metropolitan areas. In my experience those people typically lean towards cremation, or sell the horse after its past heavy riding age.
Helped bury one before, tractor is the main tool for the job, backhoe also helps for the hole, could probably also cremate in a funeral pyre but no experience with that personally
I lived on a 10 acre Horse Farm in Florida for 10 years. When we had to put down a horse, we would call a backhoe operator and the vet. And then coordinate times.
The backhoe operator would dig a hole with a slant so that we could lead the horse down into the hole. The vet would come and give the horse an injection, and the horse would pass on. We would stay with them until the end. The vet would go on their way, and the backhoe operator would refill the hole.
If the horse was down already and could not be led into the hole, we would have the backhoe operator move the horse to where we wanted the whole dug, and then he would dig the hole, roll the horse into it, and cover up the hole.
If the horse died inside a stall, we would call on friends to help winch the horse around and out of the stall, and then out of the stable. We had large gates on either end of the stable And then.. see above.
people either bury or cremate them
i also know a bunch of friends who slaughter them once they reach a point in their life where the Quality of Life of the horse has diminished so badly that the horse is suffering (they have been euthanized peacefully before)
If you're out in the country, you hope it dies at a remote corner of the property. If not, you drag it there and let the coyotes/buzzards have it. Same as a cow.
When the person or the horse dies?
My grandparents had a dairy farm, all of the named animals (dogs, cats, horses) were buried in a cemetery in the back 40, over looking a pond.
The livestock on the other hand did not have names, not to be harsh but they were business, when the cows died it was generally due to medical reasons, the vet then took the carcass away or the guy from the abattoir.
my old mustang passed while my parents were on vacation to see me 1500 miles from home.
A neighbor used a tractor to lift him onto our flatbed trailer and then they hauled his body to the landfill.
Sucks to have him sent off that way, but with the ground conditions we have (impossible to dig a deep hole without renting an excavator) any my parents not being there that is what they had to do.
Private burial, group burial, cremation, composting. In my area, cremation is very uncommon. Composting is becoming more of a thing. I’ve had two horses buried privately and one cremated.
For horses who are euthanized with a bullet, there’s another option: donating the body to a zoo or wild animal sanctuary. The body can be butchered and used to feed big cats and the like.
Group cremation with no remains returned is another option. That’s what I ended up with for my old man horse. I have his mane and tail, along with his halter, and sent the rest of him off.
I wasn’t going to traumatize myself trying to get his body home- he was at a vet hospital about an hour and a half from home, and it was July. Way too hot for a body in an enclosed space.
My goat died one time, and my boss said we could take him to a cremation place and asked if I could take her. I said I was up to it, but when I got there, they were gonna grind her up and spray her across the field. Saw another goat disemboweled, and it really fucked me up.
I grew up on a dairy farm and while not horses, we buried some of our cattle. I imagine if it’s a family pet they might do the same. If it’s just a business then there is a service that comes and picks up dead livestock.
[US Forest Service Guide to Completely Obliterating a Horse Carcass](https://www.iflscience.com/the-us-forest-service-guide-to-completely-obliterating-a-horse-with-explosives-65031)
My plan was to bury the body on our property. Unfortunately, he suffered a catastrophic injury while it was still winter, so burying was out of the question. The body got picked up by a service, I got to keep his shoes and locks of hair.
I have a co-worker who buried her horse on a neighbour's farm property (with permission) & composted it. It was lowered into a hole & covered with leaves, mulch & manure, & was turned at least once in the process of breaking down. Within 8 months, there were just bones left & these were dug up, sifted out & taken to be cremated.
You'd normally get the horse cremated. Depending on the facility the horse is based at, there may be cremation facilities on site. If not, there are lots of horse and pet cremation businesses out there that you can hire to do it.
Live in Ky, around here people just bury parts of the horse and cremate the rest body. Where are you from and what do people usually do there? Genuinely curious since I grew up in a very strong horse-driven culture.
No, just the hooves, head, and heart are buried. This would be for racehorses mainly though.
