Guitar He is 26 years old. It was born in 1999 and since 2007 it has taken thousands of tourists around the city of Malaga. He was pulling one of the 25 horse-drawn carriages that had a license for the activity in the capital of Malaga. Since the city council announced, their future and that of the rest of the animals was uncertain: some were going to continue working in other cities and others were destined for the slaughterhouse. But the mobilization of three associations and the support of numerous people has saved, for the moment, 16 of them, as Guitar or his companions Beyoncé, Compliment, Eduardo, Apache, She is o Fusswho already rest in the facilities of the entity, located on the outskirts of the town of Cartaojal, in Antequera (Málaga, 41,619 people) and directed by the Danish Signe Fröslee. “Some horses have come just to enjoy retirement, but with others you have to work a lot because they are traumatized,” he emphasizes.
On October 6, Malaga City Council announced the revocation of the last 25 horse carriage licenses in the city. They expired in 2035, but municipal officials wanted to bring forward the end of the activity to end their presence on the streets. “”, said the mayor, Francisco de la Torre.
In exchange, as compensation for the cessation of service, the owners received about 125,000 euros for each license. Everything seemed fine and the decision was applauded by him himself. “Animal protection has to be transversal and not associated with any ideology that only seeks electoral opportunism at the expense of animals,” they stated in a statement.
However, a question arose: What would be the future of those horses? It is exactly the question that Signe Fröslee asked herself, who since she read the news in the media tried to contact the Malaga town council or anyone who could help her resolve the issue. Finally, he found Antonio Domínguez, president of the coachmen. Fröslee says that he was initially reluctant, but when he insisted that they wanted to buy the horses and that they would not publish the names of their owners, he welcomed the initiative.
The Danish company used its own resources and the support of followers of the association to buy four horses. They published their photos on social networks and they went viral. In parallel, the association team from Mijas was mobilizing because they had been warned that.
The president, the French Anne Blitz, explains that she began to post different posts on TikTok, Facebook or Instagram to find sponsors and people who wanted to give their contributions to buy the animals themselves and avoid their job fate “because the situation in Seville is even worse than in Malaga,” says Blitz. They gathered a lot of support and were finally able to acquire, together, up to twelve more horses for about 18,000 euros.
“It has been a difficult job, because you had to go to the stables in Malaga every day to negotiate, then do the transportation, keep an eye on everything,” says the woman who worked for the European Commission for two decades and now, retired, has lived in Mijas for six years. Blitz also highlights the role of Concordia Márquez, from the association, who managed to negotiate with the owners that no specimen end up in the slaughterhouse.
Veterinary exams
After the acquisition, everyone has been moved little by little to the A Better Life 4 Horses facilities in Antequera, located since last April in an old farmhouse surrounded by olive trees. 14 hectares with different buildings where they will now spend the rest of their lives along with another thirty that the entity had rescued on its own initiative or through the actions of the Civil Guard. “They are going to be very good there,” says Blitz.
Each specimen has been received by a veterinarian to know its condition. At first glance they were all fine, but the tests have said otherwise. “None of them had seen a dentist in their lives,” laments Fröslee, who highlights that another had a severe urinary infection, another is blind in one eye due to an accident, but his eye is poorly healed and cannot close, some did not have hardware and many of them suffer from arthritis. In the case of GuitarFurthermore, he suffered from joint problems because since 2007 he had not been able to lie down, since his life was spent at carriage stops or in stables, which were so narrow that he always had to remain standing.
Others, however, came in perfect condition. “There has been an owner who came first to see the facilities, he gave us food, he was very interested and is very fond of it. In other cases they have caused problems, they did not even want to give up their time for transportation, when that costs a few euros,” laments Fröslee. He points out that all the cases have already been treated and that some of the youngest specimens “are traumatized and are aggressive towards people”, although they will work with them to change the situation. The one that they have not been able to modify is that of the three horses that have gone from working in Malaga to continuing to do so in Huelva and Seville.
Now, the rescued horses, cared for by members of the association with volunteer support, have a varied future ahead of them, always within the organization’s facilities. The older ones will spend the rest of their lives resting, retired and without any type of work, retired. Meanwhile, the calmest young people will begin to be part of a project with minors in vulnerable situations or with some type of problem, which they will be able to set up for free.
