Oh please, aarpaso insulted the entire DQP program. He’s been through that process and worked his butt off in the past trying to clean up the TWHBEA mess. Take your civility lesson to the aarpaso poster, for what it’s worth.
DQP failed with this particular stacked and chained show circuit. Jackie is the proof. SO no defense is gonna work. As long as you permit the gait to be bastardized with weights on the feet and chains on the pasterns you are gonna have horses sored to get a waving foot and soring trainers are gonna be hall of fame’rs, judges etc etc etc.
Strengthening the penalties across the board and getting rid of the stacks chains (not to mentions the plantation shoes, bands etc)are what it is going to take to end this crap. You gotta shut down the mechanical freak show
What strikes me as odd is that all the “press conferences” and such are in direct violation of the HPA (IMO) - which I believe specifies such antagonistic behaviors shall not be directed at any HPA officials during an event.
Time to shut it down.
[QUOTE=katarine;6525804]
Oh please, aarpaso insulted the entire DQP program. He’s been through that process and worked his butt off in the past trying to clean up the TWHBEA mess. Take your civility lesson to the aarpaso poster, for what it’s worth.[/QUOTE]
Well? Is aarpaso wrong? If Guilherme isn’t guilty of anything why respond at all? Why get all indignant if it doesn’t apply? Folks are so damaged these days.
Gah! Why do people consistently make personal insults out general/blanket statements? Most of DQP are bought and paid for right? Sounds like it wouldn’t take much given the venue.
katarine - Not saying there arent ethical, knowledgable, circumspect DQPs who wont be paid off. How often do they get hired? Hmmm? Pretty common knowledge that many can be directed who to pass or ticket. And those are the ones that aarpaso was referencing. Why defend someone who is not a current DQP ? And why did G not complete the program or stay with the program ? I bet he will say because it was corrupt and most likely not a real safe occupation for an honest DQP.
[QUOTE=The Gringo;6525388]
I know all the TWH haters here won’t want to read this but I found it to be interesting. Sort of disproves the belief that soring, pads and chains are the main reason for the gait.
QUOTE]
I don’t think anyone here is a TWH hater, in fact lots of people love them. What they do hate is the perversion that is the Big lick. Huge difference.
Sentencing rescheduled in soring case (08/29/12)
Sentencing for the remaining defendants in a widely publicized horse soring case has been reset for later in September despite objections from federal prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Harry S. Mattice Jr. has continued sentencing for Jackie L. McConnell, 60, Jeff Dockery, 54, and Joseph R. Abernathy, 30 until Sept. 18 at 2 p.m. EDT at the federal courthouse in Chattanooga.
From the Shelbyville Times Gazette
[QUOTE=anna’s girl;6526035]
[QUOTE=The Gringo;6525388]I know all the TWH haters here won’t want to read this but I found it to be interesting. Sort of disproves the belief that soring, pads and chains are the main reason for the gait.
QUOTE]
I don’t think anyone here is a TWH hater, in fact lots of people love them. What they do hate is the perversion that is the Big lick. Huge difference.[/QUOTE]
So very, very true!
Amen Roy
Amen Roy:
[INDENT]http://www.chattanoogan.com/2012/8/30/233213/Roy-Exum-A-Dismal-Horse-Celebration.aspx
Roy Exum: A Dismal Horse Celebration
Thursday, August 30, 2012 - by Roy Exum
Roy Exum
I am not in the weather forecasting business, but it seems to me that if indeed Shelbyville gets any rain this weekend from Hurricane Isaac, it could not possibly dampen the 74th Annual National Walking Horse Celebration any worse than what we’ve already seen happen to the so-called “Big Lick” segment of the walking horse industry this week.
Celebration officials have unwittingly done the unthinkable, allowing anger and avarice to take the luster off the Celebration’s natural centerpiece – the majestic animals that prance every year in Calsonic Arena. But just as those who have sored and abused the beautiful horses for a half-century and, more recently, enraged the nation in May in a now-famous video, the Shelbyville crowd has vilified itself to the world once again.
In what should have been a huge positive step of a show, one that would focus on “clean” and sound horses, it has turned instead into a vicious war of words and, with newspaper readers and television viewers watching the diatribe more intently than ever before, the shameful allegations and barbs between the Celebration leaders and stern-faced officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Humane Society is reaching a crescendo as the weekend events arrive.