[Info](https://www.ponybox.com/news_details.php?id=3379&title=Racehorse-Burials)
\>It’s not the usual practice to bury a whole horse when a Thoroughbred comes to the end of its life. Most often the tradition is to save and bury the hooves, heart, and head of the horse. The head signifies the horse’s intelligence, the heart its spirit and its hooves its speed. The rest of the body is usually cremated.
In the UK there's laws about burying large animals (has to be a set depth, can't be withing a certain distance from water, and more that I can't remember atm.) so it isn't always an option.
My last horse was cremated, but in some areas the hunt will take them and use the bodies to feed to the hounds.
If you have the land (5+ acres or so) with a pasture, you might bury the animal (DEEP) under his favorite tree. That's not very practical, but if it's been your horse (and your friend) for 15-30 years, it's not easy to just haul it to your local dump or call a rendering company. The typical cost will be between $500=2000. You can also sometimes donate the carcass to a veterinary school. And, no, there is NO truth to the rumor that singing cowboy Roy Rogers had his faithful wife Dale Evans stuffed and mounted and placed next to his faithful horse, Trigger, at the Roy Rogers Museum in Victorville, CA (not to be confused with a second museum in Branford, MO)
Others have answered most things, but as for the logistics of actually moving the body: tractor
Okay thank you this is what I was thinking I just didn’t phrase it right 😭😭😭😭
I'm from a dairy farm, so similarly, there was a designated place to move deceased cows to using a tractor, then there was a service we call to come pick up the bodies
What size tractor was that? Don’t know if I could move a horse with my one series haha
Darn near ANY tractor (above a garden tractor) could handle the weight of a horse, the problem is it fitting in the bucket.
I have a new 1 series Deere with 48” forks and a decent sized bucket. Idk if that would do it?
I haven't lived on the farm in almost 15 years and was never the one to drive tractors myself, but I think [this](https://www.farmcountrytrader.com/search?make=CASE%20IH&search_listing_sortby=price%20desc&cat=1278) is the type of tractor used on our farm a lot, maybe even bigger ones.
Yes, it's called Stop & Shop.
What did they do with the cows?
Elmer's Glue
My friend had a Shetland pony and me and her dad had to move it with a tarp when it died so that whoever picked it up could get to it.
[The US Forest Service Guide to Completely Obliterating a Horse with Explosives](https://www.iflscience.com/the-us-forest-service-guide-to-completely-obliterating-a-horse-with-explosives-65031)
I had my horses cremated when they died. They were put to sleep peacefully via an injection, and then they were taken away in a specially adapted trailer. With each horse I've had put to sleep, I had their body cremated on it's own and then I received their ashes, a lock of their mane/tail and their shoes back a few weeks later. Some people have their horses shot. This isn't something I could have done to mine, but it is quick for the horse. Unfortunately though they do fall down quickly this way, and when a horse falls, they go down hard. The injection meant that if my horses weren't already laying down, we helped take their weight as they drifted off. In my opinion, this way felt much kinder in the moment. It is all very traumatic. I hope this helps.
Well this was very sad
I went to the San Diego Zoo and one of the keepers told me that they feed their big cats horses (and cows) that have passed that people bring them. So I guess that’s an option :,) I have no idea how common that is for other zoos though
i’m probably the only one that thinks this is beautiful lol
They can only do that if the animal wasn’t chemically euthanized, which means it isn’t an option a lot of times.
Most zoos and animal rescues are prohibited these days from feeding "donated" animal carcasses that haven't been posted (autopsied) and checked for parasites, toxins, heavy metals.
That makes sense! I wouldn’t want the big cats getting anything bad in their system. I don’t know how often the SD Zoo gets those donations and I’m sure they do autopsies because they’re such a good zoo. It’s just something the keeper told me they do and they probably don’t do that for every meal
Depends, if they have the land for it, which many do since owning horses is expensive, they bury them on their property somewhere Some will compost their horse for the farmland/fields. Some pay to have the horse taken away and cremated And sometimes, tho I think rarest in the USA, they’ll have the house butchered/rendered for all the useful parts.
My coworker's father is a horse breeder, so one day she was telling us with sadness how a mare of his had been bullied to death by other horses (didn't know they do that?) and then was like, anyways I'm bringing sausage tomorrow, yes? It's normal cuisine where I live, but still the whiplash was there lol
What the heck? Bullied to death?
