The AVMA has posted a wonderful article about the USDA's new ways to detect soring, and they comment on why change is so hard to come by. This article speaks for itself. I love that the AVMA is keeping up on this. Click here for the link to the article.
I also will be posting the results of the Kentucky After Christmas Sale at the Kentucky Horse Park soon. Let's just say there was nary a Big Lick horse in sight; it was a great success for the SOUND horse!
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Change hard to come by
USDA looking at new ways to detect soring
Posted on January 30, 2013
By Malinda Larkin
As the AVMA, American Association of Equine Practitioners, federal government, and others put pressure on the Walking Horse industry to eradicate the practice of soring, pushback on reform remains.
On Nov. 20, 2012, the AVMA and AAEP released a statement indicating their support for amendments to the Horse Protection Act. As written, the amendments (H.R. 6388) would have strengthened penalties for violations of the act and improved Department of Agriculture enforcement (see JAVMA, Nov. 1, 2012, page 1133).
Five months earlier, the associations had jointly called for a ban on the use of action devices and performance packages on Tennessee Walking Horses. These are commonly used to accentuate the breed’s distinctive gait but can also be used to facilitate soring, i.e., deliberately inflicting pain to exaggerate the gait of horses to gain an unfair advantage in the show ring.
The Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders’ and Exhibitors’ Association and the Tennessee Walking Show Horse Organization issued letters Nov. 21 and Nov. 28, respectively, to the AVMA and AAEP. Both indicated opposition to the associations’ efforts and the amendments to the HPA.
The TWHBEA wrote that, while it is committed to ending soring: “The Association is aware of no scientific evidence supporting the idea that pads and action devices, when used properly, harm horses. In reality, it is the actions of unscrupulous individuals that harm horses.”
The TWSHO letter followed in the same vein. The group also took issue with the proposed amendment to the HPA that would eliminate the role of horse industry organizations such as the TWHBEA and TWSHO in horse show inspections.
Currently, horse show managers can voluntarily hire USDA-trained lay inspectors, known as designated qualified persons, chosen by certain horse industry organizations. The USDA also has its own veterinary medical officers who perform inspections at some venues.
Under the new provision, the USDA would be responsible for choosing inspectors for horse shows, auctions, and other Horse Protection Act–regulated venues; however, the decision to hire a designated qualified person would still be up to the horse show, sale, or auction organizers.
“Without HIOs there are no assurances of consistent inspections, tracking of individuals that have been previously ticketed, and thus no effective enforcement of the HPA,” TWSHO’s letter stated.
Currently there are 12 horse industry organizations; only six are active. Three are undergoing decertification. That’s because in 2012, the USDA changed regulations to create a more consistent penalty structure for the industry (see JAVMA, Aug. 1, 2012, page 296). It requires designated qualified persons who inspect horses to assess minimum penalties for soring. These three organizations didn’t follow the mandate, claiming the regulations were unconstitutional.
Facts and figures
Dr. Gail C. Golab, director of the AVMA Animal Welfare Division, responded to the two organizations’ letters in a Dec. 3 post on the AVMA@Work blog, explaining the AVMA’s and AAEP’s position as well as the proposed amendments.
The science that is available says that raising the heels (placing a horse on pads and wedges) 8 degrees can cause the horse to stumble and tire easily, Dr. Golab wrote. Additionally, horses placed on pads and wedges had inflammation in the flexor tendon area of the pastern.
“Chains that weigh 6 ounces will start to cause hair loss without the use of chemical irritants. Chains heavier than 6 ounces used on horses that have been previously sored will cause open lesions within two weeks,” Dr. Golab added.
Regardless, she said, the horse industry organizations were missing the point of the AVMA’s and AAEP’s decision.
“The AVMA’s and AAEP’s primary concern is that chains and pads are used to exacerbate and/or hide soring. And they can do so irrespective of their size and/or weight,” Dr. Golab wrote. “To remove opportunity and incentive to sore, and to facilitate the inspection process under the HPA, the AVMA and AAEP agree with the authors of H.R. 6388 that self-policing, and chains and pads, have to go.”
Recent statistics bear out Dr. Golab’s claim on self-policing.
As of Nov. 17, 2012, designated qualified persons had completed 62,835 inspections for the year and found 641 violations (1.02 percent). By comparison, 9,685 inspections were completed when USDA veterinary medical officers were present. During those inspections, 572 violations were found (5.91 percent).
During the 2012 Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, the biggest show for this community, 1,849 entries were inspected with USDA veterinary medical officers present, and 166 violations were found (8.98 percent). The preceding year, there was a 9.5 percent violation rate, with 2,143 horses inspected and 203 violations found.
Plus, from 2005-2008, the USDA was present at only 6 percent of all Walking Horse shows, yet designated qualified persons found 39 percent of all their violations at these horse shows.
Divisions remain
Further discord in the Walking Horse industry was made evident when the TWHBEA voted in late 2012 to reject a proposal submitted by the TWSHO to unify the industry under one voice.
The proposal was a draft plan developed from meetings with various independent equine experts, including multiple nationally renowned veterinarians. The mission of the organization was to have a “one-voice” horse industry organization for performance horses.
“Goals include the implementation of one set of HIO protocols, procedures and penalties to ensure consistent, fair and complete inspections throughout the industry. The group’s primary goal would be to eliminate soring through an aggressive reform agenda. Additionally, the group intends to coordinate all industry communications regarding the show horse in matters relating to the HPA, regulatory, and political issues. The proposal intends to create one rulebook, penalty structure, and judging program,” according to an email sent by the TWHBEA.
