There has been an interesting fallout from the Nightline report here in Oregon. For many years there have been 2 TWH groups, one is flatshod only, and one has had classes for all divisions. We have been divided pretty much solely due to the padded division in their shows. As of earlier this week, because of the increasing pressure against performance horses, the board voted to cancel the padded classes in their 2 shows they have every year. I am ecstatic about this, there are still WIWHA shows that have padded classes, but maybe it will just die and go away out here in Oregon. I can certainly hope.
Posting this again
Oregon Congressman Schrader addresses the USDA’s Horse Protection Act and the issue of “soring” 5-17-2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dx3dvYMH-k
This would be a great time to support Congressman Schrader since he spoke to the house yesterday. Now nobody in Congress can say they dont know what soring is. Post #1 has a link for contact info for your congressmen.
Took a break from FB and e-mailing and went to Fugly who’s posted interesting information, including the 1999 video showing Champagne Watchout at the Celebration competing against the big lick entries. Quite a study in contrasts–good for pointing out the differences to people who aren’t informed. I know which horse I’d want to ride…omg, CW just oozed presence and class.
Also The Tennessean newspaper is reporting that McConnell’s training license has been revoked in a phone-in board meeting of the Tennessee Walking Horse Trainers Association in response to the Nightline video.
Thanks to the super efforts on the part of everyone especially COTH, we just may see the end of soring this time.
I am simply bowled over that this appeared on the home page of Yahoo. I never thought it would get to the point of making this much of an impression.
thanks greygirls - fugly has several links we dont have so i grabbed this:
Current Sponsors of the Celebration
Ford – https://secure.corporate.ford.com/footer/contact-ford/contact-us-email?contactMainTopic=PublicAffairs
Cracker Barrel – http://www.crackerbarrel.com/contact-us/
Potential Sponsors of the Celebration
Keystone Light – www.keystonelight.com You will have to enter your birth date for legal purposes.
HIOs
Send your emails to the all the major board members: president, vice president, committee leaders, etc. Or choose all of the email addresses…the more the merrier!
When writing to the HIOs, request that they ban McConnell the same way they banned Barney Davis. The HIOs immediately banned Barney Davis BEFORE he went to trial, but they have not banned McConnell. It’s clear who’s the money maker of the two for them.
Also, ask them to start putting together stronger penalties. Perhaps a 3 strikes and you’re out policy–three HPA violations (not rulebook violations) and you’re banned for life. Ask them to stop trying to placate the public and pretend these are isolated incidents and actually start working to end soring. We all know soring is the main way of “training” these horses–it’s high time it ended.
KYWHA – http://kywha.org/contact-us/
PRIDE – http://pridehio.com/wordpress/contact-us/ You can copy and paste all the email addresses into a single email.
SHOW – http://www.showhio.com/contactus.htm
SSHBEA – http://www.sshbea.org/contactus.html
WHOA – http://www.walkinghorseowners.com/about-whoa/ Scroll down to see the email addresses.
TWHBEA
Ask them to stop supporting the HPA violators and giving them high positions in their association. Ask for changes in the by laws that anyone who has violated the HPA more than twice is not eligible to be on the board or an officer for life. Ask that their Horse Protection Committee, which has HPA violators serving on it, to get active within the breed and actually protect the horse.
http://www.twhbea.com/contact.php
Executive Director – Ron Thomas, rthomas@twhbea.com, 931-359-0580
Executive Assistant – Diane White, dwhite@twhbea.com, 931-359-0581
President – Marty Irby, martyirby@msn.com, 615-796-5334, 931-233-0112
Senior Vice President – Margo Urad, murad@kandsins.com, 214-763-7379
Trainers Vice President – Wayne Dean, fredad@wildblue.net, 931-359-4808, 931-359-7326
Equine Welfare Vice President – Dr. Linda W. Montgomery, 615-210-4038
Find your local board representative on this page: http://www.twhbea.com/association/bod.php
The Celebration
Ask them to ban McConnell from the show grounds.
http://twhnc.com/ email: twhnc@twhnc.com
Your Congressmen
It’s best to write to the Congressmen in your state first. On the Senator and House Reps links listed below, a short and easy search will take you to your Congressmen’s pages, where you can use the contact forms to contact them. On some Congressmen’s pages, they will only allow you to contact them if you live in their zip code. But zip codes can easily be found online at MelissaData for Tennessee and Kentucky.
