First let me say I am asking seriously with no intent to offend anyone ( but maybe that can't be prevented with my chosen topic?!) I like horses & I love mules. But I have had occasion to dine on horse meat ( "chevral" I think, in France) and also in Italy,Iceland, & a few other European contries. I really enjoyed it, cooked rare like venison since it isn't marbled like beef and will dry out & get tough. I just read in the news that the Feds were considering reopening slaughterhouses in a few states and wondered how others felt? My last guide on an elk hunt in Montana liked his horses & treated them well ( as it should be) but he saw them as livestock and would be OK selling them for meat if the need arose...

The Government cleared the way to open the packing plants a good wile back. The problem now is Animal rights groups, and Lawyers, and Judges.
The plants need to be opened IMO. There is a lot of junk and trash that needs to go.
I do agree that Horses (I make my living with them) are livestock.
As far as eating the meat it's self. I found it to be like any thing else. How it's finished and prepared make it good table fare.

We butcher and process 2-3 a year for our family and friends. We do everything ourselves. The meat is very good. High in iron, low in fat. We generally age the meat 10-14 days before cutting it. In addition to steaks, roasts, stew, hamburger we make sausage, salami, brats, chorizos and jerky. People are actually giving them away rather than pay the $200+/ton for hay to feed them.

A few years back there was a very interesting thread here titled something like "Do you eat your horses?"
I ate horsemeat in Switzerland and admit that I found it too sweet for my taste.
That said, salami, brats (what is that, a sausage?) and chorizos may be tasty for me.

If you want to eat horse, dog or coon thats a personal decision..

To me, the horse is one of Gods most special creatures, I still team rope at 80 years old, and still break and train an ocassional horse..I, personally, do not consider them livestock. Guess I'm just a very very horse person, they have been such a part of my life, that I could not eat one unless I was starving, I'm practical about such as that.

I have eaten Zebra, and ate some Burro one time. They rated right up there with Pronghorn Antelope, dark meat, strong, dry and gamey, but better than nothing.