The proposed 12-member board of directors would have consisted of two members from five current organizations—the TWSHO, TWHBEA, Walking Horse Owners Association, Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, and Walking Horse Trainers’ Association—along with two “independent, non-industry” veterinarians.
The TWHBEA cited concerns over the lack of financial details and the representational structure of the board for not joining. The WHOA held a similar vote and rejected the plan but voted to keep lines of communication open with the TWSHO.
Keeping an eye on things
Going forward, while H.R. 6388 is expected to be reintroduced in the 113th Congress, the USDA continues to test new methods to detect soring and keep horses that have been sored from being entered in horse shows.
The USDA Horse Protection Program has begun a pilot project on drug testing. Veterinary medical officers obtain blood to look for agents that could be linked to soring.
“Just as numbing and masking agents are found from the foreign substance testing, we are concerned that these types of agents may be injected in the horses as well to cause soring or mask soring during inspections,” said Dr. Rachel Cezar, Horse Protection Program coordinator with the Animal Care program of the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
So far, 50 samples have been collected at three horse shows, and more sampling is planned in 2013.
In addition, the USDA Horse Protection Program will be working with the equine identification system EyeD to establish a program for identifying horses in violation of the Horse Protection Act via a scan of their irises. The USDA will begin using it this year.
“We hope that introducing this technology to the industry will influence (horse owners) to start utilizing it as well for equine identification,” Dr. Cezar said.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
ARTICLES - Editorials Concerning Senator Robin Webb
These wonderful articles really speak for themselves. I've included the links and copied and pasted below. Nothing like letting your horses be abused and supporting animal abuse in public to get you noticed in the wrong way.
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Ky. voices: It's time to end walking horse abuse
Published: January 22, 2013
Robin Webb defends, excuses behavior
By Pam Rogers
Kentucky has a proud tradition of celebrating horses. It also harbors a dark reality of abuse toward the beautiful, gentle Tennessee walking horse. This contradiction became more clear last week with the news that state Sen. Robin Webb became embroiled in such abuse.
Webb and her horses' trainer have reportedly been cited for violating the federal Horse Protection Act by entering horses showing signs of abuse into a competition. Specifically, the animals were allegedly subjected to a cruel training method known as "soring."
Soring is the painful application of chemicals or other training methods to force the animals to perform an artificial high-stepping gait — known as the "Big Lick"— for show competitions.
Despite being made illegal by the federal Horse Protection Act in 1970, soring continues to be prevalent in the walking horse show industry, and Kentucky horse owners and trainers have the second-highest number of citations, after Tennessee.
The Humane Society of the United States is dedicated to seeing the law properly enforced and the practice of soring come to a long-awaited end. But we need legislators like Webb to join the effort to crack down on this criminal practice, not disavow or defend the cruelty that exists.
In response to the allegations of horse abuse, Webb has taken the path most traveled by many in the Big Lick industry — deny, deny, deny. She has also made an appalling attempt to defend the actions of an admitted violator of the Horse Protection Act, Tennessee walking horse Hall of Fame trainer Jackie McConnell.
An undercover investigator for The HSUS caught McConnell on camera soring horses as well as beating and shocking horses' faces. The story made national headlines and McConnell ultimately pleaded guilty in federal court to a felony. While horse lovers around the country were horrified and irate over the video, and lawmakers in Congress are working to improve protections for Tennessee walking horses, Webb called the defenseless horses "dangerous," and blamed the hours of damning undercover footage for "demonizing" the breed.
The real demons are trainers like McConnell, and he is not alone. There is no question that the cruel practice of soring is widespread in the Big Lick horse show industry. Unscrupulous trainers apply caustic chemicals to horses' ankle area, then ride them with chains on their ankles that hurt their sensitized skin with every step. "Stacks" — like high-heeled horseshoes — are nailed to the horse's front hooves to add weight and height, and are frequently used to conceal objects and methods used to inflict pain to the soft tissue of a horse's hoof.
These practices force the horse to snatch his feet off the ground in an attempt to relieve the pain, creating the Big Lick that is rewarded by judges. Major veterinary groups, including the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Equine Practitioners and the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, have called for a ban on these devices.
Instead of defending horse abusers like McConnell, Webb should be working to protect horses by supporting stronger laws to crack down on such criminals. Soring has no place in Kentucky, the Horse Capital of the World and the heart of Tennessee walking horse country. A December 2012 Mason-Dixon poll indicates that the majority of voters support federal legislation to strengthen the Horse Protection Act and state legislation making soring a felony offense.
Soring also has no place at the Kentucky Horse Park, which Webb is lobbying to host a sale later this month that would showcase Big Lick Tennessee walking horses. Horse advocates are disturbed that this state-run park would provide a venue for a horse show discipline frequently associated with such extreme cruelty.
Tennessee walking horses have a beautiful natural gait that has been grotesquely exploited. They are forced to endure this pain throughout their entire show careers. Due to weaknesses in the federal law and a failed system of industry self-policing, the trainers who are caught inflecting the torture pay little penance. It's time for a change.
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Roy Exum: Senator "Just Like Lance"
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Robin Webb, a Democratic state senator from Kentucky, just became “the Lance Armstrong of the Tennessee Walking Horse industry” after it was revealed two of her horses were ticketed with violations of the federal Horse Protection Act at a North Carolina horse show in October. There was evidence of scar-rule violations on both horses, which means the horses had been sored and, in the Walking Horse world, to sore is to cheat.
