US Equestrian Federation leaders started a candid conversation with members on drugs and the show ring in the first of seven town hall meetings.

The U.S. Equestrian Federation Hearing Committee recently heard a protest filed against Elizabeth Mandarino by another USEF member. The protest alleged that certain USEF rules were violated at the 2012 Devon Horse Show (Pa.) on May 26, when Mandarino administered an injection to her pony, Humble, and thereby caused his death.

What would have happened to the approximately 130,000 horses that were slaughtered in 2010 if slaughter hadn’t been an option? Would banning slaughter create a huge influx of unwanted horses? Would the horses potentially suffer even worse fates, starving to death or being let loose? The questions are even harder to answer since 2007, the first year without domestic slaughter, was also the year of a major economic downturn.

Once horses bound for slaughter reach the slaughterhouses, it's not clear whether they’re being humanely killed. Most slaughterhouses use captive bolt guns to drive a metal rod into the center of the horse’s head after the horses are herded through chutes into the “kill area.”

There are currently four Canadian slaughterhouses and three in Mexico. At either border, the horses are unloaded for processing and then re-loaded into a sealed trailer bound for their final stop. The conditions in which they ship and the distance they travel are just a few of the problems with the current slaughter pipeline.