[QUOTE=aarpaso;6444568]
the Judge KNOWS[/QUOTE]
???
The Judge spoke with someone about this ??? Or did you send a letter?
[QUOTE=nashfad;6445505]
Lots of folks are trying to sell their boxes for the Celebration. It may look like a no-man’s land there.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for posting that. I heard a while back boxes were going for cheap. Hope lots and lots of empty seats!:yes::yes:
Know folks in Texas, hurly
i sure hope folks Speak LOUD and CLEAR,so that Doyle and Boyle change the PLAYBill for the Celebration.
just WHO sets the Classes for the Celebration, TWHBEA? or the Shelbyville Slime.
Who" s the Committee Chair.
ya wantta that bets as to how many have violations"?
Anyone in the area may enjoy a NWHA show at the TN State Fair. If you wish to support the breed, sans pads, this would be a good event to show up and cheer your head off.
Sept 8, 6:00 pm
I hope NWHA gets lots of support. Wish I could go. They are a good alternative to TWHBEA, hope lots of Walking Horse people walk that way!
Well, the boxes I’ve seen for sale are not going cheap-----------asking $895 for 1 of them!!! They wish. If I were going, I’d offer them $50 for it. But hey, even last yr there were many empty boxes on the last night. All you had to do was go plop your butt down in one.
[QUOTE=nashfad;6448780]
Well, the boxes I’ve seen for sale are not going cheap-----------asking $895 for 1 of them!!! They wish. If I were going, I’d offer them $50 for it. But hey, even last yr there were many empty boxes on the last night. All you had to do was go plop your butt down in one.[/QUOTE]
Guess I had wrong info then. Maybe the owners have box seats, they aren’t showing, so boxes for sale?
Back in the Day: each Barn ie Waterfall,paid for a box when they got their Stalls.price of stall pkg came with a box,not a good prime location but a box none the less.
now some owners (like corps) bought Boxes,so their employees could attend one nite.the big nite was for the CEO and upper staff to see the WGC.
this was a good long time ago.
Some of the boxes have been passed down in the family for yrs. But the family still has to pay each yr. They are not “free”. “IN the old days” you could not even get a box but now today you can call the Celebration office and just about name your price (what I have heard)-------of course, it is still a month off so they have awhile to go.
[QUOTE=katarine;6446938]
Anyone in the area may enjoy a NWHA show at the TN State Fair. If you wish to support the breed, sans pads, this would be a good event to show up and cheer your head off.
Sept 8, 6:00 pm
http://www.showhorsemanagement.com/Tennessee_State_Fair.pdf[/QUOTE]
Yes, Yes, Yes… Hopefully, the classes will be full and the stands even fuller…
Roy never disappoints. Take low and go, Mike !
http://chattanoogan.com/2012/7/21/230770/Roy-Exum-Mike-Turn-Back-Get-Out.aspx
Roy Exum: Mike, Turn Back! Get Out!
Saturday, July 21, 2012 - by Roy Exum
An open letter to Mike Walden:
I am a big admirer of yours and, while we don’t know one another, I have followed you since you were a police officer in Chattanooga. I have great respect for the brilliance that you have shown in building Walden Security into what is today a thriving national organization and appreciate how you serve the community as Chairman of our Hamilton County Election Commission.
That said, I believe you are standing on a very slippery slope and should get out of the “Big Lick” horse business while the gettin’ is good. Mike, what you may already perceive is a mess is getting ready to get a whole lot worse and while I know your four-year-old horse “I’m Copperfield” is considered a true contender for Grand National Champion at the Shelbyville Celebration in late August, I’m begging you to get away from those people while there is still time
Just this week, as you know, your trainer and rider, Knox Blackburn was suspended for four weeks when swab tests from either the Eaglesville or Woodbury shows in June came back hot. The swabs tested positive for caustic substances on the forelegs of two horses he showed and, brother, the “Big Lick” ain’t worth going to jail over. Those weren’t your horses, were they? I am told Knox’ son, Alex, rode one of yours up there in the youth class.
Trust me, I know zero about the Walking Horse industry. I stumbled into it this May, when millions like me were nauseated by tape that went viral of Jackie McConnell sadistically beating a horse and abusing others. I thought Jackie was beating it with an electric cattle prod but a trainer in Kentucky told me it was a four-foot club. He claimed the cattle prod was used to shock the horse’s lips.
