Romanian Horse Transportation In Trouble

January 14, 2008

I discovered a new, and very cool horse blog today called the Transylvanian Horseman. The writer is from Britain, but moved to Romanian and started a riding centre and holiday riding/tourist business there.

He recently posted about major issues arising for a large majority of Romanian’s population due to a government ban on animal-drawn transportation on National Highways. Many of Romania’s citizens are peasant farmers who depend on horses, oxen, and sometimes even water buffalo to travel between towns, get to their fields, and get to market. They don’t have cars, and probably can’t afford them. And even if they could, the country is mountainous and many farm areas aren’t accessible by tractor or other motorized vehicles.

Also, these national highways aren’t the kind of four-lane freeways with speed limits upwards of 65 miles per hour like we Americans imagine when we hear the word highway. Many of these Romanian national highways are just small roads, some even dirt, and are the sole route from town to town.

The Romanian people have been cut off at the knees by a government who wants to look progressive, and they don’t have any say in the matter.

Besides being necessity, using horses for transportation is a beautiful tradition that is quickly being lost around the world.

I grew up in an Amish town, and am used to horse-drawn vehicles sharing the road. They don’t go on the four-lane “highways,” and the two-lane roads in the area are relatively safe. You rarely hear of accidents being caused by the buggies. I can’t imagine what would happen to these hundreds of families just in my hometown if our state passed a law banning them from using the roads. It would be huge piece of our town’s unique culture and history lost, which isn’t nearly as important as the livelihoods of the Amish who would be affected.

If you want to do something about this, go to Translvanian Horseman’s blog for names and addresses for the Romanian president and US ambassador and send them a letter. Lynda over at Hoofbeats has composed and posted a letter that you are welcome to use as is or adapt.

Posted in Horse News, Making a Difference