NEWS and VIDEO - Abuse In a Trailer At a WHTA Show

I don't think the attitude of the industry toward horses can be better explained by this video.

This was brought to my attention by a trainer from KY. This is quite possibly an example of "stewarding," a practice used to force a horse to stand to take the pain of a DQP inspection. Stewarding involves taking a horse and having it stand tied while someone holds its feet and prods it the way a DQP would. Another person is standing next to the horse with something that will hurt if it hits the horse, such as a broom handle, baseball bat, or 2 x 4. If the horse flinches, they get whacked really, really hard. This way the horse learns that if it doesn't stand still, the pain will be worse than the pain he's feeling on his legs and feet. Another form involves burning the horse up in side the nostril with a lit cigarette or a hot branding iron, which will cause pain but won't leave a visible scar. Unfortunately, I once met a horse with circular shaped scars in its nostrils, a victim of stewarding.

Click here for the link to the video. This is a public website with all videos available for view. This show was the 35th Annual Marshall County Horseman's Association Horse Show that took place on July 22nd, 2011.

Here's what you're looking for. At approximately 4:00 minutes, the announcer asks for the horses to slow to a flat walk and then reverse. The camera will pan to the right and stop on a sorrel horse with a blaze. In the background in the upper right of your screen is a trailer with a lighted, open door. You will see a horse standing tied to the trailer that then moves out of view. You will then see a horse's head in the door. A man then steps out of the trailer with a broom. He turns around, then slams the broom down through the air, and as the broom makes contact, you will see the shadow of the horse in the square window to the left react and jerk violently to the left. This all happens at about 4:45.

As the trainer said to me, I don't think this guy is swatting flies.

I hear from the industry that they love their horses and would never do anything bad to them. So is this love? They certainly love their horses enough to buy a fancy truck and trailer to pull them to the show. They love them so much they're happy to abuse them to get them to do what they want.

I don't care who the trainer is, who the person is who swung that broom--it doesn't matter. The horse is being abused on the show grounds, period, AND it's on video. Way to go, WHTA. You're continuing to prove to us that abuse abounds in the TWH industry.