Undercover investigation into TWH soring
Mar 05 2012
We’re featuring this week’s guest post a little early as it touches on a very important subject: the TWH industry and the infamous, and horrific, soring practices.
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Sometimes, I sit down to write and the words just won’t come. I can manage to scribble a few benign sentences, or create an odd paragraph or two that are less than inspiring. It’s like going out for that practice ride, and finding that while my horse does everything I ask, somehow our performance just… lacks.
Now, though, I know what to do!! I can just find one of the handy, dandy, Big Lick trainers like Jackie McConnell and tell them I need some spice! Some reach! Some animation in my ride!
“JACKIE L. McCONNELL, JEFF DOCKERY, JOHN MAYS, and JOSEPH R. ABERNATHY, and others known and unknown to the Grand Jury, did willfully, knowingly, and intentionally combine, conspire, confederate and agree together and with each other to commit offenses against the United States, that is: they conspired to violate the federal Horse Protection Act by intentionally transporting or delivering horses, and showing, exhibiting, or entering horses in a show or exhibition while knowing and having reasonable cause to believe that the horses had been intentionally “sored,” and falsifying entry forms and other related paperwork, in violation of Title 15, United States Code, Sections 1824(1 ), I824(2)(B), and 1825(2)(8).”
Now, THERE is a trainer who could get my horse stepping proud and strong! For those of you who don’t normally read legal documents, Jackie and company have just been indicted for soring Tennessee Walking Horses. Those same exact horses that these trainers have always claimed naturally moved with their toes above their noses and their butts dragging the ground with 90% of their weight on their hind legs. ~insert announcer voice~ But wait! There’s MORE!
A release from HSUS explains in more detail exactly why McConnell, Dockery, Mays, and Abernathy are in the hot seat. Evidently pouring toxic chemicals onto their horses’ legs and making their feet ouchie wasn’t enough for these bad boys. An undercover investigation apparently recorded these charming men taking such GOOD care of their show horses that the horses were “being brutally whipped, kicked, shocked in the face, and violently cracked across the skulls and legs with heavy wooden sticks. In some cases, their tails were mutilated with scissors and blades to make them appear flashier in the show ring―leaving behind untreated, bleeding wounds.” (HSUS)
I don’t care how badly you hate HSUS (and some do). That kind of treatment of ANY animal, let alone a trained show horse, is beyond wrong. It goes right into the Go To Hell category; do not pass GO, do not collect $200. In fact, people who steal candy from babies will have to wait in line to get into Hell, thanks to the preferential treatment these wonderful representatives of the Walking Horse Trainer’s Association will assuredly receive in the afterlife.
For those who don’t keep up on Soring in the Walking Horse industry, a visit to the Fugly archives will give you insight into the heinous acts performed in the name of the ‘Big Lick’ gods. Or you can look at the blog For the Tennessee Walking Horse for further information. The basic explanation is that a few people who own gaited horses want them to move with their front feet lifted higher and more weight on their back ends, so they add heavy pads and chains to get more action and more crouch behind. If that doesn’t work, some people then slather toxic chemicals on the horse’s legs to make them hurt, causing the horse to snatch his legs up higher as the chains bump the sore skin. Since the horses have to pass inspections by trained officials, the horses are then taught to not react when their sore legs are touched. This is called ‘stewarding’, and frequently involves beating the horse if it flinches when its legs are palpated. Pads and chains are currently legal in Tennessee Walking Horse Performance classes. Soring and stewarding are NOT legal. The end result of all of this training looks something like this.
For about forty years now, the USDA and others have been actively trying to stop soring and abuse of Tennessee Walking Horses. You would think this would be a no brainer. Marty Irby, president of TWHBEA, released a statement regarding Barney Davis (recently convicted of abuse related to soring). The full text can be found on the TWHBEA website, but in part he states:
“Our Association condemns any violation of the Horse Protection Act and reaffirms our commitment to the proper care and training of horses. However, despite our best efforts to protect horses, no law completely eliminates a problem. Rather, a law helps control the problem and holds accountable those who violate it. We, at TWHBEA, are unequivocal in our stance that horse abuse should not be tolerated, and we support rigorous but fair enforcement of the Horse Protection Act.”
Ironically, he was probably releasing this statement on the exact same day that Jackie McConnell was being arrested for soring Tennessee Walking Horses. Now it just remains to be seen how firmly the Association REALLY condemns any violation of the Horse Protection Act.
Guest post by Charm.
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There are a lot of people out there who are going to jump up and down about singling out one horse faction over another, but this isn’t about the TWH world being better or worse than any of the others. This is just the most recent industry to come under fire (wait 5 minutes and I’m sure another one will pop up). And really, it’s not about the industry itself, it’s about the people doing harm to the horses. It wouldn’t make a bit of difference if people like Barney Davis and Paul Blackburn (worked with Davis, recently convicted and sentenced)) were QH trainers, TB trainers, dressage trainers – whatever. The disturbing, and pressing, issue is that of accepting abuse of horses in any industry because other industries do it. Or because that’s what they need to do in order to create the artificial movement that wins classes. I’ve said it before and stand by it: we’re not going to see any positive changes until the judges heads are surgically removed from their asses.
130 comments to “Undercover investigation into TWH soring”
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It’s not just the soring that bothers me, but the poor seat of many of the riders, and the shanks on one of those bits had to be a foot long!
Nobody needs a bit like that. I was seeing quite a bit of sawing too…looked like the kind that bad dressage riders do because they misunderstand the correct use of the ‘flex then check’ to soften a horse’s mouth and relax the neck and jaw.
And you know what, if you’re sliding off the back of the saddle, maybe there’s a problem there?
As someone had mentioned on a previous post about TWH abuse, the riders look like vultures perched with their shoulders slumped and heads down.
I see Tennessee Walkers once a year, at the Germantown Charity horse show, where they compete at night in the same ring used by hunters and jumpers during the day. Last year I had just gotten a new camera when I went, so I spent a lot of time ringside trying to get good action photos. It allowed me to get close and personal with the horses.
I don’t know what they do behind the scenes. But I know what the face of a horse in agony looks like. And these babies were not happy. These were the desperate faces of desperate horses. They made me want to snatch their riders off their backs.
After a short flat class these horses are wheezing as if they had just finished the cross country phase of eventing. They lose shoes constantly. They are shown as two year olds.
It seems to me that since passing a law against soring didn’t work within a reasonable period of time, the next step is to bring RICO charges against the breed association and shows as criminal organizations.
I was actually a Princess for one of the foxhunting clubs at the Germantown Charity the summer before last. Now that was a pretty fun experience.
I remember that one of the nights the USDA(? or whoever performs the inspections) showed up, and upwards of 70 percent of the Tennessee Walkers entered for that night scratched.
First off-great read very well written in the Fugly style
And agree completely with your solution. When judges STOP rewarding peformances that require such henious measures to achieve (in ANY discipline) it will give these cretins no reason to continue. It’s not like we can appeal to their humanity or sense of right and wrong as they apparently have none.
And anyone witnessing this sort of thing needs to confront and expose these dirtbags every time! Turning a blind eye is as bad as helping them abuse the horse. I’d be afraid to attend a high caliber TWH show from many things I have read…I could see the need for bail money in my future.
I actually had to comment on this one…
WTF is wrong with Tennessee Walking Horse people? I friended a guy on facebook because he was big into the walkers. I like the breed but am at my horsey limit so I won’t be buying myself a walker anytime soon.
Shortly after friending this guy he started promoting a group for “all walker enthusiasts” including natural and big lick walkers. I looked into it and the guy is allowing people who sore into this group then goes on to say that he is a “neutral party” in this and isn’t taking sides and that the fighting in the group needs to stop. Um… why the fuck are you allowing people who cruelly sore animals to promote themselves?
Not to mention the crazy people I ran into years ago looking into buying a walker. I was in touch via email and everything was good, I was making plans to go see a few horses that I was interested and bam! That changed. I got an email from the woman’s husband saying she was an alcoholc and that none of the horses were for sale and if I tried going to the property he would shoot said horses. The woman emailed me back saying to ignore the husband he’s just attatched to his “babies”
Needless to say, this was a huge reason I never got myself a Walker. Wow.
Oh and yes, I am aware that this isn’t just a problem with the walker world, I am just talking about this general set of crazies related to this post.
Ah yes… you’ve met The Dick (He’s very proud of that nickname). If it makes you feel any better, there are some great Facebook sites for the Tennessee Walking Horse. Tennessee Walking Horse Versatility Club is a good one, and if you can stand the controversy, there is a Facebook group connected to the blog, For The Tennessee Walking Horse. I promise you, there are great people who own Tennessee Walking Horses. We just sometimes get drowned out by the others.
What a story! You have my sympathies!
Well my question is this–after watching ‘big lick’ videos off Youtube and various places, are the stands full of people who sore their horses? Cause there’s an awful lot of applause—and I doubt the people in the stands are ignorant of what it takes to get a horse to do that…
Yeah, it’s a judging problem, but looks to me like there might be a problem with the rest of the TWH showing crowd as well?
This is one of the videos I saw. First one that comes up on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGUmBuZLOM4
It’s a good point. If less money and fame were going to horses moving like that, perhaps the incentive for judges to place a horse for the artificial attributes would be gone.
The corruption is too deep. TWHBEA is a broken organization, and its Big Lick supporters care as much for horse welfare as a demolition derby driver cares for his car.
You can be in the stands and be ignorant of it all… I went to the Celebration for 10 years as a spectator slowly becoming aware of the abuse. I’m now a member of FOSH. I’m quite ashamed that it took me 10 years to figure it out, but I see it somewhat as a benefit because I can definitely say I’ve seen plenty of big lick horses and know what I’m talking about. I also got to see Champagne Watchout in the WGC class in 1999. I think I was the only person in my section of the cheap seats that was cheering when he came through the gate.
It’s amazing where that corrupt industry will show up. I had to leave my church because they proudly announced they were getting proceeds from a big lick horse. I complained and was promptly called stupid and a liar. At least I found out what a POS my church was.
Not all of us TWH people are crazy or sore thier animals. I for one have owned and tained TWhs and do not and will not condone the use of stacks or soreing methods nor the use of heavy shoes (heavy shod Plantation). I only work with flat shod animals or light shod animals and will not force an animals to perform a gait he/she is not naturallyc omfortable in doing. Most of those Big Lick performance animals dont even gait naturally when those stacks are removed and they are taken back down to normal hoof levels, most of it is forced upon the animal. I have seen those that were former Big Lickers and they bear the plight of it for the remainder of thier lives, more so if they were sored. the TWBEA does not do enough to stop such practices and to permanently rid those that practice soring and they dont hold the DQPs responsible if they “accidently” pass a sored horse. Most of those DQPs are designated by crooked ppl and many of them will take a pay out at any given time and those that do thier jobs well and do it right are threatened and thier very lives threatened. its a viscious circle and it starts with the TWHEA and it should end with them. Point blank.