Anyway, a national outcry over abuse in the horse industry has since been fueled nearly every day and, my interest piqued, I have discovered horrible abuse is widespread in the “Big Lick”. This week the first views of Michael Vick’s book came out and he is very remorseful about the two years he spent in Leavenworth for fighting dogs. He said watching his son fall to pieces over his Daddy going to jail was awful.
What’s the difference in fighting dogs and pounding a nail into a horse’s foot? Ever touched a cattle prod to one of your horse’s lips? Of course not, but what’s the difference between Jackie McConnell and Michael Vick? The word around the stable is that Knox Blackburn is married to Jackie McConnell’s niece. And everybody’s laughing over Knox’s suspension; it ends August 12 –in plenty of time for the show – but the entry deadline is August 7 and a suspended trainer can’t enter a horse in a show, right?
Heck, Mike, the biggest question in the entire industry is why you are even messing with it at all after the way you got yourself toasted in 2006. No doubt you’ll recall they had to vacate the Grand Nation Championship when five of the eight finalists were disqualified for soring. One horse was yours – Grand Charter – and, yes, the trainer back then was – hello – Knox Blackburn.
But you are the one your “Shelbyville friends” threw under the bus, alleging that you offered three trainers $10,000 apiece to withdraw. C’mon, it was all over the news. Your “Shelbyville friends” then slapped you with a two-year suspension, despite the fact you explained to the Nashville Tennessean it was a total misunderstanding, what you called “an act of goodwill.”
It’s okay to forgive, Mike, but, for goodness sake, don’t lose your memory! Don’t you see this set-up, Mike? These people are not your friends. All they want is your money. Tell you what you should do – go to Shelbyville and walk in any barn on what’s called “Walking Horse Row.” They’ll tell you everybody in town is whispering this rumor or that, some type of Federal investigation the hottest this week.
Federal officials are mad, we all know that. Five men have already pleaded guilty in Chattanooga’s Federal court this year to violating the Horse Protection Law. I suspect the Feds are all over the “Big Lick” empire and I am virtually certain there will be more violators of the Horse Protection Act prosecuted in both Federal and state court.
After McConnell is sentenced here Sept 10, he’s still got 14 unrelated counts to face later in the month at the Fayette County courthouse. I don’t like his grip on the rope, no sir, but with the public outcry what it is and volumes of mail being delivered to the judge, the good news is that Jackie’s rope ain’t attached to some gallows.
This summer two huge veterinarian groups called on the nation’s lawmakers to outlaw stacks, or pads, chains and any other action devices. In the state of Tennessee it is now a felony to harm a livestock animal. Mike, there is a picture being circulated, taken just last year, of your “I’m Copperfield” wearing stacks and chains. Trust me, you are fooling with something that can burn you. And now people are wondering while I’m Copperfield’s name was changed from Gen’s Magic Prescription.
Mike, my grandfather had a wonderful saying, “Take low and go.” It meant take your losses and get out before it really costs you. Believe it or not, you can have just as much fun showing sound horses. So many horse owners are fleeing the Shelbyville crowd that they just discounted the annual horse card from $150 to $75. Shelbyville may be panicking but “clean” owners are finding flat-shod shows are fabulous with no soring anywhere to be found.
For some unexplainable reason, the Shelbyville bunch is actually suing the federal government (us) over the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s new rules. SHOW, or whatever part of alphabet soup the Celebration crowd calls it, didn’t sign the USDA required letter so – now what – they think they are bigger than the Federal government and an outraged public? The USDA can shut the Celebration down, brother.
You know who is the maddest? The owners of Tennessee Walking Horses are united in writing Congress, talking to state representatives and doing whatever it takes. Fifty years of lip service is over. Shelbyville could well become a dead-end street, my friend, and I am pleading with you. Get away from these people. They are not your friends.
Please give this some serious thought. You might tell your true friends to whistle up their dogs and douse the campfire, too, because the Shelbyville bunch has hurt the Tennessee Walking Horse for way too long. The “Big Lick” is on its last lick.
Call me if I can ever help you.
Roy Exum
P.S. Did you know that you and I live on the same street?
royexum@aol.com
Doing happy dance!!!
Im more than a little concerned that my tax dollars are ending up in Mike Walden’s pockets, as his company does work for the government. Spittin nails here, knowing that my hard earned dollars are then ending up in a Big Lick trainer’s pocket.
this Walden Security is GSA Cert. Roy’s story not going to help him at all.
as far as changing a Horses’ name thats a cover -up for some reason. and that don’t look good either.owner of a horse that violated the HPA.
a whole bunch a folks got pots a boiling,ya reckon ole Doc Mullins got ulcers yet.
