I do sort of feel bad for the civic organizations that often put on the small shows, which are also often on behalf of some charity. They end up losing a pile of money when all the exhibitors bail out which in turn hurts the charity that the show proceeds were earmarked for.
It is going to take some time and there is going to be some collateral damage but hopefully in the long run it will be a positive for the TWH breed as a whole.
[QUOTE=GracesMom;6394230]
I do sort of feel bad for the civic organizations that often put on the small shows, which are also often on behalf of some charity. They end up losing a pile of money when all the exhibitors bail out which in turn hurts the charity that the show proceeds were earmarked for.
It is going to take some time and there is going to be some collateral damage but hopefully in the long run it will be a positive for the TWH breed as a whole.[/QUOTE]
In this area at least, so many of the civic organizations are chock full of Lickers. Raising money for whatever charity is a smoke screen to further the Lickers own agenda. You must understand the mentality of these sick people. There are other ways to raise money. No excuse for BL.:no:
[QUOTE=walknsound;6394227]
Thanks all for posting that news. I believe soring/BL is dying, indeed last gasps. Still wish those trailers had been stopped.[/QUOTE]
Yup, that would be a great way for them to twist the knife in a little further. Here’s hoping BL is in its death throes.
[QUOTE=GracesMom;6394087]
I just read on another forum that the TWH show in Buckhead, Ga. was cancelled tonight (Sat). The USDA inspectors showed up and all but 6 of the exhibitors loaded up their trailers and left. Also, another BL TWH trainer was fined and suspended for 7 1/2 years. I guess it’s getting pretty hot in BL TWH-Land.[/QUOTE]
Not as hot is it will probably be when those Lickers get turned away at the Pearly Gates.
On another note many of the TWH shows around here are sponsored by some civic group raising funds of some charity or cause. It harks back to the days when the TWH and ASB shows were thought of as “society horse shows” as opposed to rodeos and such.
The planters and the “money people” in town were the ones mainly involved with the saddleseat classes.
The sponsoring group raises money for charity through sales of concessions and part of the entry fees go to the sponsor as well as all of the “gate” money if they charge people to attend as spectators.
I know the big April show in Jackson MS is called THe Mississippi State Charity Horse Show. It chooses a charity each year, and recently helped the Blair E. Batson Hospital of Children. This same show calls itself of of the major society events in Mississippi.
There also used to be a big TWH show in Lake Charles held for charity. I don’t know if it still goes on or not. I hope that once the LIckers die out, these shows can still be held and people can show sound flat shod walking horses in the classess instead of those Licker freaks.
I feel no sympathy for any organization that takes a hit trying to host this type of fundraiser. There are innumerable ways to raise $ and they will need to be creative. They have made money off the suffering of horses for way too long. S***w em.
or yes as bayou-bengal said - just show sound horses !
this looks promising,if all the pre Celebration shows have USDA inspectors and the BL folks just load and leave than what is this saying to GOOD OLE BOY DOYLE,can he see the writing on the wall. one sure hopes so.
or maybe the GOOD FOLKS of Shelbyville will not want to be known as the show soring capital any longer,and stand up saying to the celebration board of directors NO BL CLASSES. we want a better name for the TWH and Shelbyville and the STATE of TENNESSEE.
i can hope
Today’s (Sunday) feature story in The Tennessean. It’s free today, but you’ll probably have to pay for it tomorrow.
Some of y’all don’t know squat about winning a war. And make no mistake about it: abolishing the BL, JVBL (Plantation/Lightshod), associated way of going, etc. is a war.
All wars have two parts: first, the battlefield part. In the war on soring/outrageous way of going the battlefield is the DQP station, the ring, and courtroom. Here the power of the State can be brought to bear on the miscreants.
But part two is “winning the minds and hearts of the defeated.” Think of this as “winning the peace.” It is, by far, the more difficult and expensive part of victory.
Way too many voices are screaming for blood and vengeance. Those of us with a historical bent remember how that turned out in places like the American South after the ACW and Germany after WWI.
Further, way too few voices are from the TWH world. Outsiders are important in winning on the battlefield but can be an impediment to winning the peace. I’d feel a whole lot better if some of our traditional defenders of the Big Lick way of going were to sign on to proposed restrictions on action devices. If they genuinely believe that they don’t cause harm (and this whole thing is just about style, not substance) then they will engage in “guerrilla war” and you’ll be at this for a very long time.
An awful lot of voices are paraphrasing the late Sen. Goldwater. We hear “I would remind you that extremism in the defense of humane treatment is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of natural movement is no virtue!” That didn’t work out in 1964 and it won’t work out in 2012.
