Prelude
Prelude
By the end of the 2nd Millenium, farming in the wealthier countries of the world was transformed. After years of subsidised over-production, cereals, fruit and vegetable crops were cheaper to import from the developing world and as a result land and buildings were taken out of production and `set-aside` for non-agricultural use.
For farm animals therefore, this was a wild time, with millions sent to the knackers as their farms closed. However many contrived to escape or were simply abandoned, adrift, traumatised and refugee, set aside along with their fields and buildings. After so many generations in the company of humans, albeit in conditions which ranged from arbitrary to downright brutal, their enforced dependence had evolved into something approaching trust. They believed they had a purpose, that their value derived from service to humanity. Their summary dismissal left them with a sense of betrayal and unworth.
For horses, this sense was peculiarly pronounced. Their exclusion had been selective, unlike cattle, sheep, pigs, fowl, for all of whom expulsion had been wholesale. The land and premises made available by `set aside` were frequently revived and refurbished as equestrian centres to provide residence for horses of stature, quality, breeding who offered better economic opportunities through eventing, racing, showing, polo and other prestigious equine activities. As a result, the self esteem of those horses who were not chosen for such occupations nosedived.
Nevertheless, all those years spent under harness to the human world had not been without its benefits and as the months passed it was this fighting spirit which brought these “set aside” horses through. They took the initiative in applying to the Ministry for permission to manage those abandoned farms for which there was no human demand and obtained tenancy licences, which were granted on condition that all displaced farm animals, or `strays`, would be offered sanctuary with the further proviso that no profit should be made from traditional agricultural products. The successful horse groups invited any farm animal who had been surviving in the wild lands to join them provided they gave their natural products, eggs, milk, wool and so on, into the common ownership of the community and were prepared to accept horse sovereignty – this included ponies and donkeys - as managers of these parks. This distinction was translated into titles, with management known as equines, or Horsepower, and the rest as agric.s. Humans would only be involved in the parks as contractors, clients and customers, never in direct management
These sanctuaries set out to offer equines and agric.s alike a new way of life, where they could demonstrate their self-sufficiency, to show humanity that they could get along without them and not be dominated by market demands. Although their survival still required the use of natural agricultural products, the removal of the human market mentality made it possible to aspire to a way of life which was as little dependant on these as possible and which offered instead a regime of leisure and recreation. This situation created an opportunity to transform animal life, but rapidly deteriorated into a struggle within the equines for supremacy and against agrics, who were viewed simply as collateral in equine ambitions. During this process wild life, or feralists as horses called them came to be viewed by equine management as enemies. The situation was aggravated by the demand for sanctuary from a second wave of strays, who had escaped from the savage culls following a series of catastrophes in livestock husbandry.
These sanctuaries were known as Centaur parks and they became the arena in which was played out a struggle for power between equines who wished to impose it on others and agrics who wished to exercise it for themselves. This is the story of how that conflict was resolved in Centaur Park nineteen.