Now for those intreasted in THW and would like to register thier walkers with another registry other than TWHBEA there is the NWHA (National Walking Horse Association) and they are growing by leaps and bounds. Check out FOSH (Freinds of Sound Horses) . The NWHA holds and funds shows that serve the unaltered and un sored TWH and Fosh is also growing in its numbers and sponsore and hold such shows. I support them and thier goals and thier cause as long as they dont falter andstumble or fall all together.
I knew of a former Big Lick horse that was sored something terrible. This poor animal new pain like none I have ever seen (and hope I never do) His hooves were gnarled up due to the chemical damage done to the coronary bands that went far deep into the coronary corium tissue. I dont want to know what exactly was used but his hooves never would be completly normal. He also had granulous scar tissue on the back of his pasterns and scar tissue running ino his heels. Though by the time I knew this horse his horrors were over but his scars bear a story that should have NEVER been written. This horse paced or step paced and was ridden as a pleasure mount. He lived in a pasture with two other TWHs for buddies. His owner took good care of them.
If the TWHBEA were truly committed to eliminating soring practices they would refuse to sanction any breed shows that included the ‘big lick’ classes. Expecting judges to be righteous hasn’t worked, forcing trainers to ‘do it right’ hasn’t worked. Let’s hope the judicial system steps up and doesn’t disappoint.
Totally agree! Perhaps TWHBEA’s actions are not speaking louder than their words. They need to crack down on sanctioning their shows. Don’t let one pass inspection because “it’s not that bad” when the horse is still obviously sore. And judges that pin obviously unsound horses need to be disciplined as well. They are they voice of the breed and need to act like it.
TWHBEA gives lip service to the idea of cracking down on violators of the HPA. How many of their Executive Committee members and directors have had violations? LOTS! and it goes all the way to the top of the organization. If they were truly serious about cracking down, there would be no one in their organization who has been ticketed.
Not all TWH people commit this heinous behavior with their horses. There are some of us out here who do care about our horses. Facebook does have some TWH groups that are natural. The Tennessee Walking Horse Heritage Society has a group on Facebook. We are dedicated to flatshod Walking Horses – SOUND horses.
The judicial system is the last hope for this situation since everyone turns a blind eye to what I see as black and white, cold hearted abuse. It makes me sick what these horses are put through for the name of ‘show’ and none of those involved seem to notice. Yack.
I LOVE the fact that some of those recently convicted have to write about the aspects of soring as part of their penalty. Finally, a judge with insight and balls.
er Post Scriptum…ignore my horrible spelling. Half the keys on my laptop don’t work.
This is why I love FOSH. They don’t tolerate ANY abuse. Period. It’s a fucking great group. One I am proud to support. Too bad TWHBEA can’t do the same…
Life’s A Beach
http://www.36andsingle.blogspot.com/
If only TWHBEA would become like FOSH. To bad they’d have to change things…..
1. TWHBEA would have to stop the greed/corruption that goes around…… Not going to happen anytime soon. Unless TWHBEA stops pussy footing around the issue and start kicking ass and take names. These means steep penalties. I bet if a trainer was fined $20,000 per sored horse, I wonder how long it would take for them to stop, or just down right being kicked out. Ever heard expelling people? Oh wait….. Less $$$$.
2. Stop the palpatation people are doing and spend the money on imadry/heat seeing machines that will prove if a horse is sored or not. And ban linimants (so this way no one couldn’t say they rubbed that on their horse’s legs). You can’t beat a horse to change the temperature in their legs. And do it randomly after the horse has passed inspection.
3. TWHBEA would have to become a chariety and thus be open to public scruitany….. Yeah, when hell freezes over.
4. Get rid of the pads and chains, is there ANY reason for pads and chains? No there isn’t.
5. Board members appointed by the public, not their buddies, and be FREE of ANY animal CRUELTY CHARGES. Who am I kidding? That’d eleminate, what? 1/2 of the people?
6. Stop torturing the babies. Really forcing a 2 year old to WTC when they are still developing is like me saying their 7 year old needs to know calculus
7. Have EVERY inspection video taped. Complaint = goes back to the tape and corruption is severely delt with.
People who love Tennessee walking horses, need to find other associations to join that don’t put up with this crap. You’re gonna lose either way. Play by the rules, not gonna win. Don’t know the judge or can’t pay them off (or any official), you’re gonna loose. If the TWHBEA is losing money, they’ll change.They’ll change even faster if TWHBEA is just stuck with all of the pond scum. It’s really a shame the Tennesse Walking horse (or any gaited breed) puts up with this shit. These idiots deserve to be stomped into the ground. It’s these idiots that give gaited horses a bad name. I mean look at any other gaited breed. Do they have chains, stack pads and chemicals? No they don’t. so why is the Tennessee walker forced to endure this? I hope the book is thrown at them. But some how I highly doubt that…. I’m all up for applying those exact same chemicals and chains and pads on their legs and force them to run up the road with their knees going to their chins ’cause that makes them look so fancy. Wonder how long if would be before they asked for mercy? Guess what asshole, no mercy for you, seeing as you showed as much for your horses }=3…. Who cares it’s cruel and unusual punishment. If this was allowed, I wonder how quickly soring would disappear?
One of the deeper problems is that a percentage of the owner/breeder/trainer have been raised in a culture where soring is just part of the normal training practice. Sick, sad, call it what you will…but they figure, the horses won’t gait without the “package” (pads and chains) now that they gait’s been bred out in favor of color, height, etc etc…breed a pacy horse, slap on pads and chains and ta-da, you’ve got a big lick show prospect at 16 months old!! Add nails in the shoes, chemicals on the legs, illegal training chains slapping the legs, etc etc….you’ve got a CHAMPION. You’ve got something that will command a large stud fee, something that a certain percentage of the TWHBEA show world still views as worth 5-figures as a “big lick horse”.
And if you happen to be unlucky and get caught at a breed show and suspended for a year, just go show at the local shows, regional shows, county fairs, everyone there knows your name as a Well Respected Trainer, you get lots more clients, and USDA doesn’t have the manpower to check up on all these smaller shows, so you get to go on about your “business” and still laugh all the way to the bank.
One of the best solutions could be LIFETIME suspension – not just for the year or for 3 years – but for life, from TWHBEA – can’t show, can’t register colts you breed, and your name is added to every black list that can be found. (Really, there should be a nationwide list, like the sex offender registry, for trainers who abuse horses across the board – this day & age, with the interwebz, there’s really no reason NOT to have this resource)…..
And secondary to this, would be more education. Not just “the big bad government” sticking its nose in “our bizness”…but more from within the industry itself showing sored horses, ex-padded horses as older horses (even if they are not sored, they generally have issues in stifles, front feet, fetlocks…if I’ve seen one, I’ve seen 2 dozen)…
One victory that I know of is one of the local organizations has dropped their “performance” (padded) gaited class from their annual show line-up. Evidently the past 3 years of word that the USDA would show up (though it was just a rumor) put enough pressure on them to decide having the class wasn’t worth the risk of getting caught not really following the DQP rules and suspecting but not following through that people were showing sore horses.
“tails were mutilated with scissors and blades to make them appear flashier in the show ring―leaving behind untreated, bleeding wounds”
I am at work and cannot access the HSUS page but this sounds like an embellishment of the tail “nicking” process.
From Wikipedia:
Setting
“Modern tail setting to raise the tail involves placing the dock of the tail in a harness-like device that causes it to be carried at all times in an arched position. The set is used when the horses are stalled, and removed during performances. The device is meant to help stretch the muscles to keep the tail in a position that is desired for show, and is not used after the horse is retired from competition, allowing the tail to relax back to a normal position. Tail setting is only used by a few breeds, such as the American Saddlebred and the Tennessee Walking Horse. Setting, like docking, is not without controversy. In many cases, the check ligament of the tail is nicked or cut prior to placing the tail in a set. The tail obtains the desired shape sooner, and in most cases the ligament heals in a longer position. However, upon retirement, the ligament will sometimes not return to its natural tension, and the animal later may have difficulty swatting flies and holding its tail down and in when needed. However, this method is still less drastic than in the past, when the tail was actually broken and then placed into the tailset, healing in the artificial position. Tail-breaking for high-set tails is no longer used, and tail-nicking is banned in a few states.”
As far as “animal having difficulty swatting flies” I have never seen a horse end up without full use of his tail after this process was done and healed, so I am guessing this refers to cases that have somehow gone wrong or not done by a vet. The ethicacy of this is certainly up for debate, but then again, people seem to have very little trouble cutting off half their dogs ears, or all of their tails, then of course docking tails of drafts. Not justifying one or the other, but I would take offence to someone pointing at my saddlebred’s nicked tail and calling me an abuser when their beloved family dog has “mutilated” ears or a chopped off tail.
All this said, no, not one of my horses has a nicked tail, and if it were totally outlawed tomorrow I should say good riddance to it. Just some food for thought.
It may interest you to know that the US is one of the last countries in the world to allow the mutilation of dogs for cosmetic reasons. Europe (some not all countries) and the UK banned it five years ago, Australia and NZ before that.
Only in America would this sort of thing be tolerated any more- although the Welsh Cob and Hackney community has recently come up with their own little, quirky and totally illegal, method of employing electric shock treatment to get the same sort of results as the TWH, without any of the pesky telltale marks- I guess the TWH people cannot be far behind them in this?
Actually you can still dock dog’s tails in New Zealand, unfortunately, but ear cropping is banned.
On dog tail docking and ear cropping – look to the “why” of it. Some breeds are prone to infections in their ears if they are not cropped, thanks to our interference by breeding for specific traits. Likewise, some breeds whose tails are docked are done to prevent injuries to working/hunting dogs.
I don’t like seeing ears cropped to make the dogs look alert, or fierce, or cute or whatever, especially since it’s a procedure that is done when they’re at least months old, requires full anesthesia and take a long time to heal. I hate seeing it done only for cosmetic reasons.
Tail docking done days after birth doesn’t bother me so much even for purely cosmetic reasons, but I prefer that it be limited to dogs where there’s a reason that’s to the dog’s benefit. One thing to know about it – any injury or surgery to the tail of a grown dog is very difficult to get to heal cleanly.
I worked for a greyhound adoption agency for several years and let me tell you, nothing bleeds like a tail. They’d beat their tails and break them open wagging them, then they’d merrily wag away splashing blood everywhere. Put a bandage on it, it flies off. Put it on and then tape it to their leg as well to keep it still? They wag the D shaped tail till they rip it free and the process starts all over again. It was like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Blood sprayed everywhere up and down the walls.