G.
Martha Day doesn’t know exactly what happened to the Tennessee Walking Horse she cares for.
But she has a pretty good idea.
The scars and discolored tufts of hair on his front legs, and the horse’s obvious fear when she approaches with tools, tell her that Big ’Un, as she calls him, endured abuse at the hands of trainers trying to force him to step a little higher in his previous life as a competitive show horse in the making.
But now he’s just a big, black horse in a pasture in Scottsville, Ky. Day gave up years ago trying to ride him. He spooks too easily.
“He will never be the same as a horse that lived without horrible abuse,” said Day, a former director of inspectors for the National Walking Horse Association.
For Tennessee Walking Horses that win championships and earn stud fees, retired life can be leisurely, ending beneath an ornate headstone out behind an owner’s home. But most Tennessee Walking Horses don’t garner such accolades. An untold number are sent to slaughter. Others are rescued but still bear the scars of their time in the show ring.
Walking horses that are severely abused and sored — training techniques that inflict pain on the legs and hooves to exaggerate the natural gait — often live out their time damaged inside and out, skittish and unridable, however long they live.
And some don’t last all that long.
“If you can’t reasonably control a horse’s pain over time, the only fair thing you can do with that horse is euthanize them,” said Nat Messer, professor of equine medicine and surgery at the University of Missouri. “It’s not uncommon for horses that have been pressure shod to develop laminitis.”
Pressure shodding, or shoeing, places screws, nails and other objects between the horse’s foot and a pad. It can cause crippling laminitis, or sore hooves, which is the most common cause of euthanasia, Messer said.
That sort of treatment can disrupt blood flow and create pus-filled, painful abscesses, Messer said, which can cut short an otherwise 30-year life span — about 20 years beyond the age of showing.
A loose network of horse owners monitors auctions to buy and care for discarded walking horses, a breed known for smooth rides, but there’s no organized retirement system. Many adopters can only guess what happened years before, and what might give the animal comfort.
“It’s all based on how the human being interacts with the horse and whether you can make that horse have trust in what you’re doing with it,” Messer said. “How mentally abused they are, I don’t think anybody can assess that. But if somebody is doing the right thing by the horse in terms of daily training and use, they’ll eventually get over that, as long as they’re not reminded of it.”
Messer is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, which this month called for an end to horse soring as part of a growing chorus of criticism of the Tennessee Walking Horse industry. The outcry erupted anew last month after the Humane Society of the United States released an undercover video that captured award-winning Collierville trainer Jackie McConnell beating and soring horses.
The association’s push, along with tougher soring penalties approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a horse industry initiative to begin closer inspections, is part of the latest effort to root out abuse. But the industry has been the subject of periodic investigations and public condemnation for decades.
Marty Irby, president of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders and Exhibitors’ Association, said the majority of show horses retire in good health and can be used for breeding and trail riding.
“There are good trainers and bad trainers,” he said. “We only stand for the sound horse. We’re against soring of horses in every way and will do what we can to eliminate the practice.”
Irby said an organized program for retiring walking horses would be expensive.
“Until we are able to raise some money to put programs in place, it’s hard to do anything but keep (the association) alive,” he said.
A horse costs about $2,000 a year to care for, more if the animal becomes ill. Euthanasia can cost up to $500, with added costs for disposal.
A past that’s hard to trace
Day said she once triggered Big ’Un’s memories by approaching with a measuring stick.
“I’m not brandishing it at him, just walking,” she said. “I’m about a 5-5, average-size woman. I go in with this stick, this animal shrank into a corner of his stall and cowered. He was terrified.”
That kind of response sent Day in search of details on the 16-year-old horse’s past, but tracing it wasn’t easy. She said she learned from a former owner that the horse had been trained by a man with more than a dozen soring violations.
Even learning that much eludes many owners of former show horses, which often pass through dealers and auctions before finding a more permanent place to retire.
Day’s horse carries scars on the front legs and areas where white hair has grown instead of black, which she said was a sign of scarring.
Messer said chemical soring causes temporary pain, but in serious cases it leaves lasting scars that irritate and restrict the skin.
Owners also must convert the shape of the horse’s hooves back to a more natural form, said Steve Adair, associate professor of equine surgery at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine.
The bottoms of show horses’ feet don’t hit the ground, so they need to toughen up.