As unbelievable as it may appear, Senator Webb (D-Grayson) was even lauded as the 2012 Performance Horse Ambassador by the industry’s Breeders and Exhibitors group in December ,but now she has been shown to be “just like Lance” after two of her horses, Showstopper and Air Force One, were found in violation of the scarring rule and banned from competition last fall in Creedmoor, N.C.
In a scathing story that appeared 10 days ago in the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, Webb was portrayed as a typical “Big Lick queen” who still favors the scurilous padded hooves and action devices that the American Veterinarian Medical Association, the American Association of Equine Practitioners and many other animal rights organizations want to ban.
Of course, Senator Webb denied everything at first, telling writer Janet Patton, “I don’t sore my horses. I love my horses, and they love me.” But as she was interviewed, Webb called pending Congressional legislation to end soring as “extreme” and even defended the horrifying tape that showed Jackie McConnell, who is now a felon, beating and torturing horses.
Webb had the audacity to tell the newspaper the tape that has now been viewed by millions of horse advocates around the world “was taken out of context” and that Tennessee Walking Horses are “dangerous” animals. “You don’t know what happened five minutes before or five minutes after the tape was made. These are animals that are very dangerous. Every breed has training techniques that animal rights groups find offensive.”
And this woman was just chosen as the Performance Horse Ambassador of the Year? Sweet mother of pearl! Lance wouldn’t have said something that stupid to Oprah! Asked about the violations, Webb said “the scar rule is very subjective,” but her trainer, Donald Stamper of Richmond, hung up on the reporter rather than demonstrate his ignorance. But he was also ticketed for violating the Horse Protection Act.
Asked why she didn’t challenge the tickets, Senator Webb said she was unaware she had been ticketed and, as far as she knows, she has not been suspended. But the Lexington newspaper article left no doubt she is a proponent of the padded, or “performance,” horse and that her Ambassador award was for her work in the discussions with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Webb, now a lawyer at age 52, worked as a coal miner until the age of 25 before obtaining her degrees. She claimed that the many groups calling for bans on the action devices were “agenda-driven entities” and heavily criticized the veterinary groups in particular that are trying to stop the sale of performance horses in Kentucky.
Needless to say, the Kentucky state senator has quite suddenly made a name for herself. Walking Horse blogs are now whirling across the country and proponents of a “sound” Tennessee Walker are livid. In an Op-ed piece that appeared in Tuesday’s editions of the Lexington newspaper. Pam Rogers of the Humane Society of Kentucky blasted the senator.
“Webb has taken the path most traveled by many in the Big Lick industry — deny, deny, deny. She has also made an appalling attempt to defend the actions of an admitted violator of the Horse Protection Act, Tennessee walking horse Hall of Fame trainer Jackie McConnell.
“The real demons are trainers like McConnell, and he is not alone. There is no question that the cruel practice of soring is widespread in the Big Lick horse show industry. Unscrupulous trainers apply caustic chemicals to horses' ankle area, then ride them with chains on their ankles that hurt their sensitized skin with every step.
“’Stacks’ — like high-heeled horseshoes — are nailed to the horse's front hooves to add weight and height, and are frequently used to conceal objects and methods used to inflict pain to the soft tissue of a horse's hoof," she explained.
She added, “These practices force the horse to snatch his feet off the ground in an attempt to relieve the pain, creating the Big Lick that is rewarded by judges. Major veterinary groups, including the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Equine Practitioners and the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, have called for a ban on these devices.
“Instead of defending horse abusers like McConnell, Webb should be working to protect horses by supporting stronger laws to crack down on such criminals. Soring has no place in Kentucky, the Horse Capital of the World and the heart of Tennessee walking horse country.
“A December 2012 Mason-Dixon poll indicates that the majority of voters support federal legislation to strengthen the Horse Protection Act and state legislation making soring a felony offense.
“Soring also has no place at the Kentucky Horse Park, which Webb is lobbying to host a sale later this month that would showcase Big Lick Tennessee walking horses. Horse advocates are disturbed that this state-run park would provide a venue for a horse show discipline frequently associated with such extreme cruelty,” she also wrote.
Meanwhile, the movement to end cruelty to the Tennessee Walking Horse moved on unabated. Pending legislation will make it tougher and tougher and – in Tennessee – soring is now a felony punishable with up to five years in prison.
Somebody better tell Senator Robin Webb not to bring those horses she “loves” to Tennessee.
royexum@aol.com
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Ky. voices: It's time to end walking horse abuse
Published: January 22, 2013
Robin Webb defends, excuses behavior
By Pam Rogers
Kentucky has a proud tradition of celebrating horses. It also harbors a dark reality of abuse toward the beautiful, gentle Tennessee walking horse. This contradiction became more clear last week with the news that state Sen. Robin Webb became embroiled in such abuse.
Webb and her horses' trainer have reportedly been cited for violating the federal Horse Protection Act by entering horses showing signs of abuse into a competition. Specifically, the animals were allegedly subjected to a cruel training method known as "soring."
Soring is the painful application of chemicals or other training methods to force the animals to perform an artificial high-stepping gait — known as the "Big Lick"— for show competitions.
Despite being made illegal by the federal Horse Protection Act in 1970, soring continues to be prevalent in the walking horse show industry, and Kentucky horse owners and trainers have the second-highest number of citations, after Tennessee.
The Humane Society of the United States is dedicated to seeing the law properly enforced and the practice of soring come to a long-awaited end. But we need legislators like Webb to join the effort to crack down on this criminal practice, not disavow or defend the cruelty that exists.