I understand people’s discomfort with the process, but from the other side.. I’ve seen a lot of nasty tail injuries that ended up in abscesses and needing amputation anyway. Tail breaks and injuries are common, particularly in breeds with long thin tails, and I’d rather see it done at a few days old and never trouble again than an adult dog getting it taken off later from injuries. But I don’t really judge either way on other people’s dogs. It’s their decision.
Ears are a different matter, and though I’ve had Dobes with cropped (current one had them when we bought him) and natural (first Dobe), and I will say that my current Dobe never has ear issues and the natural one constantly did, I don’t have issue with not cropping ears on dogs. In some breeds, it served a purpose due to their work as protection animals or flock guardians, but I don’t see it as a necessity.
By the same token, tail nicking in horses was not without reason. Saddlebreds were (and still are) used widely as carriage horses, nicking came about not out of vanity but for safety’s sake in that the horse was far less likely to clamp down his tail should the reins work their way underneath it. I believe drafts had their tails docked for the same reason.
I have driven horses before and I have never had any problem with the reins getting under the tails. So what I like to know is, Who is driving the horse and how in the heck are they getting the reins under the tails? (esp that far up???) Unless your long lining your horse and turn tight or change direction the tail should not be a problem. But thats long lining not driving a vehicle (waggon or cart). You cant and dont turn tight enough then driving and your not using the reins behind the rear legs and etc when driving a cart or waggon. (Plowing????maybe BUt I havent plowed using any horse) Most sets of driving (harness) reins sit more on the back than on thier sides. (Long lines are used more on the sides of the animal.) Isnt that why there are rein rings on top of the harness saddle??? When I drove a few of my horses in a two wheel cart the reins were fed through rein rings on the harness saddle and never drooped low enough to get caught on anything. they were positioned closer to the back than the sides. go figure.
The irony here, is that the breeds prone to ear infections – breeds with hanging ears like cocker spaniels – are not a cropped breed, and the dogs with tail injuries also are not traditionally docked breeds.
I’d be curious as to where you are getting your information on the Welsh Cobs, as I have been around the Cob community for the past 20 years and have never heard of such a thing. I have bred and shown Cobs successfully and have never done such to mine. Horses being trained with weighted shoes, yes, but weighted shoes are not allowed in any show classes except Roadster pony classes, and those are not able to show in other classes if they have the sjoes on, so you get very few Roadster participants anymore.
The Hackneys, I wouldn;t doubt it for a second, nor for the modern Shetlands.
As someone that has spent quite a lot of time around Hackney ponies I have to say this one is new to me. Please keep in mind that just because you know of one or maybe a couple barns doing this, doesnt mean everyone else is.
There is no way that you can like horses and still do this to them. It’s disgusting plain and simple. And for those who think this article is against the breed itself… no, it’s against a SMALL FACTION within the show industry. Not all of the TWH show people are bad and do this kind of crap to their horses.
We trail ride gaited horses and my trainer has been to a few big TWH show barns and the smell in those “big lick” barns is enough to make a person sick. That smell being from their feet! From what I’m told it’s pretty overpowering.
The TWHBEA needs to crack down severely on these people who think they need to torture their horses so they perform to their liking. Crack down on the entire “big lick” divisions and weed out the massive supply of stupid within it.
Yes, the soring involves pus seeping out from the infections present in the legs, and it smells like rotting flesh. They keep them covered under wraps to try and keep the maggots out. I have witnessed such a barn and it was disgusting, and I shouted it out in the barn so everyone could hear me. All the cowardly bitch owners present went scuttling like the cockroaches that they are when someone turns on a light. For the record, most of these owners were females in this barn, so they can accept their fair share of the blame. I don’t know if the barn even exists anymore, I hope to any deity that can hear that it doesn’t.
I’d just like to correct one of the quotes…..
“Today, Tennessee Walking Horses are known throughout the industry
as the breed that shows abused and tortured horses.” It is not the “industry” it is known throughout,it is known throughout the WORLD .
If for no other reason, if you do not give two hoots for horses or even animals, if you do not care a fig about cruelty to animals. then you still have to ask yourself, “Is this what I wish my country, a major contestant in the 2012 Olympics, in the equestrian field, to be known for?”
Surely that fact alone could motivate a few politicians?
Yes, exactly – that’s the first thing I think when I hear the name of the breed, ‘oh that’s the horribly tortured breed, how awful it is”
Yep, and Tennessee Walking Horses are an American bred horse, so we can’t blame any other country for this one.
Ha ha, it’s been my understanding that congressmen have served on the board of the TWHBEA and ownednsored horses themselves. National pride? *snort*
TWH’s are the only breed I’ve ever owned and shown. I don’t sore, I’ve never sored, I don’t ride like a hunchback and I don’t expect my horses to move like they’re crawling. Unfortunately all of the above still win, even where I live and we haven’t had a padded horse class up here in many many years. My horses are knocked down to the “trail” classes (i.e. the unimpressive horses) because they don’t move in the “ideal”. Now, that being said, my horses USED to place very well in the light shod classes…..then the sorers started soring the light shod horses….then suddenly the light shod horses are moving like the big lick horses….I basically quit showing at that point. I really don’t see any change in the good ole boy movement. They are just getting tricker and they just keep changing the shoeing rules to accomadate the big lick look on the flat shod horse. And if they eliminate padded horses, those yahoos will just move on to the flat shod horses, like they already have.
There ARE natural, beautifully moving walkers out there but they are few and far between. Usually people opt to breed to the next big world grand champion (which pace as a rule, which is why they’re shown in pads..pace + weighty pads = a “walk”) and because of that we are breeding the gait right out of our horses.
I still enjoy riding my walkers, it’s just the smoothest thing ever! But showing? No, never again. I think by the time we do finally have some sanity in this breed me and my horses will be long in our graves.
I can’t find the ‘like’ button on this buggy-as browser, so I’ll just say, great comment.
That’s sad, that someone who does things the right way is crowded out by the jerks. I hope you DO see the day when you can go out there again and re-educate others on how a happy natural TWH is supposed to look like! And win some ribbons for doing things RIGHT.
Thanks Crow! It’ll never happen I don’t think, at least not for me. I’m getting too old, as are the horses, LOL! I really do miss showing. It’s really my show mare’s thing too…she doesn’t have the mind to be a trail horse (I’m sure I could teach her, but neither one of us have the patience) and she always just loved showing…from bathing to trailering to standing in line. I swear she loved being LOOKED AT.
Our TWH club is still so in bed with middle TN, there’s no getting out of it. 2 years ago, when they voted to stay with the same old HIO (only with a new name-SHOW-out of middle TN) and they changed the shoeing rules so drastically on flat shod horses…backwards instead of forward…that suddenly bands and tungsten shoes are allowed on pleasure horses (What pleasure horse (aka flat shod horse) needs a *&$%^#$ tungsten shoe and bands?!?!) I knew this breed was doomed. I begged the club to consider switching HIO’s…how about to a sound horse organization as that would be a great start!….and they refused.
I showed my youngest mare for the last time in that club in 2007. By that point the tide was already turning. The same mare that won a year-end high point award 4 years prior and was now not even getting looked at. IMHO the mare was as good as she always was, with some age on her, but that seemed to make her better, more disciplined. But, we were shown the gate every time and I knew from that point forward that she was no longer the flavor of the month.
To be successful today, you need a TWH trainer and a TWH farrier. Back when I started into this, about 15 years now, you could pull your horse out of the backyard and take it to a show and have a blast! They are naturally gaited and know what to do, LOL! You didn’t need “special” shoes, except maybe if your horse tended towards the pace. I wish the breed would realize how many people they alienate with this nonsense. But, us backyard peeps don’t bring in the big $$$ so ????
One thing that is so sad about this practice is that it turns people off of TWH horses altogether because they don’t want to be associated with the big licks (and I don’t blame them!). I’m not a gaited horse rider – I’m a dressage rider – but I had a friend a long while back who had very well bred TWH horses and they were such WONDERFUL horses. She just did normal shoes on them. We would trail ride on her farm and they were sweet, personable, well tempered, agreeable, and very safe to ride all over the property. It’s so sad that they would be treated that way – sad for each one of them, but sad for the breed as a whole, because it causes horse people to have that big lick image in their mind whenever they hear “Tennessee Walking Horse” and could end up turning away a lot of GOOD people from the breed, leaving nothing but the a-holes who do crap like that to them.
My vote is that pads, stacks and chains should not be used on horses, ever. Who ever decided that is was OK to show horses in these contraptions anyway? It doesn’t look nice, it isn’t natural, there’s nothing pretty about it, and it certainly doesn’t show the “genetics” of the breeding animals. Not only should soring and stewarding be banned, but so should artifical leg wear and the 12+ inch shanked bits.
I’m going to go out on a limb here, and I’m sure I’ll get bashed for this one. Do horses in most disciplines need shoes? I can say yes for eventers, endurance, and cross country courses since theses horses are running on varied terrain and there are rocks, etc. But what about your dressage horse or cow chaser? They spend all day in an arena in the SAND. There is no reason these horses need shoes unless they are unsound. Being unsound should disqualify them from competition in the first place. Same with race horses. They are running in the dirt and mud or on turf – no rocks here! They have better traction with shoes along with the toe and heel grabs, which in the end leads to bowed tendons and breakdowns on the track.
Are horses that are unsound good candiates for breeding? If you are promoting your 2 year old futurity APHA or AQHA for future earnings in the breedign barn but the horses is unsound in the arena and needs shoes to be shown, what is the point? Personally I think shoes should also be prohibited in the show ring at all major shows. That will keep “high end” horses with crappy feet and lameness caused by bad conformation out of the show ring and the breeding barn. APHA and AQHA have nearly ruined the breeds by literally breeding the hoof off the horse. Don’t even get me started on thoroughbreds. Horses like Big Brown that have to have their hooves encased in Bondo just to have enough foot to run should not be out there reproducing.
I think banning shoes would be very bad.
I personally know a horse that has to be shod with light pads in front to keep him ridable. He’s gelded. He was not bred to my knowledge and he certainly wouldn’t be. He’d have made a nice show horse, though, if his problem hadn’t caused him to do permanent cosmetic damage to one of his knees by stumbling.
Barring a horse with a hoof problem from the show ring increases the chance that that horse will end up in a bad situation. I agree, however, that these horses should not be BRED. Big Brown being bred makes me sick.
