When I grew up or visited family in Europe as a kid, horse sausage and steak were normal dishes. The sausage is usually strongly spiced, the steaks are a bit tough but not bad. The reason for this is (and this answers the question why we should eat horse even though it is less efficient to produce than beef) that horses are not bred for meat but racing/ hobbies etc. Eating their meat is just a byproduct and avoids wasting a perfectly good resource. Once the animals have outlived their job or are put down for other reasons they are usually fairly old which makes their meat tougher than purpose-produced beef.
When the US horse meat export industry was outlawed in the mid 2000s I saw a lot of illegally dumped horse carcasses in KY and TN since disposal is expensive and the breeders no longer had the option to ship their horses to slaughterhouses.
In terms of bizarre foods I have had: Pig Blood soup, grasshoppers, kangaroo, buffalo, bison, alligator, ostrich, rattlesnake, possum, squirrel brains.
When the US horse meat export industry was outlawed in the mid 2000s I saw a lot of illegally dumped horse carcasses in KY and TN since disposal is expensive and the breeders no longer had the option to ship their horses to slaughterhouses.
In terms of bizarre foods I have had: Pig Blood soup, grasshoppers, kangaroo, buffalo, bison, alligator, ostrich, rattlesnake, possum, squirrel brains.