In response to the allegations of horse abuse, Webb has taken the path most traveled by many in the Big Lick industry — deny, deny, deny. She has also made an appalling attempt to defend the actions of an admitted violator of the Horse Protection Act, Tennessee walking horse Hall of Fame trainer Jackie McConnell.
An undercover investigator for The HSUS caught McConnell on camera soring horses as well as beating and shocking horses' faces. The story made national headlines and McConnell ultimately pleaded guilty in federal court to a felony. While horse lovers around the country were horrified and irate over the video, and lawmakers in Congress are working to improve protections for Tennessee walking horses, Webb called the defenseless horses "dangerous," and blamed the hours of damning undercover footage for "demonizing" the breed.
The real demons are trainers like McConnell, and he is not alone. There is no question that the cruel practice of soring is widespread in the Big Lick horse show industry. Unscrupulous trainers apply caustic chemicals to horses' ankle area, then ride them with chains on their ankles that hurt their sensitized skin with every step. "Stacks" — like high-heeled horseshoes — are nailed to the horse's front hooves to add weight and height, and are frequently used to conceal objects and methods used to inflict pain to the soft tissue of a horse's hoof.
These practices force the horse to snatch his feet off the ground in an attempt to relieve the pain, creating the Big Lick that is rewarded by judges. Major veterinary groups, including the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Equine Practitioners and the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, have called for a ban on these devices.
Instead of defending horse abusers like McConnell, Webb should be working to protect horses by supporting stronger laws to crack down on such criminals. Soring has no place in Kentucky, the Horse Capital of the World and the heart of Tennessee walking horse country. A December 2012 Mason-Dixon poll indicates that the majority of voters support federal legislation to strengthen the Horse Protection Act and state legislation making soring a felony offense.
Soring also has no place at the Kentucky Horse Park, which Webb is lobbying to host a sale later this month that would showcase Big Lick Tennessee walking horses. Horse advocates are disturbed that this state-run park would provide a venue for a horse show discipline frequently associated with such extreme cruelty.
Tennessee walking horses have a beautiful natural gait that has been grotesquely exploited. They are forced to endure this pain throughout their entire show careers. Due to weaknesses in the federal law and a failed system of industry self-policing, the trainers who are caught inflecting the torture pay little penance. It's time for a change.
**********
Roy Exum: Senator "Just Like Lance"
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Robin Webb, a Democratic state senator from Kentucky, just became “the Lance Armstrong of the Tennessee Walking Horse industry” after it was revealed two of her horses were ticketed with violations of the federal Horse Protection Act at a North Carolina horse show in October. There was evidence of scar-rule violations on both horses, which means the horses had been sored and, in the Walking Horse world, to sore is to cheat.
As unbelievable as it may appear, Senator Webb (D-Grayson) was even lauded as the 2012 Performance Horse Ambassador by the industry’s Breeders and Exhibitors group in December ,but now she has been shown to be “just like Lance” after two of her horses, Showstopper and Air Force One, were found in violation of the scarring rule and banned from competition last fall in Creedmoor, N.C.
In a scathing story that appeared 10 days ago in the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, Webb was portrayed as a typical “Big Lick queen” who still favors the scurilous padded hooves and action devices that the American Veterinarian Medical Association, the American Association of Equine Practitioners and many other animal rights organizations want to ban.
Of course, Senator Webb denied everything at first, telling writer Janet Patton, “I don’t sore my horses. I love my horses, and they love me.” But as she was interviewed, Webb called pending Congressional legislation to end soring as “extreme” and even defended the horrifying tape that showed Jackie McConnell, who is now a felon, beating and torturing horses.
Webb had the audacity to tell the newspaper the tape that has now been viewed by millions of horse advocates around the world “was taken out of context” and that Tennessee Walking Horses are “dangerous” animals. “You don’t know what happened five minutes before or five minutes after the tape was made. These are animals that are very dangerous. Every breed has training techniques that animal rights groups find offensive.”
And this woman was just chosen as the Performance Horse Ambassador of the Year? Sweet mother of pearl! Lance wouldn’t have said something that stupid to Oprah! Asked about the violations, Webb said “the scar rule is very subjective,” but her trainer, Donald Stamper of Richmond, hung up on the reporter rather than demonstrate his ignorance. But he was also ticketed for violating the Horse Protection Act.
Asked why she didn’t challenge the tickets, Senator Webb said she was unaware she had been ticketed and, as far as she knows, she has not been suspended. But the Lexington newspaper article left no doubt she is a proponent of the padded, or “performance,” horse and that her Ambassador award was for her work in the discussions with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Webb, now a lawyer at age 52, worked as a coal miner until the age of 25 before obtaining her degrees. She claimed that the many groups calling for bans on the action devices were “agenda-driven entities” and heavily criticized the veterinary groups in particular that are trying to stop the sale of performance horses in Kentucky.
Needless to say, the Kentucky state senator has quite suddenly made a name for herself. Walking Horse blogs are now whirling across the country and proponents of a “sound” Tennessee Walker are livid. In an Op-ed piece that appeared in Tuesday’s editions of the Lexington newspaper. Pam Rogers of the Humane Society of Kentucky blasted the senator.
“Webb has taken the path most traveled by many in the Big Lick industry — deny, deny, deny. She has also made an appalling attempt to defend the actions of an admitted violator of the Horse Protection Act, Tennessee walking horse Hall of Fame trainer Jackie McConnell.
