7-Year-Old 'Buyan': Owner Claims He is an Animal Lover and Does Not Exploit the Horse

‘Buyan’ the horse, which became popular on the internet recently, continues to be a topic of discussion. This white horse gained notoriety due to an injury on its chest; the public claims that an injured horse is being exploited, while the owner, Artush, feels distressed that others seem to care more about his horse's well-being than he does.

“Anyone who has a bit of interest will understand without me saying that this is not a business for me. Can you imagine how different the costs of keeping a horse are from the income generated by a carriage ride? That income doesn’t even cover the horse’s care. Come see the horse yourselves—he doesn’t need food, nor grooming. I just bought a new ‘chamud’ for him, as can be seen in the circulated photo. When a person buys new shoes, it might hurt their feet due to rubbing with the leather, and the same thing happened in this case; the skin got rubbed, but ointment was applied on it,” Artush told Auroranews in a somewhat emotional voice.

According to him, there is a video circulating since yesterday claiming the horse in it is his, but he asserts the video was filmed in another city and has nothing to do with him. “Right now I have three horses. I was one of the first riders of this horse. It was a 2-year-old colt; the horse is now 7 years old and has been with me for 5 years. The claims that this horse is starving or emaciated are ridiculous. If I had been feeding it caviar for just two days, it wouldn’t have gained that weight. Come to Gyumri, ask people who know me—I’ve had 15 sheep, I haven’t sold a single one of the offspring. What does this say? I’m an animal lover, not someone doing business through animals. If I had done something wrong, the police wouldn’t come with a veterinarian to check what was going on and say that I could continue my activity,” he explained.

Artush noted that he is being accused of the horse having blisters on its legs, but he claims this is a natural occurrence that often happens with horses. The Gyumri resident added that he personally built the carriage and is trying to preserve the city’s color and traditions with this venture. In an interview with Auroranews, veterinarian Aram Aleksanyan mentioned that such blisters typically occur when horses sweat. He noted that he has only seen the horse’s wound in photographs, which appears to be quite large, and it would not be appropriate to work the horse in that condition. He also added that according to the photo, the wound is already drying up.

Auroranews has been informed by the police that verification actions have been carried out, and the documents prepared by the Kumayri division of the police have been sent to the investigative body for criminal proceedings to be initiated based on the publication.