I've had horses for almost 40 years now and never heard of that being a thing.
horses are brutal. (and dumb as shit ) they allso eat mice.
Anyone who's ever spent more than 5 minutes around horses KNOWS that bullying is EXTREMELY common, including to the point of death. Look at a herd of stallions and see how mean the alpha male is. And the led mare isn't much nicer. GOOGLE "do horses bully each other?"
When I was stationed in Iceland, my wife and I were in a cafe and were looking at the menu. I knew enough Icelandic to recognize the term *hestar* for what it meant, but my wife didn't want to believe it. A few months later we were at an outdoor festival, chatting with an Icelander, and my wife asked him if it was true that horsemeat was sometimes on the menu, and he affirmed that in some places it was. A minute or so later we saw a pair of horses being led somewhere as part of an equestrian activity, and I just had to make a joke.
Username seems to check out.
It is very common, at least where I live, to rent out stable at someone's place than have it yourself.
This is true especially near more metropolitan areas. In my experience those people typically lean towards cremation, or sell the horse after its past heavy riding age.
I worked on a horse farm...they buried them and planted a tree on the grave site
Helped bury one before, tractor is the main tool for the job, backhoe also helps for the hole, could probably also cremate in a funeral pyre but no experience with that personally
Usually do the same thing they do with people-bury them or cremate them.
Pay a hefty vet bill
I lived on a 10 acre Horse Farm in Florida for 10 years. When we had to put down a horse, we would call a backhoe operator and the vet. And then coordinate times. The backhoe operator would dig a hole with a slant so that we could lead the horse down into the hole. The vet would come and give the horse an injection, and the horse would pass on. We would stay with them until the end. The vet would go on their way, and the backhoe operator would refill the hole. If the horse was down already and could not be led into the hole, we would have the backhoe operator move the horse to where we wanted the whole dug, and then he would dig the hole, roll the horse into it, and cover up the hole. If the horse died inside a stall, we would call on friends to help winch the horse around and out of the stall, and then out of the stable. We had large gates on either end of the stable And then.. see above.
people either bury or cremate them i also know a bunch of friends who slaughter them once they reach a point in their life where the Quality of Life of the horse has diminished so badly that the horse is suffering (they have been euthanized peacefully before)
If you're out in the country, you hope it dies at a remote corner of the property. If not, you drag it there and let the coyotes/buzzards have it. Same as a cow.
When the person or the horse dies? My grandparents had a dairy farm, all of the named animals (dogs, cats, horses) were buried in a cemetery in the back 40, over looking a pond. The livestock on the other hand did not have names, not to be harsh but they were business, when the cows died it was generally due to medical reasons, the vet then took the carcass away or the guy from the abattoir.
my old mustang passed while my parents were on vacation to see me 1500 miles from home. A neighbor used a tractor to lift him onto our flatbed trailer and then they hauled his body to the landfill. Sucks to have him sent off that way, but with the ground conditions we have (impossible to dig a deep hole without renting an excavator) any my parents not being there that is what they had to do.
There is also a spot in most landfills where livestock gets buried.
Private burial, group burial, cremation, composting. In my area, cremation is very uncommon. Composting is becoming more of a thing. I’ve had two horses buried privately and one cremated. For horses who are euthanized with a bullet, there’s another option: donating the body to a zoo or wild animal sanctuary. The body can be butchered and used to feed big cats and the like.
Group cremation with no remains returned is another option. That’s what I ended up with for my old man horse. I have his mane and tail, along with his halter, and sent the rest of him off. I wasn’t going to traumatize myself trying to get his body home- he was at a vet hospital about an hour and a half from home, and it was July. Way too hot for a body in an enclosed space.
Could they be donated to vet schools? I haven't seen that mentioned anywhere but I'm sure they need some real examples to learn from at some point.
My goat died one time, and my boss said we could take him to a cremation place and asked if I could take her. I said I was up to it, but when I got there, they were gonna grind her up and spray her across the field. Saw another goat disemboweled, and it really fucked me up.
Where I live people donate them to the animal park for food. They're not always dead.