“The real demons are trainers like McConnell, and he is not alone. There is no question that the cruel practice of soring is widespread in the Big Lick horse show industry. Unscrupulous trainers apply caustic chemicals to horses' ankle area, then ride them with chains on their ankles that hurt their sensitized skin with every step.
“’Stacks’ — like high-heeled horseshoes — are nailed to the horse's front hooves to add weight and height, and are frequently used to conceal objects and methods used to inflict pain to the soft tissue of a horse's hoof," she explained.
She added, “These practices force the horse to snatch his feet off the ground in an attempt to relieve the pain, creating the Big Lick that is rewarded by judges. Major veterinary groups, including the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Association of Equine Practitioners and the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association, have called for a ban on these devices.
“Instead of defending horse abusers like McConnell, Webb should be working to protect horses by supporting stronger laws to crack down on such criminals. Soring has no place in Kentucky, the Horse Capital of the World and the heart of Tennessee walking horse country.
“A December 2012 Mason-Dixon poll indicates that the majority of voters support federal legislation to strengthen the Horse Protection Act and state legislation making soring a felony offense.
“Soring also has no place at the Kentucky Horse Park, which Webb is lobbying to host a sale later this month that would showcase Big Lick Tennessee walking horses. Horse advocates are disturbed that this state-run park would provide a venue for a horse show discipline frequently associated with such extreme cruelty,” she also wrote.
Meanwhile, the movement to end cruelty to the Tennessee Walking Horse moved on unabated. Pending legislation will make it tougher and tougher and – in Tennessee – soring is now a felony punishable with up to five years in prison.
Somebody better tell Senator Robin Webb not to bring those horses she “loves” to Tennessee.
royexum@aol.com
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
NEWS - The USEF Bans Pads and Chains From Their Rulebook
This is incredibly exciting! This past December, the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) Executive Committee made a rule change to their rulebook excluding soring, action devices, and the use of weighted shoes, pads and wedges in conjunction with a hoof band! The change was made December 17, 2012 and is effective immediately.
Copied from their rulebook. The official rule number is GR839n. Click here for the link to the rulebook section GR; Section 839n is on page 25.
SUBCHAPTER 8-F WELFARE OF THE HORSE.
GR839 Cruelty to and Abuse of a Horse.
n. Soreing and/or the use of an action device on any limb of a Tennessee Walking
Horse, Racking Horse, or Spotted Saddle Horse (each a breed not recognized by
the Federation) in any class at a Federation Licensed Competition is prohibited.
An action device is defined by the USDA as any boot, collar, chain, roller, or other
device that encircles or is placed upon the lower extremity of the leg of a horse
in such a manner that it can rotate around the leg or slide up and down the leg so
as to cause friction or strike the hoof, coronet band, fetlock joint or pastern of the
horse. (Protective bell boots or heel boots are specifically excluded from this definition).
The use of a weighted shoe, pad, wedge, in conjunction with a hoof band
or other device or material (commonly referred to as a performance package)
placed on, inserted in, or attached to any limb of a Tennessee Walking Horse,
a Racking Horse, or Spotted Saddle Horse (each a breed not recognized by the
Federation) constructed to artificially alter the gait of such a horse, and which
are not protective or therapeutic in nature, in classes at a Federation Licensed
Competition is prohibited. EC 12/17/12 Effective Immediately.
It's also important to note that this is breed specific, meaning that they have pointed out this is specific to TWHs, SSHs and Racking Horses. It does not affect other breeds that use pads, wedges or bands.
So this means that at any show that uses the USEF rulebook, they have to abide by this rule, and stacks, bands, and action devices ARE NOT allowed at the show! This means that if there a show in your area that has TWH stacked and banded classes in it and the show is USEF affiliated, let the show management know to remove those classes or they can be fined by the USEF. If they don't, then give the USEF a call!
This is massively huge, folks. The USEF has not recognized the TWH breed and the SSH and Racking Horse subsets because of the soring and does not include a rulebook for these horses in their association. But to actually put this down in writing in their rulebook...well, this means a lot and should be a gigantic message to the TWH industry. It's time to wake up and stop playing games and start getting rid of the current BL look!
Copied from their rulebook. The official rule number is GR839n. Click here for the link to the rulebook section GR; Section 839n is on page 25.
SUBCHAPTER 8-F WELFARE OF THE HORSE.
GR839 Cruelty to and Abuse of a Horse.
n. Soreing and/or the use of an action device on any limb of a Tennessee Walking
Horse, Racking Horse, or Spotted Saddle Horse (each a breed not recognized by
the Federation) in any class at a Federation Licensed Competition is prohibited.
An action device is defined by the USDA as any boot, collar, chain, roller, or other
device that encircles or is placed upon the lower extremity of the leg of a horse
in such a manner that it can rotate around the leg or slide up and down the leg so
as to cause friction or strike the hoof, coronet band, fetlock joint or pastern of the
horse. (Protective bell boots or heel boots are specifically excluded from this definition).
The use of a weighted shoe, pad, wedge, in conjunction with a hoof band
or other device or material (commonly referred to as a performance package)
placed on, inserted in, or attached to any limb of a Tennessee Walking Horse,
a Racking Horse, or Spotted Saddle Horse (each a breed not recognized by the
Federation) constructed to artificially alter the gait of such a horse, and which
are not protective or therapeutic in nature, in classes at a Federation Licensed
Competition is prohibited. EC 12/17/12 Effective Immediately.
It's also important to note that this is breed specific, meaning that they have pointed out this is specific to TWHs, SSHs and Racking Horses. It does not affect other breeds that use pads, wedges or bands.