(putting on my BEST highbrow Appalachian hillbilly drawl here) HONEY… those therapeutic pads are not even in the same category as the ‘pads’ they put on TWH’s poor feet. They start stackin’ em up as YEARLINGS… which has to do damage to their growing musculoskeletal systems.
hmmmm….
wonder if there’s any fugly-illians out there who were just WAITING to see how long-winded and opinionated ms WALK-ON-AAAAAIRE was gonna be now that my fuglyblog friend CHARM broached the topic! (Thank you Charm! We should exchange email addresses some day!)
Hee. I was just answering the barefoot comments as I often do
.
Sounds like a great idea! And you are very welcome. It’s something that is pretty big in the news right now.
I try to keep my horses barefoot as much as possible. However, I have a gelding that is flat footed and it makes him very tenderfooted on any rocky terrain, so he gets shoes in the Summer. From my experience, keeping shoes on year around doesn’t do horses any favors. I’m plannning on doing endurance this year and am looking into different boots. I prefer not to use shoes, but realize that long distances are going to wear hooves out (it is just physics).
This is exactly what I was getting at. Trail horses might need shoes because of the terrain they are used on, along with endurance horse and other horses that go out of the arena. 4H kids and people who do schooling shows probably also trail ride and their horses might need shoes. I’m talking about the big dollar show horses that never leave the arena. If they really need shoes and pads to walk and trot in the dirt arena, then there is something else going on with the horse’s legs. Pull the shoes, give the horse a rest, and bring a vet out to see what is really going on with the hooves. People are abusing and over-using their horses to the point of injury and lameness. The shoes/pads are a bandaid on the problem and not an actual solution or cure.
The horse I’m talking about actually has something wrong with one of his hooves. He is unsound and unsafe to ride without special shoes or pads. He’s not my horse and I *believe* they only have him shod fore, though. This is AFTER he had his shoes off, was turned away, seen by four different vets, etc. It’s a conformation issue that can’t be corrected any other way.
I do believe that horses should go barefoot if at all possible, though. Just that sometimes it is not possible.
I think you’ve left out one significant reason why (some) show horses are shod – so that studs/corks can be added for traction. I am a big believer in keeping horses barefoot whenever possible… but I show jumpers. Tight turns, high speeds and wet grass rings are dangerous. I have shown barefoot horses at the lower levels where jumps are lower and speeds aren’t so fast, and if the show is on sand. But grass rings are very common in the jumpers, you can’t guarantee that it won’t rain or there won’t be dew on the grass for an early morning class, and that’s too slippy for a competitive round without corks. (Bare feet have better traction on grass than plain shoes, but shoes with corks are better still).
Where I live, we have a long winter and a fairly short outdoor competition season, so my horse is barefoot much of the year, the shoes go on before the first show on grass and come off after the last show of the season, I can usually get by with one set of shoes, reset once mid-season. I think that’s pretty reasonable. Believe me, a full set of shoes drilled for corks is expensive… if I thought I could safely get by without them for what I do, I would!
I would agree there’s probably a lot of horses that are ridden lightly on good footing, wearing shoes, who could get by without them. But I don’t think it’s nearly as simple as saying that if a horse has good feet they should be able to show without shoes.
There is actually a class (or coulple of classes) in the TWH Celebration (and other shows) that are for unshod animals that naturaly gait without any hoof additives. (just kept trimmed) I have shown unshod horses (Western Pleasure and Hunt) and for the most part had no problems. Most times I do shoe the horse due to wear and tear on the animals hooves and also for traction. (cant show with hoof boots on) Hoof boots are a good alternative to shoes while training or pleasure riding. Light shod TWH have shoes that are little different than your flat shod or keg shoes.
Why do ppl call the caulks on bottom of some shoes CORKS. A cork is what you stop a wine bottle with, a caulk is what is put on horse shoes for traction and other reasons. (caulking is what you weatherize your windows with). This is such a pet peve with me. “
oops got happy with the submit comment button.
Acually the CORRECT spelling is CALK not caulk. (caulk is a sealant)
I just have to ask – why do all those TWH riders like like Neanderthals? What kind of riding style is that?
Don’t know, but it certainly appears to be the norm. Watched some ‘racking horses’ going by on a back road down here and every rider was sitting badly. Forget ‘chair position’–they were very nearly ‘lazy boy recliner’ position–but with shoulders rounded over like they were doing crunches. Must have been a dozen of them going by. It was incredibly strange-looking.
Because most (not all) have the mentality of a Neanderthal. The others just rednecks out ridedin with no clue to a developed seat..
I think it has to do with the Big Lick. Just imagine if your horse was six inches higher on the front end, and THEN you taught it to crouch in the back end. Now put a flat seat saddle on the horse, and try to keep from slipping right off its tail. Ride that kind of gait very long, and you are going to be slouching, with legs all funky and toes down as you struggle to keep on its back. It’s like riding a bumpy levade that just goes on and on…
If you google for the 1999 Celebration class with Champagne Watchout, you’ll see how his rider is sitting upright and heels down, compared to the Big Lick horses with ghouls on their backs. And I mean ghouls in all senses: to do that to the horses, and those death-black long coats they wear, sitting hunched on the backs of those frantic, patient, tortured animals. It is an education, it is, with the contrast to Champagne Watchout’s calm, energetic way of going and his rider looking as if she’s riding her horse, rather than sucking the life out of it.
It’s no kind of riding style. Logic would dictate that since they are trying to elevate the horse’s front end, they’d get their own damned weight off it. Proves there simply is no logic to this load of rot that they do.
……and to add to the travesty, many of those (turtle styling) riders are as rotund as a barrel full of jelly. I watched a training video (by TWHBEA) that had a trainger weighing in at about 375 lbs riding a 2 year old. The poor thing could bearily walk and the trainer was all hunched over forward and realy just plain horrid. The (I assume) daughter of the trainer, though not skinny herself, was more centered oriented than the trainer himself. At least the horse could walk with out looking like he was about to collapse. The two year old all ready had stacks. GAG!!!. I went forward to the lighter shod group.
The last round of riding lessons I took, one of the students was a young man who’d grown up riding his grandpa’s walkers. This poor kid had the WORST seat in a hunt seat saddle I’d ever seen!! It was like he was sitting in a backless chair, trying to type on his lap. He didn’t know what to do with his hands, either.
Trotting time was hilarious…..
Sorry about that….brain fart. Should be “look like Neanderthals”.
When I first had horses, I saw a “trainer” using chains on a horse and asked if it hurt the horse? She assured me it did not. Since owning horses longer, I realize that was an out-an-out LIE. The coronet band on a horse is sensitive and I can only imagine what that feels like for the horse.
I’ve just now finished reading all of the comments. I think this started out on topic and turned into a discussion about bashing performance Walking Horses and their owners on the whole pretty quickly. I see a lot of pretty hateful comments coming from people who obviously don’t have a clue what they’re talking about because some of the things I’m reading are so far out there that I can’t help but cock my head to one side and go “Huh?” Pads and chains are not “obviously” abusive as one person put it. Like almost anything, there is a right way and a wrong way to use them. If you want to rally behind banning action devices then that’s you’re right and privilege. I personally don’t see a need in punishing everybody for the actions of a few because soring can be done just as easily with a barefoot horse. But don’t expect to be taken too seriously if you plan on picking and choosing which breeds are allowed to use action devices and which are not. Stretchers, weighted shoes, and chains are stretchers, weighted shoes, and chains whether they’re on a Walking Horse or a NSH.
Nothing we do with horses is natural. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s abusive or harmful. Can you cause damage by forcing a horse into padded performance who is unsuited for it? Hell yes. Can you cause damage by improperly padding, chaining, and training a padded performance horse? Definitely. Can you push your horse too far and ruin them for life? It’s been done. My point is that there are a lot of idiots out there. The only way to get rid of them is to come up with punishments that are harsh enough to serve as a deterrent. I’m talking jail time and the possibility of losing every title you”ve earned. Doing away with an entire division and organization which has actually done a pretty damn good job of cleaning itself up over the past 20 years is asinine. The inspection processes for TWHs is probably one of the most, if not THE most thorough in the entire equestrian industry. We should be celebrating these big crackdowns. I’d be more worried if we didn’t hear about things like this.
I’m going to try not to be TOO snarky, so I’ll just number my ‘points’ and be concise (yeah, right. WalkonAire has NEVER been ‘concise’ except when simple Yep. or Nope. said it all)
1. The beautiful gait that made the TWH famous is an evenly cadenced four-beat intermediate gait called a flatwalk, and faster with more power, a running walk. The horse is balanced and moves smoothly, back neutral or slightlly raised.. and the four beats are quite even in cadence. 1.2.3.4.1.2.3.4.1.2.3.4. The head nods up and down with each powerful stride from behind.. the nodding is UP and DOWN, and is quite natural.
The gait that is seen in far, far too many TWHs today is not a true ‘walk’, but is more of a stepping pace or even a ‘hard pace’. An intermediate gait that is ‘pacey’ involves a cadence more like this: 12.34.12.34.12.34.12.34. or even 12..34..12..34.. How to tell if your TWH is pacing or step-pacing — the head now nods side to side as well as up and down…. but, so say the show trainers, you can correct that through training (in other words, train the side-to-side, natural movement of that gait, out of them by punishing them.
Almost without exception, the recent WGC’s and all of their multitudinous ‘get’ tend toward the ‘pacey’ end of the spectrum AND THIS IS CONSIDERED DESIRABLE… WHY??? because a pace is a ventroflexed gait. The back drops and the action gets higher. Crank the nose in and ‘contain’ the gait, and you have even higher action. When you do that, you lose the ‘nod’ altogether – unless you use perfectly-timed little yanks on the bit to ‘teach’ the horse to nod. The pads and stacks exaggerate the gait by throwing the entire musculoskeletal system into an unnatural configuration… the weights.. well that changes the timing of the footfalls, simulating an even four beat cadence despite all the conformational woes and the constraints of the reins and the stacks on the feet.
2. Some of these horses have been punished SEVERELY for moving or showing any indication of discomfort while its feet are being inspected. One method – burns from cigarettes. Train a horse that way, and all you have to do is flash a butt while the horse is being inspected, and it hops-to. We all know how horses learn – trial and error. They will try different things till they do it right. Imagine being beaten, or burned, etc etc, for moving when someone is hurting you. Good thing these horses were bred FOR GENERATIONS to be easy going, sturdy, good minded fellows, or there would not be many surviving big lick trainers and handlers.
3. TWHBEA only pays lip service to stamping out soring. There is money and glory amongst those good ole boys.. and there are far too many owners who choose to turn a blind eye to what is being done with their horse at the trianing barn, long as ribbons are coming in. There are trainers who have been suspended, and either done their time and then lovingly being taken backinto the fold… and some of them just go over to spotted saddle horses, which at this point in time are at least as ‘sored’ as TWH’s… maybe more so because there is less scrutiny on that breed right now.