“You do a conservative trimming and shoeing and you gradually back their toe up, you let their heels lengthen up and become taller, and it’s a gradual process,” Adair said. “Most of these horses, after about six months of routine farrier care, their feet will start looking more and more like what you would consider a normal horse.”
Humane Society Equine Protection Director Keith Dane, who has led the push for change in the walking horse industry, finds it troubling that some horses are damaged permanently.
“Some of them never recover from either the physical or the emotional scars of the training process,” he said. “But the bottom line is: Why are we subjecting horses to the possibility that they might be unsound or might be made unsound for months?”
Messer, the veterinarian, said he often sees sored horses that act “stoic.”
“The typical horse is going to react to its environment and be aware of what’s going on,” he said. “We talk of (walking horses) standing there and gritting their teeth and taking whatever is put on to them.”
In such behavior there is at least one benefit, he said: Former show horses are often docile.
“Once they’ve been through this type of treatment, they look at people differently,” he said. “Fortunately they don’t hold a grudge, and many of them aren’t mean.”
That’s some of what Day has seen in Big ’Un.
“He’s definitely been taught that you don’t move when your limbs are touched,” she said. “He goes somewhere else, mentally. He’s been taught not to react, no matter.
“I believe you could saw his legs off one at a time and he’d be there motionless.”
The Sportin’ Man
For other owners, even knowing details of a retired horse’s show-by-show history can still leave them unable to know whether abuse took place.
Brenda Lees, vice chairwoman of the Volunteer Equine Advocates horse rescue in Gallatin, rides these days on a former blue-ribbon winner she bought from a local owner.
An inspector disqualified the horse, The Sportin’ Man, and the owner, Mark Croxill, in 2005 for soring. He and the trainer, who also was disqualified, decided not to appeal and to retire the horse.
To this day, Croxill denies the horse was sored, and Lees wants to believe that. But the trainer, Michael Daniel, has since picked up additional violations, and her own experience with showing horses leaves her with just one conclusion about the high-stepping “big lick.”
“You just can’t get that exaggerated lick without a chemical enhancement, I don’t think,” she said. “Was he sored? Maybe he was.”
Croxill, of Madison, called the horse the best he ever had. And he said a veterinarian at the show critiqued the inspector, saying it didn’t appear that The Sportin’ Man had been sored.
“I know that he was not sored,” Croxill said.
Daniel did not return phone calls for this article.
The Sportin’ Man had drawn interest from other buyers. From 2002 to 2005, the horse had a pair of first-place finishes and other ribbons, according to records kept by The Walking Horse Report.
But the disqualification squelched the interest of buyers.
Whatever happened back then, The Sportin’ Man now shows no sign of abuse.
“I could take him into a horse show at a local ring and probably win a ribbon,” Lees said. “He’s beautiful, he steps high, and he’s smooth.”
Lees said it took some time to train the horse to ride trails.
“He’d never been ridden a lot like a regular horse. They have to learn how to be a horse out in the woods,” she said.
Adair, the veterinarian, said that in his years of work, he estimates 90 percent of Tennessee Walking Horses do not show lasting behavioral issues.
“I totally abhor soring,” he said. “But looking at the horse itself, the soring doesn’t prevent the horse from leading a productive life for years.”
What a horse remembers
In Powell, Tenn., outside of Knoxville, horse rescuer Michele Ketchum will never know exactly what happened to Titus, her dapple brown Tennessee Walking Horse.
The horse came from a Cannon County farm where authorities seized 84 abused and neglected horses in 2009. When examined by a vet, Titus ranked among the skinniest, sickliest horses ever to show up at Horse Haven, the horse rescue facility that took them in.
Although veterinarians said there’s no obvious connection to soring, Titus clearly has problems.
He runs funny, with his feet out, perhaps the sign that a trainer manipulated his gait. His willingness to be touched changes from day to day. When visitors approach, the 1,200-pound horse tries to hide behind Ketchum and her 18-year-old daughter.
Not knowing his past makes it difficult for Ketchum to know what might trigger an episode of skittishness during training sessions.
She wants to see him saddled again someday, carrying her daughter through the field out back where Titus grazes with a mare, Cayenne.
One day earlier this month, after the horses roamed among pine trees at the far end of the pasture, Ketchum tracked down Titus to lead him through a series of walking circles. A bit clumsy, he’d get a little too close to her and she’d push him away, a pattern that repeated itself several times.
Titus also gets anxious when the mare leaves his side. To demonstrate, Ketchum took Cayenne out of the barn.
Titus flared his nostrils and began pacing. Then he ran out into the pasture. As Ketchum’s daughter walked Cayenne out of sight, Titus galloped back and forth along the fence line, snorting and nickering.