So this means that at any show that uses the USEF rulebook, they have to abide by this rule, and stacks, bands, and action devices ARE NOT allowed at the show! This means that if there a show in your area that has TWH stacked and banded classes in it and the show is USEF affiliated, let the show management know to remove those classes or they can be fined by the USEF. If they don't, then give the USEF a call!
This is massively huge, folks. The USEF has not recognized the TWH breed and the SSH and Racking Horse subsets because of the soring and does not include a rulebook for these horses in their association. But to actually put this down in writing in their rulebook...well, this means a lot and should be a gigantic message to the TWH industry. It's time to wake up and stop playing games and start getting rid of the current BL look!
Sunday, January 13, 2013
NEWS and ARTICLES - Kentucky Horse Park Stands Up for the Horse and Sen. Robin Webb's Violations
We've been doing some hard work on the FTTWH Facebook group to help make some changes with the TWH situation. Among those was people writing to the Kentucky Horse Park after learning that they were going to be the location for the Kentucky After Christmas Sale, the sale itself owned by David Landrum, a multiple HPA violator.
John Nicholson of the KHP was kind enough to call me and has been keeping me up to date on what's been going on. Today, an article was released online on the Lexington Herald-Leader concerning this very subject. I've copied and pasted the article below; click here for the link. Really, the article tells everything better than I can. But I have been reassured by John that the HIO WILL be the International Walking Horse Association and that the USDA might also be present. The KHP has made it their highest priority to make sure the law is upheld and the horses are safe. They have a meeting next week to discuss this situation, and have not signed a contract with the sale's owners for this reason.
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Horse Park might host sale that could include controversial 'padded' horses
Published: January 12, 2013
By Janet Patton — jpatton1@herald-leader.com
A controversial breed might be getting a new hoof in the door at the Kentucky Horse Park, and equine welfare groups are not happy.
The Horse Park is in negotiations to allow a sale this month of Tennessee walking horses, possibly including some wearing controversial hoof pads that exaggerate their gait. The Kentucky After Christmas Sale hopes to offer about 300 horses for sale Jan. 25 and 26.
Horse Park director John Nicholson said that legal activities have a right to use the state-run park. Padded horses are legal — although several groups headquartered on the park's campus, including the American Association of Equine Practitioners, are working to change that.
The organizers of the sale say they want to be transparent and will use inspectors that the state specifies.
But questions have been raised about one of the sale's partners, David Landrum, who was accused of abuse last summer involving a horse in his care.
History of the sale
For 25 years, the Kentucky After Christmas Sale was at Tattersall's at The Red Mile, but that facility has been demolished.
State Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, a prominent walking horse advocate and breeder, said she lobbied to keep the sale in Lexington. She said she doesn't see why this should be newsworthy.
"It was either move it or keep it in Lexington," she said. "If I'm going to breed a horse, I want to be able to sell it here."
Webb herself has been cited by North Carolina horse show inspectors in the past year for violating the federal Horse Protection Act.
Renting the Horse Park's Alltech Arena is proving unpopular with horse advocates who argue that a state facility devoted to horses should not provide a showcase for people who might be involved in what they consider abusive practices.
"The Kentucky Horse Park is a public facility. Families go there. We question whether it is appropriate for padded, chained horses to be shown there," said Teresa Bippen, president of Friends of Sound Horses. "That horse was banned from the World Equestrian Games. Nobody wanted to see that horse there."
During the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games at the Horse Park, Games organizers would not allow padded Tennessee walking horses to perform.
Given that and the bad publicity in the past few years concerning padded horses, the Horse Park seems to be going "against the tide," said Keith Dane, director of equine protection for the Humane Society of the United States.
"Kentucky is supposed to be the Horse Capital of the World, supposed to love its horses," he said. "This is a serious problem in the industry that isn't being addressed. Providing new venues for that kind of horse to be shown and sold, particularly the Kentucky Horse Park, which is a top-level, state-run park, is a disconnect."
The question of whether to allow the sale will be on the agenda for the Kentucky Horse Park Commission at its board meeting Wednesday. The contract for the venue has yet to be signed, and the commission could block the sale.
The Horse Park is funded by revenue from events at the park, with supplementary revenue from the non-profit Horse Park Foundation and from the state.
Last year, the park came under scrutiny from the General Assembly when Gov. Steve Beshear requested an additional $3.5 million appropriation for the park despite its drawing a record number of new major events. That could make turning away a paying customer difficult. Rental of the arena and stalls could generate about $10,000 for the park.
Nicholson said he has received numerous calls and e-mails from people concerned about the sale, which usually has at least a few dozen padded horses — animals wearing thick front horseshoes used to help create an exaggerated, high-stepping gait known as "the big lick."
The big lick is often associated with the worst abuses under the federal Horse Protection Act, including "soring," the deliberate injuring of walking horses' front legs.
The painful treatments that trainers sometimes use to encourage the big lick include painting caustic chemicals on the horse's front legs, piling on heavy chains that bounce on tender spots, applying huge padded shoes, or inserting objects (including nails, tacks or golf balls) under the pads to create sore feet, a practice known as "pressure shoeing."
Allegations made online
David Landrum, vice president of the Kentucky After Christmas Sale, and some perennial horse sellers at the sale have been associated with violations of the federal Horse Protection Act.
A database of HPA violations lists five suspensions for Landrum from 1997 to 2010 — for soring, for putting a foreign substance on a horse's leg, for violating show rules and for verbal abuse.
