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A meat horse, or slaughter horse, is a horse bred for its ability to yield meat. Coming from formerly used for agricultural work, these horses are threatened with extinction by the mechanization of agricultural activities. This state of affairs has prompted breeders to look for new economic outlets. Breeding for meat horses was very popular in France in the 1980s, helping to safeguard these breeds. It has developed in Italy and Spain, but is declining in France, due to the further reduction of work activities with draft horses.
Meat horses are selected for their speed of growth and , as well for the ' fertility and maternal qualities. This selection process is very different from that prevailing in a draft horse, and results in vulnerability to specific health problems. Meat horses are generally neither trained nor socialized by their breeders: they are slaughtered as , between six and thirty months old.
This type of farming makes it possible to enhance the value of grassland in difficult or declining areas, including cattle and sheep. It is also controversial due to the societal rejection of horse slaughter and the practice of eating horse meat (hippophagy).
According to Marcel Mavré, the breeders were criticized in more ways than one. In 1981, for example, a Belgian breeder of Ardennes horses declared that one doesn't need to be a good breeder to produce meat horses because they're no longer required for draft work. The opening of the Italian market in the 1980s, a major consumer of young horse meat, led to a wave of interest in outdoor meat horse breeding, especially in Brittany, with the local draft breed, the Breton horse. This breeding model was exported to the Massif Central and the Pyrenees. In 1984, as the Horse gait of butcher horses were no longer taken into account, the gait test for the Postier Breton (the lighter of two subtypes of Breton) stallions was abolished. The distinction between the two subtypes "Trait Breton" and "Postier Breton" became less obvious in the Breton breed. In 1985, the Hennebont stud sent a huge butcher-type breeding stallion named Oscar to Bannalec in Finistère.
By 1985, French meat horses had become much heavier and fatter than in the past; almost unsuitable for draft work. Breeders of the new meat horse structure derisively nicknamed the previously lighter draft horse structure "bicycles". The construction of the "horse industry", officially named "relaunch" in the 1980s, made it possible to link breeding and marketing of heavy foals on a European scale, on the model of the bull calf. These measures were effective in halting the decline in numbers of draft horse breeds and brought about a new culture among breeders. They also allow the revival of the equestrian agricultural economy in Brittany.
In some breeds, such as the Breton horse and Comtois horse, the meat horse model predominates among breeders (2015), to the detriment of the draft horse model. Draft horse breeders find it difficult to promote their animals in breeding competitions, as they are considered too thin compared to meat horses, which are objectively overweight and even obese.
The foal can also be slaughtered at around 10–12 months, at a live weight of 450 to 500 kg, for a carcass weight of 270 to 300 kg. The proportion of concentrated feed should be limited to 50% of the horse's consumption to avoid excessive weight gain.
There is also a choice of slaughter between 18 months and two years of age. The foal should be fed moderately in winter, then have unlimited access to pasture in summer. If slaughtered at 18 months, the foal is not castrated, but finished off with a cereal supplement for the last two months of its life. If the foal is too light or has failed to grow sufficiently, it is castrated at around 18 months and "pushed to the trough" during its second winter, to be slaughtered at around 22–24 months, at a live weight of 600 to 650 kg.
Slaughter at around 30 months is generally chosen for foals whose growth has been limited or delayed during the first two years of life, and who are put back out to grass after their second winter. Males are castrated at around 18 months. Females unfit for reproduction may be slaughtered at 30 months. A 30-month-old foal weighs between 670 and 740 kg.
The existence of muscular problems in meat horses has long been known. Meat horse breeds are particularly affected by polysaccharide storage myopathy. Studies reveal a large number of occurrences of the mutation responsible for type 1 of the disease in the Belgian Draught, Percheron, Comtois horse, Dutch Draft and Breton horse breeds, with cases of severe expression of the disease in the Belgian Draught and Percheron. Cases have also been identified in the Norman Cob.
Geographers Sylvie Brunel and Bénédicte Durand consider the relaunch of breeding for meat in France to be a failure, since its aim was to supply the country with horse meat, but the vast majority of horse meat consumed in France is still imported. Meat horse breeding is therefore heavily dependent on horse meat consumption.
In Italy, the Haflinger and Sanfratellano breeds provide a large share of the country's horse meat production. Haflingers are slaughtered between 10 and 18 months of age, unless they have health or age problems. In Switzerland, the Franches-Montagnes has never been weighed down for the meat market, but foals slaughtered at around nine months of age are highly prized.
| + ! class="unsortable" | Image ! Name ! Breeding region ! class="unsortable" | Importance of meat market | |
| Ardennais | France: Northeastern, and Belgium | Main meat market in France | |
| Basque Mountain Horse | Spain: Southern Basque Country | Almost exclusively raised for meat | |
| Boulonnais horse | France: Northern | In 2010, 60% of all Boulonnais horses are destined for slaughter. 80% of these meat horses are exported (mainly to Italy) for fattening prior to slaughter. | |
| Breton horse | France: Brittany, Massif Central, Pyrenees | Main meat market | |
| Burguete horse | Spain: Navarre | Main meat market | |
| Comtois horse | France: Franche-Comté and others | Majority of meat sales (fattening premiums, slaughterhouse opening in Franche-Comté, etc.). | |
| Hispano-Bretón | Spain: Castile and León | Bred almost exclusively for meat | |
| Italian Heavy Draft | Italy | Majority of meat sales | |
| Jaca Navarra | Spain: Navarre | Bred almost exclusively for meat | |
| New Altai | Russia and Kazakhstan | Majority meat market | |
| Norman Cob | France: Normandy | Existence of meat lines weighing around 900 kg | |
| Percheron | France: predominantly | A third of the world's livestock raised for meat in 2009, 70% in France | |
| Pyrénées catalanes (horse) | Spain: Catalonia | Bred almost exclusively for meat | |
| Rhenish German Coldblood | Germany | Existing meat market |
In the Spanish Basque Country, the marketing of locally bred foal meat is based on an elaborate commercial strategy. The language is modernized to lessen the emotional impact created by the idea of consuming horses, speaking instead of "foal meat" (Carne de potro), the emotional impact of the word "foal" not being deemed as strong as that of the word "horse".
Other controversies concern the abuse that some breeders inflict on meat foals, and the awarding of breeding premiums to animals in poor health (obese, even lame) to the detriment of working horses, particularly in the Breton and Comtois breeds.
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