Business
Since 2013, Catherine Hunter of Asheville Horse and Carriage Tours has been providing natives and tourists a magical look at Asheville from the seat of a carriage. Using horses that she has rescued and trained, Catherine has been giving rescued horses a second lease on life. For thousands of years, horses have been been used by humans as working animals, and many continue to work today in a variety of forms, from racing, to field plowing, to carriage tours. With an increased awareness of animal welfare, several misguided animal rights activists have targeted Asheville Horse and Carriage Tours and tomorrow at City Council a decision will be made on the carriages. Depending on the council ruling, the carriage tours could return to operations as normal without restrictions; or, the franchise could continue to operate under the conditions of shutting down at the end of the two year term. We sit down and talk with Catherine about the many nuances of horsemanship. Do you know how to tell if a horse is healthy, happy, or relaxed? We go over the basics, and delve into the deeper issue behind the banning of carriage tours, and discuss animal welfare. Can a working animal suddenly be retired, and automatically be happy? What is the cost of caring for large working animals? Can an unhappy, or sick horse work? Learn all of this and more in this week's episode of Finding Asheville: Be sure to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes here to get new episodes to download to your listening devices each week and get caught up on past episodes! Oh and if you are feeling super nice like the Finding Asheville Facebook page here.