Last summer, Landrum also was involved in a dispute that erupted online involving a horse allegedly abused while at his stables to be trained. It remains unclear exactly what happened to the horse and when.
A mare named Jose's Wine and Roses was brought to a new trainer, Joe Cotten, a Louisville native and a former Landrum employee who now lives in Bell Buckle, Tenn.
Cotten said that when she arrived he was shocked at the condition of the horse's feet and posted photos on Facebook. He also demanded to know how she had passed previous inspections by officials from the USDA-accredited horse-industry group called SHOW, an acronym that stands for "Sound horses, Honest judging, Objective inspections, Winning fairly."
In an interview with the Herald-Leader, Cotten said L.M. Murphy, husband of owner Deborah Murphy, told him the mare had been in Landrum's barn.
Cotten said the horse also was examined by a veterinarian who took separate photos of the horse's front feet. Copies of those photos — obtained by the Herald-Leader, labeled "Jose's Wine and Roses" and dated June 18, 2012 — appear to show scars and injuries.
Deborah Murphy said Friday that she thinks the injuries happened while the mare was with Cotten.
"She was fine. ... I was there every week, and she was fine," Murphy said. "When this fiasco on Facebook came out, my husband picked her up. ... She was fine when she went there; after a week, she wasn't. I know it had to happen at Joe Cotten's. ... Why Joe Cotten put this on the Internet is beyond any of us."
Murphy said there are no photos with the report she got from the vet who examined the mare at Cotten's barn. She declined to release the report to the Herald-Leader. Murphy later said that the veterinarian has told her no photos were taken.
"It's none of your business. None of this is," Murphy said. "I want to close the book on this. I don't want to go through this again."
The veterinarians, Dr. John Bennett and Dr. Belinda Mendenhall, did not return calls from the Herald-Leader.
Landrum told the Herald-Leader that Jose's Wine and Roses had not been sored. He said she had been shown in 2011 at the National Futurity in Shelbyville, Tenn., and was inspected at the time by the USDA.
"I don't know what horse those photos were of," Landrum said. "The horse left my place in great shape."
Cotten insisted the Facebook and vet photos are of the horse Murphy brought him that day from Landrum's stable and that the injuries did not occur in the days she was under Cotten's care.
Cotten, who also has multiple HPA violations according to an online database, said no industry investigators had ever contacted him about the incident but he wrote online in June that he had been warned that walking horse insiders would "drop the hammer" on him.
Within days, Cotten was handed a 7½ -year suspension and fined $5,000 by SHOW inspectors. "It's a classic whistle-blower case is what it is," Cotten said.
The inspectors
SHOW is accredited by the USDA to license designated qualified persons to inspect walking horses at shows and sales for signs of soring, including scars, tender legs or foreign substances.
Landrum said SHOW officials investigated Jose's Wine and Roses and found no problem.
That is not entirely accurate.
SHOW interim leader Mike Inman told the Herald-Leader that the group stepped in and took the horse to a vet for at least two weeks of care.
"It needed medication attention to get its feet back in proper condition," Inman said. "I was not here at the time, but I know the horse was taken, at SHOW's expense, and given treatment. This was done as a goodwill gesture for the good of the horse."
SHOW did not establish how or when the horse got in that condition.
Inman said the group doesn't have the authority to examine records related to the horse's circumstances outside the show ring.
"Joe Cotten claims one thing, David Landrum another, and the owner claims another. We can't decide what's right or wrong," Inman said.
SHOW had previously been the inspecting horse-industry organization for the Kentucky After Christmas Sale but will not be this year, because the USDA is attempting to decertify SHOW, which would strip the group of the authority to inspect shows or sales.
Protecting horse, park
Landrum and the sale's president, Jerrold Pedigo, both said that USDA standards are upheld at the sale.
"We've never conducted a sale without inspectors certified by the USDA," Pedigo said.
There have been horses that failed inspection, he said.
"They're seldom ... but they have occurred," he said. "That's the whole purpose of having the inspections. We have to make sure they don't get in the sale."
To ensure that there are no sore horses at the Horse Park, director Nicholson said, the state specified which horse industry organization will supply the inspectors.
The International Walking Horse Association — one of three accredited to inspect walking horse shows that want to be eligible to receive funds from the taxpayer-funded Kentucky Breeders' Incentive Fund — will do the inspections.
Nicholson said he has urged the USDA to send federal inspectors, something that often causes trainers and riders to flee horse shows in Kentucky and elsewhere to avoid that scrutiny.
Pedigo said he would welcome USDA involvement and wants the sale to be transparent.
"I would hope the main goal is make sure the participants follow the law," Pedigo said. "So long as we do that, the system put in place protects the animal. I can certainly appreciate, respect and agree with those individuals who don't want to see an animal sored."
Nicholson said the state has taken steps to ensure that all walking horses at the sale are protected. Walking horses are popular for trail riding as well as other kinds of sports and have sweet dispositions, he said. The Horse Park's Parade of Breeds includes some Tennessee walking horses that are "flat-shod," meaning they do not have padded hooves.
The Horse Park "is a public facility, publicly supported," Nicholson said. "Law-abiding people who love and properly care for their horses have the right to utilize it. Soring of horses to enhance performance is abhorrent, repugnant, immoral and, thankfully, illegal.
"Illegal practices will not happen at the Kentucky Horse Park."
Landrum said that the Kentucky After Christmas Sale could be an important move to rehabilitate the image of the Tennessee walking horse and bring it back into the mainstream.
