Where are all the horses?

​I live in Queensland, Australia, and I have a very nice, but small backyard.
I do not have a horse in my backyard. Do you?

There are apparently a lot of horses being re-homed. Where are they?

According to the Australian racing Industry, only a tiny percent of ‘retired’ racehorses end up in a knackery. They claim it’s about  .4% — that’s POINT FOUR percent, which equates to approximately 34 horses per year in Australia.

BUT, we have just seen evidence that, in a knackery in Queensland, 300 ex-racehorses were recently slaughtered in only 22 days. And, apparently, that’s not unusual.

It is reliably estimated that 500 horses are slaughtered for pet food and export every MONTH.
In ONE knackery.

One knackery accounted for 4,000 horses killed a year! FOUR THOUSAND!
Anyone can see that 4,000 is a number way larger than the 34 suggested by racing industry figures.
And, how many other slaughter houses are there? The annual numbers of dead horses could be  more than four thousand.
 
“Oh, no”, say the racing people, “most of our retired racehorses are re-homed with people who love horses. They are used for pony clubs - or retired on farms, where they live out their lives in peace and tranquillity.”
(That’s not a direct quote, only an estimate, but certainly a more realistic estimate than the figures quoted by industry spokespersons).

If we are to believe the racing people, then where do these phantom horses go? If not ‘relaxing’ on farms or being ridden by kiddies at pony clubs, 4,000 horses a year must be somewhere. Even 4,000, minus the 34 they claim, is still 3,966.

That’s why I ask if you have a horse in your back yard. Because, at 4,000 re-homed horses a year — that’s 40,000 in a decade— almost everyone must have a horse somewhere, surely? That’s an awful lot of horses! (Shhh! But I think they’re dead).

Melbourne Cup, anyone?