The Celtic tiger is not an equivorous beast

According to the BBC, many of Ireland’s racehorses, bought in record numbers by syndicates in the boom years of the Celtic tiger are being sent off to the slaughterhouse, now that few Irish people can afford the expense of maintaining a thoroughbred Abattoirs that slaughter horses for human consumption are booming. The report on Radio 4 mentioned that the main markets for such horseflesh are, unsurprisingly, France and Belgium.

This, along with my recent discovery of the word “equivorous”, had me ruminating on why the French and Belgians are such enthusiastic hippophages when the Brits and Irish seem repelled by idea of eating Dobbin. Maybe, I thought, it might have something to do with our Norman overlords. When the ruling elite consisted of armed men on horseback, I figured they'd take a pretty dim view of hungry Anglo-Saxons taking a bite out of their most prized weapon, means of transport and status symbol.

Alternatively it might have been an the even more ancient relic of a food taboo from Celtic times. After all, the ancient Britons carved a White Horse in the Oxfordshire hills, perhaps as an object of veneration or religious worship. Maybe a taboo that originated with local tribes was passed down through the ages and survived in the local culture long after its significance was lost in the mists of time.

Anyway, idle speculation wasn't going to answer my question, so I googled it. As it turned out, the taboo probably does go back some time, but both my guesses were a bit wide of the mark.The most entertaining account I can find comes from an 1868 edition of The Country Gentleman's Magazine:

Mr A. S. Bicknell, who appears to be a somewhat enthusiastic hippophagist, has embodied all the arguments for and against the horse as food for man in a paper recently read by him before the Society of Arts in London. He shews that the practice of eating horses existed in very early times, that it formed a standard dish at the birth-day feasts of the Persians; that the horse was certainly considered fit for food until at least the eighth century, and its disuse originated in certain prohibitions against it, issued by Pope Gregory III. and his successors, in consequence of one of the chief obstacles to the conversion of the Germans being found in their practice of sacrificing horses to idols, and the partiality of the people for the meat. The sturdy Icelanders, however, could not be persuaded that abstinence from horse-flesh was conducive to their spiritual benefit, and hence the Icelanders are hippophagists to the present day.

The modern movement in favour of horse-flesh as an article of food for man commenced in France in 1786, when Ge'raud, the distinguished physician, advocated its use, and told his countrymen that a large supply of good provision was wasted through the neglect of it. In 1811 a commission was.appointed by the French Board of Health to consider the advantage of allowing horses to be used for food, and they unanimously reported in its favour. A similar result followed the deliberation of a Commission appointed by the Prefect of Police in 1825, and this view of the question was also taken up by Larrey, chief of the medical staff during the Russian campaign. In 1830 a complete treatise on the subject was published by M. Villeroy, and in 1S35, Parent-Duchatelet, the Howard of France, in conjunction with two coadjutors appointed by the Board of Health, presented a second report, confirming the views expressed in the first; and from that time to the present a host of Frenchmen, distinguished in science, medicine, and literature, have testified in favour of using horses for food, and have strongly denounced the prevailing prejudice against it. On the eighth of June 1866, a decree legalised the slaughter of horses in special abattoirs, and the sale of the meat for human food ; and, although the restrictions imposed were severe, 2312 horses were eaten in Paris during the first twelvemonths.

Full text here. According to Wikipedia:

France dates its taste for horse meat to the Revolution. With the fall of the aristocracy, its auxiliaries had to find new means of subsistence. Just as hairdressers and tailors set themselves up to serve commoners, the horses maintained by aristocracy as a sign of prestige ended up alleviating the hunger of lower classes.

[citation provided]