Blue Ribbon Abuse - Andrew Heet

Blue Ribbon Abuse

by Andrew Heet

Have you ever had your legs blistered with acid or been beaten with a bat? If you can imagine such a situation, you might wonder why anyone would do that to an animal and why the government would allow it. In the Tennessee Walking Horse show world, conscientious horse owners and trainers enjoy weekend gatherings for a little sociable competition, although some other trainers and horses see a very disturbing side of the show scene. Since the mid 1900’s, many Walking Horse trainers have used cruel methods to get their horses to lift their front legs higher, displaying an animated gait that helps them win in the show ring. After 34 years since Federal legislation was passed to stop these inhumane training methods, critics describe common activities within the Walking Horse show industry of today to be both violent and illegal.

As many horse owners know, the Horse Protection Act (HPA) of 1970 prohibits the exhibition, sale, or transportation of a sored horse. Soring is the application or injection of an irritating or blistering agent, internally or externally, by a person to any limb of a horse.

When chemical irritants such as caustic mustard oil and diesel fuel are applied to the front pasterns (lower leg) of a horse, the legs become very sensitive, much like when a person has a bad burn. When the horse walks, every step with the front hooves is painful. In response the horse lifts its front legs higher to escape the pain of touching the ground. When bracelet-like chains, a popular training device used at many shows, are placed on the front legs in addition to chemical soring, the chains batter the sensitized flesh with each step as the horse tries to climb up out of the pain. Chemical soring and chains often cause open lesions and scars on the legs of horses.

Stacks, or pads as they are sometimes called, are another of the common devices used to exaggerate gait. Typical stacks are layers of pliable wedges, built up to 4 inches high, that are nailed to the bottom of the front hooves to build the front end of the horse up higher. Stacks look similar to large platform shoes and can cause inflammation and arthritis according to the Auburn Study, conducted by Auburn University in Sept. 1978 – Dec. 1982.

The development of numerous techniques that create a painful relationship of hoof-to-ground contact, made it obvious that the U.S. Dept of Agriculture (USDA), charged with responsibility for enforcement of the Horse Protection Act (HPA), needed to take serious action. Congress passed a 1976 amendment to the HPA authorizing the formation of certified Horse Inspection Organizations (HIO) to provide more efficient enforcement of the HPA. The HIOs hire horse inspectors to inspect horses at shows to ensure the horses do not have sored or scarred legs in violation of the HPA.

The new inspection process inspired optimism, but concerned Walking Horse owners of the 70s and 80s began to wonder whether or not inspectors could detect soreness in stewarded horses. Stewarding is a process in which trainers beat their sored horses at the training barns or just before showing if the horses react painfully to their legs being touched as they would during inspections at shows. This teaches sore horses not to react to the inspection process as they proceed in to the show ring undetected. One Walking Horse groom recalled his experiences during an interview with A Current Affair in 1987, saying that he has seen trainers steward horses by “chastising” them with bats, sticks, and other objects.

A trend of past and present incidents has made it apparent that violent acts are not only directed at horses, but also towards people who get in the way. During the creation of CNN’s 1986 soring expose film, one crew member who wandered into a stable area with a camera was allegedly threatened by trainer Russ Thompson. The crew member claims that Thompson said he would “hire the biggest, blackest son-of-a-bitch he could find to tear his head off,” though Thompson later denied the episode. A woman, too scared to have her identity revealed, when interviewed by Madeline McFadden of Inside Edition in 1987 said that certain industry personnel would kill anyone, and/or the horses of anyone who tries to expose soring.

Many Walking Horse owners of today say they are skeptical of whether or not the industry has cleaned up their act because of conflicts between horse protection enforcement bodies. The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture send Veterinary Medical Officers to roughly 10% of shows. The VMOs oversee the industry horse inspectors to make sure the horses are being inspected properly. USDA statistics in their Horse Protection Enforcement report to congress in 2000 www.aphis.usda.gov/ac/hpainfo.html illustrates that when VMOs go to shows to supervise the industry horse inspectors, the inspectors detect 12 times the number of HPA violations than they do when they are not being supervised by the VMOs. These statistics show that the industry horse inspectors write up more violations when the government is looking and less when they are not being supervised.

Failure of the industry horse inspectors to enforce the HPA is again illustrated in the USDA 2000 report (pg.15) which states, “Last year, 92 horses were disqualified from showing due to what were called “non-HPA violations.” Further review of the disqualifications showed the description of the inspectors’ findings accurately depicted sore horses, yet these horses were not ticketed for being sore.

The USDA also notes in this same report (pg.12) that VMOs had to request the U.S. Marshals and law enforcement agents from the USDA’s Office of the Inspector General accompany them to numerous shows due to threats of violence against them. The USDA points out that similar intimidation may have caused the low violation rate when the industry inspectors were not being supervised. This suggests that some inspectors may be threatened and intimidated in to not doing their jobs.

Aside from inadequate inspections, critics charge that some of the organizations in the show industry have failed to make significant efforts to condemn HPA violators. The Walking Horse Trainers Association, for example, celebrates one trainer each year with a Trainer of the Year award. In the first 33 years of this award, 23 honorees had been ticketed for HPA violations. Five of the violators were honored more than once. The 1997 Trainer of the Year has had 14 violations between 1998 and 2002. The 2001 honoree had a violation the same year he was awarded. Soring opponents insist that trainers who have been cited as using illegal training methods should not be celebrated with an award that compliments and encourages such behavior.

Some soring adversaries wonder why the show industry has failed to enforce the HPA and why certain individuals and organizations seem to be trying to prevent enforcement. The Nashville Tennesseean said it well in 1998 explaining that, “People currently serving on federal suspensions are leaders in industry organizations and on boards. In this industry bad apples don’t get thrown out of the barrel.” Benny Johnson, who serves as a testament to this statement, was hired as the director of inspection programs for the National Horse Show Regulatory Committee from Feb. 1984 to Dec. of 1986. Johnson also served as an officer for the Trainers Association and headed up the 1984 show committee. In 1987 Mr. Johnson received an HPA violation and 2-week suspension. He went on to receive a 6-week suspension for illegally trying to show a horse while on his 2 week suspension.

Other examples of violators holding leading industry positions include multiple presidents of the Walking Horse Trainers Association. As of 1998, nine of the last eleven presidents of the WHTA had been on federal suspension or had cases pending for exhibiting sore horses. Critics say that with the lack of show industry commitment to abolish soring, the statistics in the USDA 2000 report comes as no surprise. Of the horse events in 2000 that the USDA attended, incidence of pathological abnormalities indicative of soring was detected in about 80% of stacked horses.

The USDA has tried in the past to take meaningful action to correct the industry’s poor enforcement; these attempts have been repeatedly thwarted by political pressure, including threats of budget cuts by certain southern senators who sit on the Agriculture Appropriations Committee. Some of these same senators receive campaign funds from Walking Horse industry individuals and organizations. Many of the Walking Horse industry’s political contributions can be found on the internet www.opensecrets.org

Fortunately only 10% of Walking Horses are shown at industry-sponsored shows, although this still amounts to many thousands of horses. Unfortunately, the Tennessee Walking Horse industry has had the authority for over 28 years to stop soring through the inspection process. The industry’s failure to even reasonably discourage soring reveals their lack of responsibility and intention towards enforcement of the HPA.

This political problem must be solved through congress putting pressure on the USDA to enforce the HPA properly and an investigation and hearing into the corruption of the industry before more horses suffer at the expense of the industry’s profit.

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