Tennessee Walking Horse Competition Exposed: Unbelievable Cruelty and Mutilation
By Brantley Hargrove in Hargrove, Hicks From the Sticks
Wed., Jun. 10 2009 @ 1:04PM
Shelbyville, Tenn. bills itself as the Tennessee Walking Horse Capital, and indeed it hosts the National Celebration--a yearly competition where the industry parades its finest horses.
Prized for their distinctive (and completely unnatural) high-stepping gait, they were originally bred to carry plantation owners around their lands. Their easy-going disposition and smooth stride make them a pleasure to ride. These days the competition rewards the horse with the highest-step and the most pronounced gait. But how do trainers induce this odd prancing trot?
According to a video from the Humane Society, some trainers use a method called "soring." They apply irritating chemicals to a horse's front ankles like oil of mustard, kerosene or diesel fuel and wrap them in plastic to drive the irritants into the skin. This, as you might imagine, causes the horse great pain. Then its ankles are wrapped in chains, so that each step the horse takes is excruciating, further exaggerating its gait. The process often leaves the horse permanently scarred.
The practice was outlawed in 1970, but political pressure from the industry has thwarted any real enforcement. Horses are checked for soring before competition, but trainers have grown increasingly adept at concealing the method. The next National Celebration runs from Aug. 26 to Sept. 5. Let your local legislators know how you feel about a sport that rewards an industry for mistreating horses.
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