My goodness, a “wash out” would be a Godsend for the beleaguered annual event. Shelbyville leaders hired a public relations firm but after what has already transpired leading into this weekend’s finale, no amount of damage control can overcome the arrogance and brash stance that horribly misguided Celebration officials have taken towards the government officials, the Humane Society of the United States, the top two groups of equine veterinarians, and literally thousands of decent Tennessee Walking Horse owners who today vigorously stand up for the noble sanctity of the breed.
Spectators and riders alike have stayed away from the suspected donnybrook in a revealing way and no wonder; the Shelbyville “country club,” as the Big Lick leaders are called, has been as caustic as the irritants that scurrilous trainers apply to the forelegs of the defenseless horses, virtually assuring that the only sure outcome of this year’s event is that sweeping and stringent changes will finally come to what one Humane Society official calls “the cruelest horse show on earth.”
In honesty, the Celebration leaders have seen the disaster coming all summer. The minute Pepsi pulled its sponsorship in the wake of the Jackie McConnell video, the Celebration was ill-fated but, instead of offering a contrite stance and a repentful model, the Shelbyville leadership has actually sued the USDA, inflamed the Humane Society with outlandish accusations and made one strategic blunder after another in the three months leading to its showcase.
The resulting damage is seemingly as wide as the hurricane’s swath in Louisiana. Thousands of seats have been empty this week, infractions of the federal Horse Protection Act are being found at a frenzied pace by USDA inspectors, and with public scrutiny and livid disdain at an all-time high, the Celebration hierarchy foolishly appears to care less that the breed – the Tennessee Walking Horse – is the biggest victim of its senseless charade.
But, again, the Shelbyville organizers had to know what was coming. When the Tennessee State Fair opens next week in Nashville, only flat-shod walkers with natural gaits will be allowed in an open rebuff to the unnatural “Big Lick,” an exaggerated gait that many trainers now claim is nigh impossible without torturing, or sadistically “stewarding,” an animal.
Celebration officials staunchly defend the “Big Lick,” of course, because of moneyed interests, but for the first time since the federal Horse Protection Act was enacted in 1970, animal advocates, devotees of the horse, and a groundswell of public sentiment is combining to pressure the USDA and the Humane Society in a way that is having a devastating effect on the disreputable “Big Lick” faction.
Further, animal advocates promise the hardline stance being seen in Shelbyville this week is merely a battle in the escalating war to eradicate the dark and seamy side of the Tennessee Walking Horse industry. Harsh federal and state laws are being enacted and, in Tennessee, it is now a felony to abuse horses. Oddly, multiple violations are reportedly now being found in Shelbyville but, to the puzzlement of many, not one arrest has been made by the local sheriff.
There is some indication that criminal investigations are indeed underway. Officials from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are said to have requested files before the Celebration and a heavy blanket of rumors now plagues the Big Lickers in the same way the increasing salvos of an incensed nation are aimed at the very leaders of this week’s calamity.
What is most unbelievable – and absolutely unexplainable – is why the Shelbyville crowd continues to perpetuate an evil and perverted method of animal cruelty when, today, any fool can tell it still thrives beneath some of the pads and chains and so-called “performance devices” that are associated with the Big Lick.
Don’t they realize if there is no cheating the USDA, the Humane Society, the leading veterinarian groups, the angry lawmakers and the enraged public will go away? Apparently not, so the guarantee – as illustrated so blatantly on Shelbyville’s own doorstep this week – is that the Big Lick will soon be over because the fire, once thought to rage on the hooves, pasterns and forelegs of a helpless horse, is now descending in a different yet distinct fury on any and every rouge who haughtily insists on a man-made trip to Hades.
Believe this because it is the new mantra – the Tennessee Walking Horse will win. Oh, will it ever. And when it returns to a natural gait, an intact tail, and countless loving hands, the only lasting scorn will be reserved for those filthy few who today stubbornly defend a dirty dollar at the expense of an ever-innocent horse. Their failure is now a certainty.
royexum@aol.com[/INDENT]
[QUOTE=WalkInTheWoods;6525529]
That was uncalled for. Please maintain civility.[/QUOTE]
The tell aarpaso to quit frothing at the mouth.
G.
[QUOTE=The Gringo;6525388]
I know all the TWH haters here won’t want to read this but I found it to be interesting. Sort of disproves the belief that soring, pads and chains are the main reason for the gait.
The video of the Icelandic horse is pretty cool to watch as well.[/QUOTE]
Sort of proves that soring, pads and chains are the main reason for the gait. Has it been so long since Big Lickers have seen a TWH move naturally that they have forgotten what it’s supposed to look like?
Soo…Have any of the BL classes gone off yet at the Celebration? How many entries?