As long as there is money and good old boy cronyism.. and the ability to delude people with blue ribbons in their eyes… there will be soring. Each new level of scrutiny only encourages them to find ‘better’, less easily detected ways to sore a horse. The people who do this are VERY good at introducing people to their (ahem) sport with various rationalizations that sound wonderful — and are quite plausible to anyone who has not really done their homework regarding what is humane and natural for horses.
My introduction to TWH’s was a former (failed, fortunately!) big lick mare who only knew ‘halt’ and “pace as fast as you can, furiously, etc’. She was not very good at ‘halt’. As far as she knew, she was supposed to fight the bit, then stand nicely terrified till someone got on her back.. and then it was her job to haul ass and PACE, fast as she could except for the way-more-than-occasional sideways teleportation that she did when soemthing startled her. In the year and a half I rode her, she got to where she could be ridden in a snaffle, could WALK and do a nice saddlerack, and go like the wind at a rack… but it took time, and lots of help.. and she’d been ‘off’ for five years to decompress before I was priveleged to work with her. She’d gone from pillar to post for several years… I imagine nobody was willing to put the time AND PATIENCE into her that she needed.
I cringe when i see TWH’s out on the trail who squat as the gait fastfastfast from the moment their riders mount up until the come to a screeching halt at the trailer, dripping sweat and blowing. Many of these horses were started as ‘performance’ horses or plantation-shod (heavy shoes, high action.. but not big stacks) so this is what they think is expected of them… and they now have ‘trail owners’ who expect the same thing. They are upside down, and many of them pace badly… they pace, it’s not smooth.. but hey, they are going fast and they are not trotting so the owners are okay with it. That’s fine — but the horses *could* be better… and they would be, if not for the damage being done to the breed by the glory and flash of the Big Lick.
My mare came from a couple who tried very hard to be a positive influence within TWHBEA, but seeing the same garbage going on year after year, with only lip service paid to stopping it, they finally gave up. For awhile, they were campaigning a young stallion..and I went down to a show to cheer them on. There were three or four ‘big lick’ horses in a couple of classes that had been added to give these people some practice… and my friend’s husband commented on how spectacular that was. I made a face, and told him what I thought.
He was polite… but you see, he and his wife had been drinkin’ the kool-aid because of their stallion, whom they hoped would become popular.. and he was VERY nice. But he colicked badly and that was that. Very sad….
… but you know what? That gentleman now gives other folks the same speech I gave HIM that day at the show… that big lick way of going may be ‘spectacular’… but it’s not spectacular in any good way. No good way for hte horses, anyway…. and no good way for anyone who appreciates REAL beauty and grace in a horse.
So, I have the mare (only part TWH, and only semi-gaited) and a TWH gelding… Odd that my gelding’s nicname is “Pad the Man”, ’cause he is ONE ‘man’ who will never wear those pads! I *passionately* love this breed of horses… and I just as passionately despise the direction the whole breed has gone in, becuase of the ‘culture’ of the “performance arena’ aka BIG LICK.
Now… I’m gonna go find some video of CHAMPAGNE WATCHOUT…. This horse is my hero. Several years back, he was entered in the WGC shows — WITHOUT STACKS and it turned the TWH world on its end. Champagne Watchout is one of the most versatile, powerful, graceful, willing and talented horses I’ve EVER seen (and that includes a somewhat famous palomino stallion from these parts…)
Here Champagne Watchout doing dressage.. TRUE collection, TRUE lightness here.. odd looking dressage due to his head nod, but HEY, he IS a TWH. Go to 2:00 in to see the signature TWH gait DONE RIGHT!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmrXw3jibGE&feature=related Go to
I love the gaited dressage classes/events. You can’t really do regular dressage with a gaited horse because of their different build, not to mention the gaits…it wouldn’t be fair on the judge…so it’s awesome to see them being properly catered to.
Yikes, he’s gorgeous. Man the gait sure looks different from what I’ve ever seen—you compare this with a pacey gait and it’s really obvious. Thank you so much for sharing the link!
But–that said, can you get a 1.2.3.4 walk out of a horse that is pacey? Would the pace on the racking horses I saw improve any if they were ridden by a better rider, or fitted in better tack? Or are you going to be stuck with the pace no matter what?
Yes and no. I recently purchased a mare, and I was in a bit of a panic when I went to look at her.. she was horribly pacey. As soon as I got on her back and asked her to relax and slow down a little, she started ‘shaking’ her head (bobbing in time to the beat) and fell into a lovely four beat running walk.
Another horse I’ve worked with is much more pacey– she will give me a very nice stepping pace, but no running walk yet. A pace doesn’t automatically mean the horse won’t do a running walk, but it is a bit of a liability, just as it would be if all the horse did was trot.
That was so beautiful and honest it almost made me cry!! Champagne Without is a beautiful stallion with a true gait!! Thank you for sharing!!
An outfitter I really like told me about TWH’s and the shame of big lick, and pointed me to the video of that particular Celebration. Aside from how much prettier CW was to watch than all those big lick horses was the eye-opening realization that whenever the riders were instructed to change gaits or direction, the big lick rider had to stop and let their horses blow for a bit before they could move on, but CW’s rider was able to just cue him and off they went, smooth as glass.
That, and the big lick horses looked like broken-backed show-type German Shepherds when they cantered.
You know if the breed/show management really wanted to clean up their act, they’d start with deleting those chains around the ankles. I mean it is almost obvious that they are soring if they are using those chains to create a bigger step through irritation. I also agree with a previous poster about getting rid of the extreme shoeing.
But as a start, HSUS should disallow those chains.
I’m not sure what you think HSUS can do about soring and chains on TWH’s. They’re a non-profit animal rights organization, not a legislative or law enforcement body.
As far as getting it to stop, the only thing that will work is severe penalties for soring, applied at the national level. I’ve gotten the impression that the judges are as much a part of the good ol’ boy network as the trainers and owners.
If there ever is a concerted national-level effort to stop soring, it would help if there was a coinciding campaign to build up natural TWH’s.
This is clearly the most heinous practice in all of horsedom. Especially since 1) all those naturally gaited Walkers out there prove it’s completely unnecessary and 2) nobody except the people do it think it looks attractive in the least. In fact, we (the other 99% of the world) think these riders look like monkeys trying to ride a cross between a German Shepherd, a giraffe, and a bobble-head doll. I bet you none of these guys would last 5 minutes on an ordinary horse, even a gaited one. Not being able to use 12 inches of leverage to control the horse would probably make them break down and cry from sheer terror.
I doubt very much that you could find more than a handful of TWH’s that will naturally do the big lick movement. It’s not a natural movement for the breed. The story as I’ve been able to dig it up is that back in the 1950′s or so there was a VERY flashy-moving stallion that started a new trend. He won a lot, so trainers started trying to figure out how to get their more ordinary TWH’s to move like him and so stacking and soring were born.
I’ve had the good fortune to ride a couple of sound, never sored TWH’s. There’s nothing about their movement that looks like big lick as you see it in the show ring.
You won’t find *ANY* that do *THAT* naturally. In every other discipline you can, at some point, see the horses do ‘whatever’ in the pasture, free as birds, when the horse is inspired to do *whatever*. Not so with the big lick. If you can find video of Midnight Sun, you can see the natural version of ‘that’. He was one talented stallion… and the big lick came out of a desire to imitate what he had. And then, as with so many things here in the US, somebody decided that MORE of ‘that’ was even better…. and so the abuse began. Look where it’s led us…
Same thing that happened in Western Pleasure: some horse in the early 80s moved with unusually low head carriage, and suddenly it became all the rage & exaggertated most unnaturally.
When I said natural walkers I meant natural walk, not Big Lick movement. The original purpose of the TWH was to provide a smooth ride, not to look flashy.
I cannot understand why people like the ‘big lick’ horses — IMHO, they do not display the true beauty of horses. Rather, it’s a mad scramble of terrified horses, barely under rider control, without any sort of rhythm.
As was mentioned, judges need to stop placing this. The only way that will happen though, is if either:
1) They are faced with disciplinary action for placing sored/lame horses.
2) The industry stops recieving any positive attention (and let’s face it, there still IS positive attention from some of the people attending the shows. I don’t hear anyone screaming “BOOOO!!! YOU SUCK!” in the videos I watch of TWH’s, it seems to be more like “WOOOOO!! YEAH!”).
3)They are not given the option to pin these horses as winners. Really the only way to do that is to stop them from showing, which means that strict regulations would need to be set in place. Personally, I think there are enough people against soring and that are passionate about stopping it, you could just about have a volunteer at every show checking each horse that enters.
It makes me sick that this hasn’t been stopped yet. Everyone that COULD stop it (judges, trainers, owners, governing bodies ect) acts like their hands are tied and they can’t do anything, when in reality they CAN – they’d just rather sit around twiddling their thumbs, collecting fame and money. I don’t know how anyone could justify doing this to another living creature.
http://www.operationhorserescue.blogspot.com
It’s not the tack, as long as the tack fits. It’s GOOD RIDING.
There are a couple of people who do clinics to help with this – Elizabeth Graves is one of them.
The BEST book that I know of is by Lee Ziegler, who died a few years back. It’s called Easy Gaited Horses. Lee was all about the welfare of the horse – she and Liz mentored me via email when I was riding that very pacey hot little mare.. and between them and the gentleman I ultimately bought my gelding from, they showed me what to do with her to at least get a stepping pace (which is very smooth, too) out of her consistently.
It is actually better for the horse if you can nudge it away from the pacey end of the spectrum-of-gait… all that ventroflexion is hard on their backs. Unfortunately, what we see most often becomes not just the ‘norm’ but the perceived ideal, because people just don’t know any better. “What we see now” all too often involves a horse with an overdeveloped underneck, high head, nose thrust forward, a ‘saddle pocket’ behind the withers – which is NOT normal, it’s from atrophied muscling due to going upside down – and horses that have never been allowed to bend or be flexible.
Here’s a TWH mare ridden very naturally… this is not her usual rider. Mare is not hot or mean or ill-mannered; she does best with an advanced rider because she’s so sensitive she responds to a whisper, a shift in weight. I’m too clumsy to even want to try to ride her – she’d just stand there with her ears waggling, wishing my body would make up its mind about what i want her to do. Anyway.. it was this riders first time on her.. first time to even meet the mare…and she was mostly playing around on this particular day,. She was experimenting to see what Missy knows.. and if she and Missy spoke the same language (they did, but different dialects of it) This mare is multi-gaited and can do many mid to upper level dressage movements with ease. She can mosey.. and she can RACK ON… and she’ll do it in a bit, or bitless… Note the fluidity of her movement, her power and grace.. the relaxed way she carries herself… She is used as a trail and pleasure horse, and as far as I know has never been shown. BUT SHE IS NOT *WASTED*, because she not only has a job she loves, but she IS loved by her owner. No pasture ornament here — THIS is a Tennessee Walker! (no, she’s not mine.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eRAef396o8
A friend rides in sand ring and there are times when she will wear her horse’s shoes in half before her next farrier visit. The sand acts like sandpaper on his shoes. So, yes, some horses need shoes, even if they are only ridden in sand.