Knox will just get his wife to reg the horse for the celebration,or a niece,any way they do it its underhanded and dirty.
Doyle Meadows best rethink BL classes @ the Celebration or maybe just let BOYLES get another gig in for the week of AUG 22 2012.
Eaglesville and Woodbury are PREP Shows for the Big ONE in Aug.
i sure wish the horses names and owners got a violation list of their own.maybe we could SAVE the horse and Hang the Owner.
Roy Exum: Horse CEO Is Jumping Off
Sunday, July 22, 2012 - by Roy Exum
Dr. Doyle Meadows is jumping off what is uncannily similar to a run-away horse. After four years as the CEO of the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, it has been learned the veterinarian will soon take a flying leap after this year’s event. His decision comes only a month after the two largest equine veterinary groups in the nation castigateda Walking Horse industry that was already knee-deep in muck.
Already there is a resolution on the floor of the Tennessee legislature (sponsored Rep. Pat Marsh, R-Shelbyville) in praise of Meadows but the better truth is that a video of horse trainer Jackie McConnell, appearing on ABC’s News Nightline in May and promptly enraging millions since then, has caused the seedy side of the Tennessee Walking Horse industry to come under intense and scathing scrutiny.
The latest laugher is that when the judges for the upcoming 74th Celebration were announced on Wednesday, it was quickly discovered that three of the five people who were chosen have a total of 16 past violations of the federal Horse Protection Act between them. And the biggest kick in the face came when the Tennessee State Fair, to be held Sept. 7-16 in Nashville, stunned all of Shelbyville when it just aligned with the Kentucky-based National Walking Horse Association.
The NWHA is “dedicated to preserving and promoting the naturally-gaited walking horse and its welfare,” so the so-called “Big Lick” horses, with their stacks and chains and questionable trainers, will not be welcome in Nashville. The thugs are also learning — as Dr. Meadows knows only too well – that 50 years of soring and horse abuse will no longer be tolerated by the American people.
The epicenter of mounting concern is the annual Celebration in Shelbyville, which set for August 22 - Sept. 1, and when it was quietly revealed Meadows would be stepping down after this year’s event, it only fueled speculation that his action might have been a preemptive move.
Pepsi immediately pulled its sponsorship of the Celebration when the McConnell video was released and tickets were quickly put on sale in classified ads across the state. Worse, federal compliance officials are continuing to tighten down on a small but quite cancerous group of loathsome owners, trainers and riders whose criminal actions have tainted not just the industry but the magnificent and noble breed as well.
Meadows has been the Celebration’s CEO for four years but this has been, by far, his most tumultuous year. Federal prosecutors have successful sought and obtained guilty pleas from five men in federal court already this year and it has been proven, by public records, that the Shelbyville leadership of the walking horse industry is infested with past violators of the federal Horse Protection Act.
When the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Equine Practitioners called for action against the Big Lick methods, one could only wonder how much longer Meadows could stomach witnessing the repeated soring and abuse of the some contenders that historically are brought to the Celebration in quest of the blue ribbon.
My goodness, there has been so much brought to light since the sickening McConnell tape was shown a weekly TV reality series could be called “The Shelbyville Soap Opera.” For example, it was just learned that one pitiful horse that co-starred in the vile Nightline tape is three-time world champion Moody Star.
The horribly-traumatized horse, owned by Wilsene Moody Kwok (her husband is the executive director of the State Convention of Baptists in Ohio), is now being trained and shown by Shelbyville’s Brad Davis, who has eight prior violations of the Horse Protection Act. The horse is now named “Star.”
In a recent poll on the Walking Horse Report website, asking “Why are horse shows being cancelled?” a whopping 45 percent cited the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s inspections with another 33 percent believed it was Unknown Mandatory Penalties. Oddly, “cheating” and “soring” and “suspensions” were not among the eligible categories. The USDA simply enforces the law.
Finally, word has gotten out that at a recent horse show, federal enforcement agents were charged admission to enter the grounds. How stupid, in the name of great Jehovah, is that? The first rule the littlest boy on a farm learns is “Don’t tease the bull.” My goodness gracious, the Shelbyville Soap Opera rolls on.
My God. Roy is the best thing ever to happen to the TWH.
Ever.
He truly is. It is really happening isnt it ? The demise of Big Lick. In our lifetime !
I was so worried about the die-down that always happens after the BLers are exposed. They stir their bowl of alphabet soup and come up with a new group that will “fix” the problem. Yeah right. Roy is helping keep the issue alive and what a warrior he is.