[QUOTE=sunridge1;6525832]
Well? Is aarpaso wrong? If Guilherme isn’t guilty of anything why respond at all? Why get all indignant if it doesn’t apply? Folks are so damaged these days.
Gah! Why do people consistently make personal insults out general/blanket statements? Most of DQP are bought and paid for right? Sounds like it wouldn’t take much given the venue.[/QUOTE]
I just erased a long “flamer.” You and aarpaso are genuinely ignorant of the what you speak. Neither of you know from beans about what a DQP does, how they are trained, etc. Neither of you know from beans about the HPA. I encourage both of you to become DQPs and then WORK for the benefit of the horse instead of just standing on the sidelines and expressing outrage.
G.
Well a DQP that became disgusted with the whole mess and left the entire “industry” is probably the type of DQP that we should have.
Unfortunately the good ones, I think realize the Big Lick is inherently abusive and they can’t be bought.
No offense to you whatsoever, G.
sometimes being a burr under someones skin or an itch they can not scratch is the best way to get at the TRUTH.
John 8:32, is now for the Creators beautiful Walking Horse.
the battle is not over,but the dirty evil of soring is truly now in the light,all the yrs that thwbea ignored this unspeakable practice is now out in the open.
[QUOTE=WalkInTheWoods;6525852]
katarine - Not saying there arent ethical, knowledgable, circumspect DQPs who wont be paid off. How often do they get hired? Hmmm? Pretty common knowledge that many can be directed who to pass or ticket. And those are the ones that aarpaso was referencing. Why defend someone who is not a current DQP ? And why did G not complete the program or stay with the program ? I bet he will say because it was corrupt and most likely not a real safe occupation for an honest DQP.[/QUOTE]
Excellent points, so true!
[QUOTE=aarpaso;6526441]
sometimes being a burr under someones skin or an itch they can not scratch is the best way to get at the TRUTH.
John 8:32, is now for the Creators beautiful Walking Horse.
the battle is not over,but the dirty evil of soring is truly now in the light,all the yrs that thwbea ignored this unspeakable practice is now out in the open.[/QUOTE]
True. The Lickers and their bought and paid for DQP’s doth protest too much. Old saying here in the South comes to mind, “A kicked dog always hollers!” They are hollering to beat the band!!!
We are all doing what we can do from the sidelines. Good on you for what you have done, Guilherme. No sense dissing others who are doing what they can do from whatever location they are at. Us sideliners are making calls, emailing and writing those who may influence the outcome. Insulting good folks and telling them they dont know beans about HPA and DQP is not productive at all. What do you want ? You want us to get down on our knees and genuflect because you went thru DQP training and know more details than we do ? Ok then thank you for your efforts ! But this nitpicking and infighting will help stop soring how ?
picture this 09 entry # on the back is a little GREEN DOT.pray tell why would some have a little GREEN DOT and others NOT,well it was a way for the pre inspectors to signal the DQP to pass that entry.untill someone caught on to the country clubs little game and got their own little green dots.
could this still be going on new signals,maybe.
you would have to ask the players.
BEANS to you !
Ask NWHA about how to manage a DQP program. You’ll find tampering and some embarrassing data from their version of the Celebration in 2011. And those are not padded horses.
[QUOTE=WalkInTheWoods;6526480]
We are all doing what we can do from the sidelines. Good on you for what you have done, Guilherme. No sense dissing others who are doing what they can do from whatever location they are at. Us sideliners are making calls, emailing and writing those who may influence the outcome. Insulting good folks and telling them they dont know beans about HPA and DQP is not productive at all. What do you want ? You want us to get down on our knees and genuflect because you went thru DQP training and know more details than we do ? Ok then thank you for your efforts ! But this nitpicking and infighting will help stop soring how ?[/QUOTE]
Well, I’m not a “disser.” I’m “dissee.” I’m a big kid and I don’t mind too much 'cause I always “consider the source.” But sometimes it’s worthwhile to push back after you get shoved a few times.
I’m not “dissing” anyone when I make comments about their knowledge of the laws governing this process (or the process itself) when it is clear from the written word that the poster doesn’t know what they are talking about.
You don’t get very far in dealing with people who have the power to say “yes” and the power to say “no” by loud clamor alone. This I have learned here and in other places. So learn the facts about the process; master the law involved; and then you can put some iron into your letters and emails. Fail to do that and all you’re doing is creating more shredded paper for the landfill.
G.
READ and weep.
http://www.chattanoogan.com/2012/8/30/233213/Roy-Exum-A-Dismal-Horse-Celebration.aspx
for JOY