I think this just about says it all- this is a saddle class for TWO year olds ( who should still be playing in the field, can you imagine how young they were when they were first ridden, let alone padded?) Anyway – enjoy (sarcasm intended)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ftfcn6lKJCo&mode=related&search=
Sorry about that, it was not the clip I thought it was * facepalm*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuqN9n4RF4Y
2 year olds, on stacks with chains. (Got your back, Kirri)
Holy shit. More disturbing than the video (which was pretty fucking disturbing) read the comments. Talk about ignorant asshats. I just want to slap everyone upside the head.
ARG!!
Life’s A Beach
http://36andsingle.blogspot.com/
Ok, I admit I’ve never seen TN Walkers at show. But the horses in that video were incredibly awkward looking, ears pinned back … I literally gasped as they broke into, in what I’m assuming was a canter. The hunchback people riding them just made the whole thing kinda creepy to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wuqN9n4RF4Y
Found it!!!!
WTF! Those are babies. Any organization that condones this, or any of the other repulsive practices mentioned on this board need to take a good hard look at what kind of people they really are. This all just makes me ill. It is systematic abuse- nothing more
This turned up in the suggested videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DkDNjrwO4U&feature=related
Not another example of stacks and chains. The horse is flat shod and I _think_ he’s moving entirely naturally.
Yep, he’s natural, and quite a beauty too. Important to note, he is NOT doing a running walk. He’s doing a rack. No head nod, more suspended (feet off the ground more). He isn’t incorrect, because he is a racking horse. But don’t look at his movement as an example of a running walk.
They are TINY! OMG, how can those idiots write comments on youtube like, “TWH mature faster than other breeds; they are mature at two,” after watching that video! Tiny little stumbling, pacing, miserable-looking youngsters who can’t seem to straighten their hind legs. Notice how they look so uncomfortable behind? Pathetic!
Oops, my previous comment related to the youtube video of the 2-year-olds being shown, in case there is any confusion.
Love Champaign Watchout, and of course, there’s more to it than their desire to show their horse: I do think there was also a racial component in the Good Old Boys’ hissy fits over this horse. That being said, while I appreciate what his owners are doing, half-pass with the haunches leading is VERY incorrect. Still, lovely horse and I applaud their efforts.
It is indeed a tribute to the temperament of the TWH that there aren’t more dead/severely injured Big Lick trainers. Back when I was a teen, MANY years ago, we visited a relative of my mom’s best friend. He raised TWH. He asked if I would like to ride. Sure! What 15 year old wouldn’t want to go for a horseback ride!! Especially one limited to once a week hunt seat lessons. So…first he offered me his stallion, and while it probably would have been fine, I declined (“too much horse for me, thanks.”) so he went into the pasture and brought out a mare. He saddled her up (western/snaffle) and told me to go down to his arena and “get used to her” while he saddle up another horse and we would go for a trail ride. I rode her around the ring for a while, he appeared on the other horse, and we went for a two hour ride in the Wasatch Mtns. The mare never put a foot wrong, and on some sandy, level stretches he showed me how to aid her for the running walk, and we were off! A truck passed by on a fire road, and while the mare got looky, she behaved nicely. When we got back to his farm, he said, and I quote, “Hope you enjoyed your ride. Nice little mare, isn’t she. That’s the SECOND TIME she’s been ridden. The first was about six months ago when we started her.” I nearly fell off! Wow, just WOW. He then offered to GIVE me one of his weanlings, but my mom put a stop to that! ROFLOL!!!
I’m thinking that the only way sorting will stop would be to disband the TWHBEA altogether, enforce every gaited class at any rated/large show, heavily fine the current offenders – showing or not showing. None of this will happen.
Also, owners are soooo much to blame for all this show ring abuse, whether they’re into Arab or AQHA halter, western pleasure, big lick….. Doesn’t matter, but owners who let trainers hurt their horses for the sake of stupid blue ribbons are as bad as the trainers whondonthe bad things. If you’re gonna own horses, it’s incumbent upon you to know something about them, and take CARE of them, even if you’re not the hands on person.
I rode a Walker years ago and always think of him fondly.. he was a gentle guy and very sweet natured and willing to do anything for you. I would jump on that horse bareback, with two dog leashes as reins snapped to his halter, and he took careful care of my stupid, “I’m bulletproof!” teenage self. My husband’s never been on one, but I really think he’d be a convert if he ever tried them, and I’m getting achy enough in various places that my next horse someday will probably be gaited just for the smoothness. I just always sort of dread trying to find a nice one from a good person who has treated them well and will be honest with me.
The fact is that the same thing is needed in every case of common show abuse.. the judges -must- stop placing these poor animals (And preferably would also call them out publicly on the abuse). Doesn’t matter if it’s a barely 2 year old peanut roller moving like a crab across the ring, or a dressage horse who is getting rollkur until he is wheezing and in pain, or a wild-eyed TWH being sored and padded and worse. The judges need to STOP. But year after year it just keeps happening, and all I see is good people with nice horses quitting the show ring instead of the bad people with the abused horses.
I hate that this is the image we end up with as horse lovers, that these things continue while good people give up in disgust. But I think all of us smaller time showing people leaving doesn’t matter as long as the big money assholes keep loading the ring with their injured, abused, terrified animals and the judges keep placing their ‘buddies’. The money is behind all of these abusers (and the idiots breeding N/H animals and other serious genetic flaws too while I’m at it), and the show associations and the registries want the money more than they want a good reputation for animal welfare and fairness.
It just seems like every year it gets worse.
When you start your search for a nice TWH that has been trained to gait in a snaffle bit let me know. I know a couple of good breeders who only belong to non-abusive registries and only show at FOSH approved shows.
Life’s A Beach
http://36andsingle.blogspot.com/
I’m afraid “silly question, department”. Is there *any* way to get those stupid pads and shoes OFF without destroying their messed up feet? I’m thinking like old Chinese ladies who have had their feet bound…..or can their hooves and tendons actually heal from that abuse?
It’s not a silly question. Hopefully a farrier will show up here, in case I state something that is wrong. Overall, you can take off the chains, the stacks, and gradually return the horse to a regular shoe or barefoot successfully, but of course there is always the potential for permanent damage from the odd angles and weight and change in height. As much as you look at their feet, often the problems show up elsewhere– back, neck, stifles– from the extreme style and high stacks.
Quail, it can be done… and it can be done relatively quickly, OR it can be done right.
As I understand it, the feet themselves do recover, once all the nails are out (some have nails that are hidden deep in the hoof, to add wieght and to add pain)
Heels are often heinously contracted, walls are compromised…
Most of the weight and cumbersomeness of those stacked pads is taken by the ‘bands’ which clamp them onto the hoof. So getting the stacks off is not the hard part.
Imagine if you’d only walked in high heels for years (and in the past, this was not an unusual thing to happen to a ‘nice woman’ who stayed dressed nicely for society and for her man for many years) Your achilles tendons would be terribly contracted, your arches would be weak, and the entire musculature of your legs and hips would have been thrown out of their normal alignment. For awhile, walking as most of us walk normally would be painful for you – because some parts would need to stretch, strengthen, and become supple.. and other parts would have to get used to being shorter. Muscles that are used for support in normal stance would be atrophied, and other muscles would be accustomed to compensating for that by doing unnatural things, themselves.
And if you’d been put on those high heels when you were about 10 or 11 years old — yep. It would be akin to binding of feet, in China. Your entire skeletal system would have GROWN out of whack.
What happens with a lot of horses that have been padded is that the hocks are compromised. Even a barefoot horse that was inititally trained by a ‘show trainer’ will keep vesigtes of that squatty rear end… and if you watch closely as they fly down the trail in front of you, you are likely to see a LOT of lateral motion of the hocks as they move through their range of motion. They do not push-back *straight*… they twist and wander. Buy a horse like that and you’ll be told it’s ‘normal’… but i can’t see how it wouldn’t, in the end, result in joint degeneration.
I don’t know if these people sell their ‘failed’ big lick horses with the stacks still on their feet, once they don’t make the cut in the ‘performance’ ring. Don’t really hear of that, too much.. if they still have the stacks on, they’re really only marketable to other big lick enthusiasts. Plantation shoes – even those horses need some time and some gradual rehab to be ok in keg shoes or barefoot – the weight and thickness of those shoes, even, takes them out of their natural alignment and movement patterns. (by the same token, if you’ve got one that PACES, genetically, you can grow the front feet longer and put some relatively heavy shoes on them to get a smoother gait. (thank you for all your hard-pacing progeny, oh ye prolific WGC stallions. ha. ha.)
Short answer, Quail: yes, they can be rehabbed – most of them. But its a process!
Answering based on the example of a friend’s horse that had been trained and competed in big lick, but retired early and turned into a trail horse: it can be done, provided there isn’t too much damage. The bigger worry is overall soundness.
I have a farrier friend who has pulled pads off several horses (and one whole barn – yay!). They often have issues: contracted heels, severe thrush, and if feet aren’t tended to closely, it’s just like any other hoof that’s neglected: you’re going to have complicating issues. If a hoof has been sored over and over again, you’re probably looking at some level of mechanical founder (especially in the case of the flat-shod-soring idiots that short-trim their horses, ride them on pavement for a few hours after that, and then slap shoes on right before the show).
Worse than the feet themselves are the front fetlocks on a horse that was padded young – the bones fuse making the toes turn out from fetlock down – good way to tell on an older walker that s/he was a “performance” wash-out as a colt. Hock arthritis by age 10…lots of stifle problems, especially if the horse goes from pads to broodmare or pads to pasture for a couple of years.
One of my friends owns an ex-padded ex-show mare he got for a song. His kids ride her now, in a bitless bridle, bareback most of the time. She is so naturally gaited, it makes you wonder WTF anyone felt like they had to pad her in the first place…….has a lot of old time blood up close…none of the current Pride/Pusher/Jose ‘fashionable’ bloodlines. This mare will not tolerate the “chair” posture and crank-in on her face, even to this day – you go for contact with a bit in her mouth and rock forward, she’s going 90 miles an hour until you sit up and relax. Her stifles were a mess when he got her and she didn’t know how to relax and walk under saddle. Today, she’s she’s sound for the amount of riding the kids do and she’s quiet under saddle no matter what they ride her through. Oh, and that natural gait? She is barefoot, too.