“I think they really seriously messed him up,” Ketchum said as she watched him run. “Titus remembers bad things that happened to him, no matter how many good things happen to him.”
Contact Tony Gonzalez at 615-259-8089 or tgonzalez@tennessean.com. Follow him on
Yep, Cotten although not necessarily a good guy got hammered by Mullins of SHOW for the wrong reasons. Also interesting that it may have been SHOW inspectors, not actually the USDA that caused the problems at the show in Alabama. DQPs operate under the USDA so i’m still unclear whether SHOW DQPs or USDA inspectors were performing the inspections.
http://www.chattanoogan.com/2012/6/25/228988/Roy-Exum-Cruelty-On-Facebook.aspx
Roy Exum: Cruelty On Facebook
Monday, June 25, 2012 - by Roy Exum
Roy Exum Joe Cotten, a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer from Bell Buckle, Tn., was suspended by the SHOW Horse Industry Organization for 7 ½ years and fined $5,000 over the weekend for all the wrong reasons. After he posted pictures of a badly-maimed horse that had been brutalized by another trainer on Facebook, he was promised by incensed SHOW officials that they would “drop the hammer” and his immediate suspension is the longest in the organization’s history. The Facebook pictures, which graphically show dramatic and prolonged damage to a horse named Joe’s Wine and Roses, were quickly taken down but not before copies were hurriedly sent to advocates who are against the longtime practice of soring and abusing the magnificent animals.
(I received copies on Tuesday with an explanation why Cotten would not accept the horse in such bad condition.)
Undaunted, SHOW President Dr. Stephen L. Mullins announced on Friday that Cotten would be suspended until Dec. 21, 2019. “This is one of the longest suspensions ever issued to a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer, even longer than what is required by the federal government. We take these violations seriously and we are relieved to put the very troubling incident behind us.”
Cotton’s penalty is not from soring but – in theory – because he knowingly filed false entry information while on suspension from one violation and probation for another. But industry insiders say that’s not the truth, but that by exposing the graphic pictures Cotton cast further cause for alarm in a tainted performance horse industry that is now reeling from animal abuse, alleged corruption, and literally hundreds of violations of the federal Horse Protection act.
The SHOW press release goes as far as to blatantly point out that Cotton’s violations are the same that caused the notorious Jackie McConnell and three of his employees to enter guilty pleas in a Chattanooga Federal Court and said Cotton sent a vulgar text message to SHOW president Dr. Stephen L. Mullins.
What actually happened was that Cotton sent Mullin pictures of the horses and demanded to know how the mare had passed SHOW inspections in such terrible condition. Equine experts agree the damage to Joe’s Wine and Roses did not occur in Cotton’s stables.
There was further pandemonium over the weekend when SHOW inspectors, stressing a swab test, caused a huge uproar that effectively shut down the Georgia Walking Horse Summer Classic Show in Buckhead Saturday. It seems SHOW discourages licensed trainers from participating in shows that do not endorse and include the new initiative. SHOW, of course, is part of FAST, which provides money for horse shows.
Last week the Tennessee Veterinarian Association joined a consortium that is eager to eliminate action devices to achieve “the Big Step” at Walking Horses shows and a growing outcry from the public sector is beginning to gain momentum into the cruel and illicit quest for the blue ribbons.
While horse followers acknowledge Cotten violated probation at the Liberty Lions Club Show, there is huge sentiment he is being “hammered” for the Facebook pictures and for speaking out in an industry where the last 10 “Trainers of the Year” all have past violations of the Horse Protection Act.
State charges will he heard this week in Fayette Co. against Jackie McConnell, who has already pleaded guilty to federal charges in Chattanooga and will be sentenced on Sept 10. Animal cruelty will become a felony in Tennessee in July.
[QUOTE=bayou_bengal;6394058]
Athens always has been pretty much BL country. We bought a wonderful son of Pride of Midnight in Athens, Georgia. [/QUOTE] Athens, Alabama not Georgia. But not that it makes much of a difference, still lots of BL so close to Shelbyville. This was a 1st annual show, hopefully there won’t be a 2nd annual!
The show was a fundraiser for The Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives. I put them on my never to donate to list if that’s how they want to fundraise. Plenty of other veterans groups out there.
[QUOTE=MistyStormy;6395493]
Athens, Alabama not Georgia. But not that it makes much of a difference, still lots of BL so close to Shelbyville. This was a 1st annual show, hopefully there won’t be a 2nd annual!