White House Contact Page
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
Senators – choose the Find Your Senators option in the top right corner: http://www.senate.gov/
House Representatives – choose the Find Your Representatives option in the top right corner: http://www.house.gov/
Find Your Federal Legislators: http://action.humanesociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=electedOfficials_federal
I also emailed Ford. They are not sponsors of the Celebration. It is a group of local dealers that are sponsors…the Mid-South Ford dealers group is the sponsor, and Ford Motor Company has no control over what independant dealers sponsor.
[QUOTE=SwampYankee;6324101]
Way to go, EVERYBODY, keep it up! Empires can be toppled by a Tweet these days . . .
Cyberriders, form line, CHARGE!!! :D[/QUOTE]
Then somebody tweet to Oprah, and Anderson Cooper, and anyone else that has a huge platform (I don’t tweet!).
[QUOTE=muleygirl;6324189]
There has been an interesting fallout from the Nightline report here in Oregon. For many years there have been 2 TWH groups, one is flatshod only, and one has had classes for all divisions. We have been divided pretty much solely due to the padded division in their shows. As of earlier this week, because of the increasing pressure against performance horses, the board voted to cancel the padded classes in their 2 shows they have every year. I am ecstatic about this, there are still WIWHA shows that have padded classes, but maybe it will just die and go away out here in Oregon. I can certainly hope.[/QUOTE]
A few hands chipping away with a pick and a mallet is how a wall starts to crumble. This is great news. The Big Lick makes up only a TINY percent of TWH owners. But that tiny drop is poison for the whole pot. There is NO justification or reason for Big Lick. Its just a handlful of mean old bastards who get sick pleasure out of torturing horses. The Big Lick is on its way out, keep up the good fight!
Has anyone seen a statement from the owner of the downed mare in the video?
Both the name of the horse and the owner were mentioned earlier on this thread.
[QUOTE=skydy;6324110]
I received a response from Ford to my email. Very nicely worded and polite, from “AL” in customer service.
He writes that it is not Ford per se that is the sponsor of the Walking Horse Celebration, but the “Mid-South Ford DEALERS
Association”.
I responded to “Al” that Ford’s name (unfortunately for Ford) is nonetheless, connected with The WHC, so that perhaps Ford should have a discussion with their dealers (because they are not only dealing with nutjob animal rights activists, but with the ire of equestrians who keep and show horses in many disciplines).[/QUOTE]
That’s right–“show in many disciplines,” and buy LOTS and LOTS of TRUCKS!! Which will all be Chevys, if they don’t get it pretty durn quick.
.
[QUOTE=WalkInTheWoods;6319935]
i had no idea !
just googled and found this
Oprah Winfrey bought her beautiful black stallion, W W Trailmaster, from a Washington State walking horse breeder.
i had no idea !
he is down at the bottom of the page on the left
http://www.twhbea.com/programs/SupremeChampions.php[/QUOTE]
Sorry, I haven’t read the all the posts and someone might have posted this. Oprah also is a cattle rancher. I think black Angus.
Oh, I am sure she knew what was happening to her mare.
I would like to see a way that owners can also be held accountable for sending their horses to be tortured.
.
Update from this afternoon’s Tennessean: Mr. McConnell’s license has been revoked.
Here’s the first two paragraphs:
The Tennessee Walking Horse trainer at the center of an undercover video showing soring abuse has had his license revoked from an industry organization.
The Shelbyville-based Tennessee Walking Horse Trainers Association held an emergency board meeting by telephone Thursday to revoked Jackie McConnell’s license, a board member said Friday.
thats great,but he does not need a license to train,and remember he has a brother in the same line of work.jackie trained for one of the big dogs H2Ofalls farm.what ya bet they knew his training method. the owners need to be fined or turned away from the celebration.any horse trained by him should not be allowed to show.and should be seen by an out of state vet, checked for soring ect. the records at the celebration could tell how many horses fell under his (McConnell’s) evil hand.
Yeah that license thing. WTF is that? NO one needs a license to train any horse in this country. That is propaganda for the non-horse owning public, leading them to believe that disciplinary action was taken when in reality there is no such thing. :mad: Clever move, these guys aren’t anything if not clever.
Yep, what a load of BS for public consumption.
Keep the SPAMMING up ladies!
How many ‘big lick’ trained horses are there, does anyone know?
[QUOTE=michaleenflynn;6324663]
How many ‘big lick’ trained horses are there, does anyone know?[/QUOTE]
There’s no way to know. The process begins with “colt packages” at 12 months of age and they are on full pads and under saddle by 24 months. Who knows how many make the show ring frrrrrromm any given foal crop?
G.