The breed is its own worst enemy. If you tried to do half the $h!t they do to walkers in the name of “training” – to any other breed – half the “trainers” would be found dead in stalls from having their heads bashed in by pissed off, hurting horses or seriously injured by rank colts under saddle. Nine times out of ten, a walker doesn’t fight back. He might sull up under saddle the first few times out, but all in all, they have no desire to buck, rear or “fight”, no matter how cruel the idiot on the other end of the tack might be.
Well, assuming the horse was padded properly to begin with, you just take them off. Most people don’t leave their horses padded year round anyways. Padding a horse requires a very competent farrier and vet to determine what angle is best for the horse and the best way to go about trimming his feet. Some people bypass this and choose to just have a pad slapped on which opens the door for a plethora of problems, some quite severe. A horse who is padded properly should show no thermal or pressure changes or any deviation of the coffin bone upon medical inspection.
Since the TWH breed is in the news. I guess that breed gets “cleaned up” first.
Next on the list,IMHO should be the AQHA (this is my FAVORITE BREED EVER BTW)
When I was growing up, I was under the impression (I was under 10) that ONLY the TWH’s were tortured.
Imagine my disappointment when I found out that the AQHA wasn’t any better. I just assumed that everyone else trained like we did. NO TORTURE INVOLVED. My dear mother was the one who burst my bubble about my beloved breed. (my mother left the show ring years ago, horrified by what was” now” winning) She started producing good using horses, similar to the “Ranch broke” horses that are selling for the BIG BUCKS now.
Things that I think should be addressed in the AQHA (feel free to add to the list)
1. NO MORE FUTURITIES!! PERIOD!!!
2. NO MORE LUNGE LINE CLASSES, I mean really WTF?!!! Leave the babies ALONE and let them GROW!
3. THAT PEANUT ROLLER BS, this was SUPPOSED to be dealt with, I still see it.
4. THE SHUFFLE gaits!!! I’m sorry ALL the horses look LAME in the way that they travel
5. HALTER HORSES, I don’t know where to begin….
My hope is that the BIG BLINDING SPOT LIGHT that is apon the TWH at the moment, gets pointed on the other breeds too. Let’s start taking out the trash one breed at a time. I think all the breeds have been given fair notice!!
Hear hear! I own an old AQHA gelding that has only been ridden hunter/jumper/dressage his whole life. And he’s a big boy. But he has such nice, smooth gaits – if they didn’t require the stupid “headset,” he’d be a shoo-in. Even his working trot us easy to sit….
I don’t know a whole lot abou gaited horses, but breeds like Rocky Mountain Horses, various flavors of “racking horse” and other more “frontier” types seem to be really popular with trail riders around here. Is this kind of abuse common at their shows, or is it mainly a TWH thing – and a Saddlebred thing, though they have their own unique “tricks” ….?
From what I can tell from pictures and video, it IS happening in some of these other breeds, but to a significantly lesser degree. There aren’t giant packages being slapped on their front feet, but they are likely being “touched up” with a something a little spicy to get their front feet picking up high. It’s really sad to see it bleed into these other breeds.
For the most part, it’s pretty easy to tell if a horse is being sored, regardless of breed. If its weight is carried too far onto the hind legs, and its front feet seem to be awfully higher than its hind feet when it moves, you are very likely looking at a sored horse. The horse should nod ‘down’ with its gait.. a head flipping or jerk upwards with the head is often a trained movement, instead of natural. When the horse stops and stands, watch to see if it carries weight equally or slightly on the front end while at rest. If it’s rocking back, or ‘standing with all feet in one bucket’, then you are looking at a horse that would rather not put weight on its front end.
There are lots of natural, unsored, cared-for gaited breeds out there, but at this point, the only breed that I know if that truly has a lot of animation naturally are the saddlebreds. For a clear idea, Youtube some videos of gaited babies. You will often find a suckling colt with its knees popping if it’s a saddlebred– much more rare to see that in a Rocky Mountain baby or a Walking Horse baby.
Agree with the guest blogger – somewhere in hell there is a special place for the people who do this. Next to them is reserved a place for the judges who precipitate it and the owners who turn a blind eye to it.
And I would love to see what a TWH really looks and moves like. I am sure they are out there, just as there are real Arabians out there too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpZ9IkG473s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0OVJKlvRKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r72LCIA-Hro
Ask and ye shall receive.
Truly lovely. Now I get the attraction to these horses. What an amazing way to travel. Thank you.
“…we’re not going to see any positive changes until the judges heads are surgically removed from their asses…”
This sentence sums it all up.
I just wanted to post this video before hitting the hay…..this horse is from an exhibition done on the TWH Celebration grounds….I have no opinion of it one way or the other…read the description. It does give a background on what the shoeing does for the horse. Please do keep in mind that this horse has obviously been trained flatshod and padded. you can’t slap pads on a TWH that’s never worn them before and expect this to happen. That was a huge turn-off for me in this video and it only reminds me of propaganda being spouted by the big lick crowd.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpS_H7i7sY4
I don’t believe they were suggesting that you can slap some pads on a horse and expect it to gait like that. That is simply a demo of the different shoe styles. You can’t force a horse into padded performance if it isn’t cut out for it, and less than 5% are. As somebody who has worked with all three breeds, I don’t think the park pleasure or padded performance Walking Horse is any more animated than the park Saddlebred or Arabian. The only real difference is that those two breeds are picking up all four feet while the Walking Horse is only picking up the front, with some minor variations in stride breakage point and foot landing.
I wasn’t there in person,but from watching the video, I believe it was done to show people how various shoes/weights will change how the horse moves. It wouldn’t be a stretch for someone to assume they could alter their TWH’s gait “just like that”. I didn’t catch the video talking about the pacey walker vs the square walker and those various shoeing requirements. If it was a demo of the different shoe types, why did they feel compelled to use the same horse? Show different types of how walkers gait and shoe them up from there…that would of been much more informative IMHO.
I do think the video showed one very clear point that it probably didn’t mean to show. The mare, once padded for Big Lick, did NOT move the way that most big lick horses move in the ring. She was a little deeper behind, a little slower and higher in her movement, but she wasn’t ‘clearing the railing’ in front, nor was she totally on her hind end as seems to get placed and awarded in that division. It almost puts a lie to the currently awarded Big Lick horses.
This is such a terrible tragedy; one that really hurts my heart. I’m a transplanted Hunter/Jumper Yankee (PA to AL), and had been out of the horse loop for about 20 years when my husband gave me two sweet tempered Tennessee Walkers for Christmas. I chose one, Shadow, but the farmer had bought the two together a year and a half earlier and we just didn’t have the heart to separate them (so it was an awesome Christmas “squared” that year *laugh*). The farmer’s grandson rode Shadow periodically, but had lost interest. The only other thing we knew about Shadow’s background was that he and Champ came to Mr. Farmer from some lady in Florida who bought him from a big “show barn” in Ocala (post knowledge – this would be a BIG red flag). However….
Although I had the Breyer model “Midnight Sun” in my collection, I knew absolutely nothing about the industry itself until our Shadow had a major meltdown and almost killed us all (I wrote an unofficial article about our experience with what I call “Equine PTSD” several years ago – it’s still on the ‘net ). Almost sold him – he was pretty scary for awhile – but ended up doing massive amounts of research (where I learned all about a horrible practice called soring) and essentially started all over again with him. I also learned (the hard way) that any past traumas tend to resurface suddenly when a horse is re-homed. Yeah, got that.
To me, it takes Caveat Emptor to a whole new level. *shudders*
Our story ended happily (both are still with us and Shadow is the farm’s official mascot, our resident Drama Queen, and my avatar), but I always wonder how many other unsuspecting horse lovers there are that have been seriously injured by a former “big lick” horse because they just didn’t know.
Re: Can they be returned to normal shoeing. I imagine many can, but some….a couple of guys I used to know when I boarded in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco bought a lovely black TWH. They wanted to return him to normal shoeing ASAP (and this was long enough ago that the pads/shoes he wore were not nearly as extreme as you see these days). They had a good farier check him out,and he even went to far as to have a vet come out and x-ray the horse’s forefeet. The vet/farrier decision was: Leave him the way he is. The changes in his feet/forelimbs are such that he’ll be lame if you try to return him to normal, flat shoes. Sad.
You know, even in these “good” videos, the riders can’t ride for crap – at HORSE SHOWS!!
Seriously, when I see Arabian or Saddlebred saddleseat, the riders sit up straight, kind of perched in the saddle pivoting off their knees, with their legs UNDER THEM and their hands in a sensible position.
How come these gaited horse people are all sitting on their horses’ kidneys? Is it the plantation saddles? A crappy tradition? Some strange effort to get their horses to gait super fast?
WHAT!?!?!
Re: Sitting too far back…Yes, sometimes on horses that don’t naturally gait, more weight further back on their back makes them drop their butt down and “mimic” a proper gait…combine that with riding on your hands with your horse’s face cranked to his chest and a whole lotta people in the industry think you’re a fabulous rider.
First of all, let me say that I think the TWHBEA should adopt a zero tolerance policy on HPA violations. There is no reason that we should be allowing violators to come back…ever. I detest Jackie, his brother Jimmy, and anybody else who would choose to torture their animals for the sake of winning a purdy blue ribbon. If it were up to me, these people would be permanently suspended and have their titles yanked. However, I do not think it is fair to tar all Walking Horse folks with the same brush. I show and train everything from flat shod to padded performance. I do not, have not, and will never subject my horses to anything that would cause them pain and I can honestly say I’ve never personally come across somebody who does. No doubt they’re out there. People get thrown out of Celebration every year for failing inspection but if people are being found out then that means our inspection process is working. Still though, nothing is or will ever be 100%.
Pads do not cause leg or back problems when used correctly. I have a horse in my barn right now who’s a week shy of 23 and he still hits the trails every weekend without missing a beat. He was actively competing in padded performance at 16. There are very strict weight, size, and shape requirements for pads and chains that can not be deviated from at all. My horse’s pads weigh less than the tungsten shoes a friend of mine uses on her Saddlebred. Significantly less, in fact.
Cattypex, you can not compare Arabians or Saddlebreds to Walking Horses. There is a reason for the forward seat that a lot of trainers use. This is a breed with a sloping topline and which propels itself from the rear by means of a pronounced overstride of the hind legs. As such, they tend to “sit” when gaiting. Slouching as you call it actually gets the rider OFF the horse’s rear and allows him to position himself more over the withers.