The show was a fundraiser for The Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives. I put them on my never to donate to list if that’s how they want to fundraise. Plenty of other veterans groups out there.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for that info., I’ll not donate to them either.
WIsh we had a like button. Thanks again for all the great info and links to reports. Roy Rocks!
This article is a major problem with its inconsistencies.
Martha Day states her horse is skittish and frightens easily due to the abuse…that he cowers in the corner of a stall if she has a measuring stick in her hand (if that is so why would she continue to carry a measuring stick?) and then later, she states he is stoic from the abuse…therefore he won’t move.
I have NO DOUBT that her claims of abuse based on the front let scars is true. It is her statements that do not hold water.
The ridiculous statement that Titus, who was taken from a STARVATION HOME with 86 others is now claimed to be trainer abused because of the way he tracks (probably due to no farrier work for his lifetime) and his separation anxiety when removed from the herd (another mare).
That has absolutely nothing to do with abuse. The horse is a herd animal.
The reporter does not know that articles with foolish (I want my minute of fame) victims does more damage as it creates DOUBT in the minds of many and it also gives those soring horses the opportunity to say…“well…people lie to make themselves famous”
[QUOTE=Fairfax;6395604]
This article is a major problem with its inconsistencies.
Martha Day states her horse is skittish and frightens easily due to the abuse…that he cowers in the corner of a stall if she has a measuring stick in her hand (if that is so why would she continue to carry a measuring stick?) and then later, she states he is stoic from the abuse…therefore he won’t move.
I have NO DOUBT that her claims of abuse based on the front let scars is true. It is her statements that do not hold water.
The ridiculous statement that Titus, who was taken from a STARVATION HOME with 86 others is now claimed to be trainer abused because of the way he tracks (probably due to no farrier work for his lifetime) and his separation anxiety when removed from the herd (another mare).
That has absolutely nothing to do with abuse. The horse is a herd animal.
The reporter does not know that articles with foolish (I want my minute of fame) victims does more damage as it creates DOUBT in the minds of many and it also gives those soring horses the opportunity to say…“well…people lie to make themselves famous”[/QUOTE]
Do you feel free to speak for or against the stacks and chains that the TWH are subjected to? I do not recall ever having read anything other than worries about whether any such ban will affect other breeds from you.
Me? I am completely against stacks (and you know that does not mean pads) and chains. What the devices in this extreme produce is horrid and looks the same as a sored horse.
What say you?
what is the history of ownership on the horse that Cotten put on facebook,from the day it was born to the day its pics showed up.name all the trainers handlers owners.follow how that animal got those scars and hair lose.the trail will SHOW (no pun intended) how and when it happened.
Dr.Mullins is just trying to get people to think that twhbea is doing something to Stop soring and abuse,if that was or is true than they would clean up their own house. really how many Board members of the TWHBEA have HPA violations? NOW or PAST.
Cotten put it out there and Mullins is going to hang him for it,what about Landrum that horse was in his care too.how long was it with HIM in his barn.
the owner knows more than they are saying. i’ll bet their are alot of owners that KNOW and don’t give a rats u know what.
i would like to see that trainers, owners, riders. get fined and suspended .not just the trainer.if ya own an animal its your responsibilty to care for it in a humane way PERIOD.
Read for comprehension Fairfax/Leo. She approached him once loose in a stall. Im sure she would have gotten an entirely different reaction had the horse been in hand or in cross ties. But maybe not, maybe he was one of those horses that fought stewarding. Whats your point Fairfax ? Does that make his scarred pasterns disappear ? Stoic, or cowering in terror - whats the difference ? Both would be logical behaviour of an abused horse.
Day said she once triggered Big 'Un’s memories by approaching with a measuring stick.
“I’m not brandishing it at him, just walking,” she said. “I’m about a 5-5, average-size woman. I go in with this stick, this animal shrank into a corner of his stall and cowered. He was terrified.”
Maybe they will invite a sound horse organization such as NWHA or FOSH to do a show there with sound clean versatility horses. Looks like USDA was at the Ohio show this weekend (NWHA) and they had praise for the organization and their DQP program. ZERO violations, 100 head of horses over 400 entries. Let’s hope that that gets to the event organizers and maybe get them to see going sound is the way to go!
Great news ! Heres the show bill from that show in Wilmington Ohio
http://www.nwha.com/shows2012/ohioclassicshowbill.pdf
No performance classes ! Way to go NWHA and Ohio
TWHs will do fine, just fine, without performance classes.
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