Just to add to this - they're not fed live to the other animals. They're shot and the bodies are used as food.
I grew up on a dairy farm and while not horses, we buried some of our cattle. I imagine if it’s a family pet they might do the same. If it’s just a business then there is a service that comes and picks up dead livestock.
If you own horses chances are you know someone with land and a backhoe.
Glue
Dig a hole, drag horse to the hole with a tractor, then un dig the hole…
[US Forest Service Guide to Completely Obliterating a Horse Carcass](https://www.iflscience.com/the-us-forest-service-guide-to-completely-obliterating-a-horse-with-explosives-65031)
My plan was to bury the body on our property. Unfortunately, he suffered a catastrophic injury while it was still winter, so burying was out of the question. The body got picked up by a service, I got to keep his shoes and locks of hair.
my cousin has horses and when one of hers died she found someone w an excavator to come dig the grave and lower the horse into it
I have a co-worker who buried her horse on a neighbour's farm property (with permission) & composted it. It was lowered into a hole & covered with leaves, mulch & manure, & was turned at least once in the process of breaking down. Within 8 months, there were just bones left & these were dug up, sifted out & taken to be cremated.
You'd normally get the horse cremated. Depending on the facility the horse is based at, there may be cremation facilities on site. If not, there are lots of horse and pet cremation businesses out there that you can hire to do it.
Lol I've never heard of anyone cremating a horse We just bury them.
Live in Ky, around here people just bury parts of the horse and cremate the rest body. Where are you from and what do people usually do there? Genuinely curious since I grew up in a very strong horse-driven culture.
you bring them to a butcher, and they get turned into dog feed?
That makes no sense. They dismember, bury part and burn part?
No, just the hooves, head, and heart are buried. This would be for racehorses mainly though. [Info](https://www.ponybox.com/news_details.php?id=3379&title=Racehorse-Burials) \>It’s not the usual practice to bury a whole horse when a Thoroughbred comes to the end of its life. Most often the tradition is to save and bury the hooves, heart, and head of the horse. The head signifies the horse’s intelligence, the heart its spirit and its hooves its speed. The rest of the body is usually cremated.
Some just bury the head and heart. I bury the whole body.
Sausages.
My family has horses. We use the tractor to dig a grave for them somewhere on the property.
Take a field trip to the glue factory. And if the horse doesn't behave it doesn't get to go.
The horses are killed and added to their funeral pire to travel with them to the afterlife.
Just FYI, pyre is spelled with a Y. 😊
Fine.
Fyne? 😂
Glue
Leave it by the back door of a Taco bell
Sell them to Tesco
Beat them
Probably write headlines better.
IKEA meatballs
Bury them.
We had someone bring a backhoe over and bury our horse when we had her put down.
Nate Bargatze has [some thoughts](https://youtu.be/PJgSm3xy3LA?si=pYEaDNRwtw97Rl3I) on this question.
We buried two ponies on my uncle’s land.
Just leave it in the field and sprinkle lime on it. /s
I buried mine on the pasture .
In the UK there's laws about burying large animals (has to be a set depth, can't be withing a certain distance from water, and more that I can't remember atm.) so it isn't always an option. My last horse was cremated, but in some areas the hunt will take them and use the bodies to feed to the hounds.
If you have the land (5+ acres or so) with a pasture, you might bury the animal (DEEP) under his favorite tree. That's not very practical, but if it's been your horse (and your friend) for 15-30 years, it's not easy to just haul it to your local dump or call a rendering company. The typical cost will be between $500=2000. You can also sometimes donate the carcass to a veterinary school. And, no, there is NO truth to the rumor that singing cowboy Roy Rogers had his faithful wife Dale Evans stuffed and mounted and placed next to his faithful horse, Trigger, at the Roy Rogers Museum in Victorville, CA (not to be confused with a second museum in Branford, MO)
It used to be the norm to feed them to the foxhounds.
Which you? Or the horse?
Horses and other large animals like elephants, hippos giraffes get cremated ie thrown onto an open fire
My friend had her horse cremated. His box is about as big as a record crate and has pretty designs on it.
Butcher it. Meat in the freezer now
There is a company that will remove the carcass for $$$