I agree that pads don’t “ruin” a horse…I’ve had 3 in my barn that were all former padded horses and all three went on to be just wonderful as flat shod horses….they did need to learn whoa and leg though and with 2 of the 3, the more rein pressure, the faster then went….always an interesting ride in those earlier days. All were retrained without an issue. That’s the perk of the TWH!
They are truly a dynamic breed! And when treated with care, they’re one of the soundest breeds at old age. There are a lot of misconceptions about padding that stem from the minority who are in this sport for extremely selfish reasons. People see the pads and immediately assume that those horses must be in pain and that their owners don’t care about anything other than winning when in most cases, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. My horses are spoiled rotten! They might not get to be turned out much during the show season if they’re padded but they’re worked and grazed and get lots of hugs and kisses and cookies.
Today, the inspection process is incredibly stringent for TWHBEA sanctioned shows so for anybody to get through with a sored horse, they’d have to REALLY go out of their way to make sure that the horse was asymptomatic. It seems like it’d be a heck of a lot less trouble to just train your damn horse, or buy one with the potential talent to win in whatever division you’re looking to compete in. I don’t get it. I really don’t.
Yes, one of my 4H kids was using her grandmothers TWH (who’d been used by the girl’s mom when WE were in 4H, after retiring from a show career before THAT.) Such a sweet, pretty, healthy, sound, delightful horse! Well, she had to be put down last fall (bad colic). She was in her mid 30s.
Light pads? OK, I’ll take those over the horrid Romper Stomper stacks that pull off hooves ANY day. So long as you’re not compromising soundness, I’m pretty open minded about responsible & competent farriery.
I still can’t believe that hunkering down in a slouchy chair seat (not by any stretch of my tradtional hunter seat imagination can i allow it to be called “forward”) accomplishes anything positive, no matter what gait. Upper level Dressage riders achieve a whole lot of elevation in the front end while the horse is ENTIRELY engaged behind, for example. I don’t see TWHs built THAT much downhill, unless they are horribly built up in the hoof stuff.
It seems to me – and I may well be wrong – that TWH folks might get a little more natural action from their horses if they focused on real, positive biomechanics instead of relying so much on artificial stuff. And it’s not just you guys – stock horse headset/bad gaits, dressage & saddle seat horses being held up by their riders’ hands, hunter kids leaning on their horses’ necks and calling it a crest release, reining horses sliding then plunking back onto their forehands… It’s all about people forgetting that horses – and most other quadrupeds – are most effective at athletic pursuits when they’re encouraged to be driven from the hindquarters.
“2. Stop the palpatation people are doing and spend the money on imadry/heat seeing machines that will prove if a horse is sored or not. And ban linimants (so this way no one couldn’t say they rubbed that on their horse’s legs). You can’t beat a horse to change the temperature in their legs. And do it randomly after the horse has passed inspection.”
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Out of curiosity, how many TWHBEA sanctioned shows have you been to? They ALREADY do this. In addition to palpitation and naked eye inspection, X rays, themal imaging, and pressure readings are common practice. They perform chemical detection tests on a certain percentage of horses (IMHO, it should be done on all of them. Not sure why it isn’t unless it’s an issue with money/resources). After inspection, the horses are then kept in a holding area for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before their class starts. This area is patrolled by inspectors from the USDA, SHOW, and the TWHBEA to prevent trainers from slipping anything past while they wait for their horses to enter the ring and also allows for any sort of analgeisc that may have been applied to cover up signs of pain to wear off, making a horse’s unsoundness evident. Horses are subject to random spot checks during this time and may be pulled back through for another full inspection if anything looks suspicious.
Some horses are greased with salves. This is NOT the same thing as the caustics used for soring. The purpose of the salve is to allow the chains to slide freely instead of bouncing around on the leg. These salves have to be applied under direct supervision of an inspector and you have to use the salves that they give you. You are not allowed to use your own.
Walking Hosses, I do understand why you are on here defending your breed of choice and your own practices, BUT… why you would think this information is supposed to impress us or make us feel any better about the TWH situation? I’m sorry, but reading ” In addition to palpitation and naked eye inspection, X rays, themal imaging, and pressure readings are common practice. They perform chemical detection tests on a certain percentage of horses. After inspection, the horses are then kept in a holding area for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before their class starts” only makes me think, AND WHY IS THIS NECESSARY??? Do any other breeds in the whole entire world have a system at shows REMOTELY like this? NO. Random drug testing takes place in the H/J world. Drug testing in TB racing. Those are the two things I’m aware of, but for heaven’s sake, TWHs have ALL THAT going on and guess what, people are STILL soring! All the damn time! If they weren’t, why do they still have inspections??? Sure, maybe things are “better” than they used to be, but IMHO just ONE sored TWH is too many in this world.
The TWHBEA can brag all they want about their DQPs but it’s quite obvious that those folks are not stopping soring. Won’t speculate why (let’s just say, “fox guarding the hen house” comes to mind), but if anyone doesn’t believe me, just read the statistics on what percentage of TWH exhibitors skedaddle from show grounds when the REAL inspectors, aka the USDA people, blow in. That, and the ever-growing and changing lists of trainers and people set down or fined. Yep, not really a problem anymore…
What an ignorant, “I’ve done made up my mind” comment. My point is that the TWHBEA is already doing, for the most part, all it can. Do I agree with them giving people second chances? HELL NO! That much they can improve on but they do not have the authority to send people to jail or even sentence any sort of legal punishment. I’m sorry but that’s a simple matter of fact. However, I will remind people too that it was our breed organization that inspected the horse belonging to Chris Zand and suspended him for life while he received a small fine from his day in court. It was our breed organization that inspected the horse of Barney Davis and suspended him for life while he received only a 1 year sentence. I’m proud to say the SHOW HIO has enforced the HPA to the letter and at competitions where they are present, we have seen a 98% compliance rate even with the USDA there. People can run away from the SHOW and USDA inspected shows all they want but at the end of the day, hiding out in those little Joe Blow open shows isn’t going to get them anywhere fast. If they’d rather hang out at the county fair with their crippled horses then so be it but don’t act like the TWHBEA has any control over those competitions or where people decide to show their horses. I don’t see why you have a problem with this, really. The very fact that people are WLAKING AWAY from TWHBEA sanctioned competitions means that they know they can’t pass our inspections, and good riddance. If they can’t compete in our shows then eventually they’re going to loose incentive to even stay in this industry.
If you’re going to attack people, attack the people who are actually abusing their horses and not the people like me who are simply trying to have fun showing their ponies. And for God’s sake, quit acting like other breeds don’t have their fair share of asshattery deal with. The abuse might not be as readily apparent but it’s there, and it’s common (unfortunately). Before Walking Horses, Arabians and Quarter Horses were my breeds of choice. As many people can attest to, those two organizations still have a pretty big mess on their hands.
You make some really good points, but I have to speak up regarding the HIO SHOW and some of the numbers you are posting, because it is kind of a pet peeve of mine.
http://acissearch.aphis.usda.gov/HPA/faces/pdf.jspx?rt=0&sd=01-01-2011&ed=12-31-2011&hio=ALL This is a USDA report regarding different shows, the number of inspections, the number of horses entered, and which HIO ran the show. It also lists tickets or issues, if there were any. Now… here is the weird part. NONE of SHOW’s information tells how many horses were there. That number is always 0 if it is a SHOW production.
So when you claim that SHOW is always 98% compliant, what you are using to figure your average is the number of violations averaged with the number of inspections. However (correct me if I’m wrong), when a horse fails an inspection, that horse is done for the show, correct? While a sound horse (particularly a flatshod or versatility horse) might be inspected ten times as it goes into all the different classes, that one sore horse was inspected once, and is done. So 98% compliance refers to the number of entries versus violations, and not the number of horses versus violations. It would be nice to know what percentage of horses are compliant without violations at SHOW competitions.
What would also be nice is to know how many of those violations come from padded or performance (Big Lick) horses, versus flatshod horses. I’m not naive enough to believe that flatshod horses are never sored, and all big lick horses are sored, but I have heard consistently that the largest number of violations come from padded or big lick horses. Is that information recorded somewhere?
lostmymarbles, sorry but don’t you think you’re being a little unfair? You hate soring, yet you kind of sound like you think it’s a bad thing that they have such thorough inspections. I wonder how many people would be disqualified if *insert organization here* adopted inspections like this, not that a test can be developed to detect everything being done in other areas of the horse world. If you ask me, the TWH is simply the scapegoat for a problem that is significantly more widespread. Unscrupulous people do unscrupulous things to win, and I don’t think any breed is immune to this or ever will be. The government can help with the problem by stepping up its game and throwing more people in prison but there will always be a ready supply of morons out there to replace the ones that are gone. Unfortunately, anything that involves money is going to attract a group of people who are there to win and aren’t afraid to go to extremes to do it. In almost all cases, it’s difficult if not impossible to get rid of them completely.
well let me share. I was raised a naive country girl in west tn. I had no teaching about good emotional health and ” Feelings ” My father took me to a walking horse barn in my teens and I saw horses picking up there feet in agony from soring but at that time, it didn’t register in my brain. We went to the celebration and I saw the ” Big beautiful horse in the spotlight with the roses ” and I thought this is hollywood!! I can be a star. so when I became an adult, I wanted a great walking horse. well, I got one, spent the next 20 years involved in a world where horses were sored. It was like I just ignored it, they put a little salve on their ankles afterward, and they were ok. I was so addicted to winning. I had such low self esteem and winning became like a rush, I was an addict. Well, in 2004 I started therapy with an equine therapist, also a mental health counselor. I told how bad inside I felt for the horses, and she helped me come to realize after reading about horses in nature, their feelings, and proper care and training, it was a wake up call. When I realized what i had done, and participated in, I was shocked. I would never hurt a dog or cat but I had been involved in torturing of horses. I began to see the pain in their eyes, the abnormal gaits esp on 2 yr olds. so I stopped riding padded horses, and started showing flat shod horses. then i learned about pressure shoeing, it gets more horrible.
Now, I realize that I can no longer contribute or be involved in the continuation of soring of the tennessee walking horse. I will only go to a show to see what the inspectors are doing and observe how I think the breed has changed over the last 30 years. I do own a natural twh that is a 2x world grand champion. she is an ambassador for the breed. I I do not know what to do with her except sell her to a Fosh or Nwha person or breed her and sell to people in this organizations. I do know that sored horses are being shown in our local shows in west tn and middle tn as well as northern missippi. I plan on writing to as many people as I can and taking a stand against people that I personally know that are doing it and with children that were raised in families where they were doing it and thought it was ok.
But I do know I love horses and want to be involved some way. Horses have given me courage in my life and stands for a symbol of bravery. Maybe in the future I can be involved in hippotherapy or equine assited psychotherapy. That would be great.