"We believe we can bring a product that will be accepted. We have faith in the consignors and the horses they're bringing," Landrum said. "I think this could be a breakthrough and people could realize what a nice animal we have. We want people to come out. I think it can all be a very, very positive thing. It's important to give this breed a chance. We're coming in the right way."
Whether that will be enough is unclear. Groups including the National Walking Horse Association, which is headquartered at the Horse Park, are skeptical. The NWHA promotes flat-shod Tennessee walking horses and prohibits the use of pads in all events.
"I feel like if the International Walking Horse Association does the inspections, only sound horses will show," said Jason Crawhorn, NWHA president.
Will that include padded performance horses?
"If the performance horses still show up at the sale."
**********
In other news, both Rate My Horse PRO and the Lexington Herald-Leader have picked up on the story that Senator Robin Webb was cited for soring horses. I've copied and pasted the Lexington article below.
Rate My Horse PRO article
Lexington Herald-Leader article
**********
State senator cited for violating Horse Protection Act
Published: January 12, 2013
By Janet Patton — jpatton1@herald-leader.com
A high-profile walking horse proponent and padded horse rider, Kentucky state Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, has suffered an equine black eye.
At the North Carolina Walking Horse Association championships in October, Webb was cited for violations involving two horses.
"Senator Robin Webb Busted" read the headline Dec. 4 on an anti-soring blog called "For the Tennessee Walking Horse."
According to the USDA's database of Horse Protection Act violations, Webb was ticketed for violating the "scar rule," which establishes criteria to look for certain scars on the horse that are considered evidence that a horse has been "sored" and is ineligible to compete. Webb, as owner, was cited as a responsible party for two horses, Air Force One and Showstopper.
In an interview last week with the Herald-Leader, Webb denied soring either horse and said she did not see anything wrong with the animals at the time of the competition.
"I don't sore my horses," Webb said. "I love my horses, and my horses love me."
She said Showstopper is a young horse whom she bought not long before the show; Air Force One is a prize-winning horse she has ridden in shows for years without incident, including a week after he failed the inspection.
"They were turned down on a scar rule and sent back to the barn," she said. "The scar rule is very subjective."
She said she did not appeal because she never received paperwork on either violation and, as far as she knows, she was not suspended.
Her trainer, Donald Stamper of Richmond, also was cited. Stamper confirmed Webb has horses in his barn but said he did not recall the incident.
"Where was this at, now?" Stamper asked in response to a reporter's question. He hung up when asked for comment on his role.
Webb also has been a vocal opponent of federal legislation, filed by U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Hopkinsville, to ban the use of pads and chains, called "action devices," on horses.
"The Whitfield bill is extreme," Webb said last week.
Whitfield said in a statement Friday that his bill "eliminates the self-policing system currently employed, allowing for a more uniform enforcement. ... It is far from 'extreme,' which is why it carries the support of the American Veterinarian Medical Association, the American Association of Equine Practitioners and numerous others."
The American Association of Equine Practitioners, headquartered at the Kentucky Horse Park, has said the ban is necessary to end soring.
Dr. René A. Carlson, president of the American Veterinarian Medical Association, said in June that her group is asking for a ban on "the use of action devices and performance packages in the training and showing of walking horses, because they appear to be facilitating soring."
The U.S. Equestrian Federation, also headquartered at the Horse Park, also does not allow the use of action devices in the show ring.
At the annual meeting of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders and Exhibitors Association in December, Webb criticized the AAEP and other veterinary groups who have called for a ban, dubbing them "agenda-driven entities."
Webb was honored by Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders and Exhibitors Association as its 2012 Performance Horse Ambassador for her participation in USDA discussions.
Last week, Webb told the Herald-Leader that the Tennessee walking horse has been "demonized," particularly in light of a video, shot by an undercover investigator from the Humane Society of the United States, showing top walking horse trainer Jackie L. McConnell abusing horses in his Tennessee barn.
Webb said the footage, in which McConnell was shown striking tied-up horses in the face, was taken out of context.
"You don't know what happened five minutes before or five minutes after. ... These are animals that are very dangerous," Webb said. "Every breed has training techniques that animal-rights groups find offensive."
**********
While Webb has not received any type of fine or suspension as of yet, these articles are still very telling of her stance toward the horse itself. It certainly says a lot about her trainer that he hung up on the reporter. But at least he didn't run his mouth and basically say he approves of what McConnell does. Case in point: first she says she loves her horses and they love her, but later on she claims that they are "dangerous" and implies that they deserve to be beaten to be punished. "Every breed has training techniques that animal-rights groups find offensive." Actually, I think most people would find stewarding offensive, which is the training technique McConnell is using in that video to force the horses to stand still and take the pain of the inspection. Except for you, of course, since you clearly support what he's doing to those horses in the video. It sickens me that someone can blatantly support such heinous and wicked acts against another living being. Webb, I cannot figure out how you sleep at night knowing your horses are probably going through the same torture. May you get what you deserve.
John Nicholson of the KHP was kind enough to call me and has been keeping me up to date on what's been going on. Today, an article was released online on the Lexington Herald-Leader concerning this very subject. I've copied and pasted the article below; click here for the link. Really, the article tells everything better than I can. But I have been reassured by John that the HIO WILL be the International Walking Horse Association and that the USDA might also be present. The KHP has made it their highest priority to make sure the law is upheld and the horses are safe. They have a meeting next week to discuss this situation, and have not signed a contract with the sale's owners for this reason.
**********
Horse Park might host sale that could include controversial 'padded' horses
Published: January 12, 2013
By Janet Patton — jpatton1@herald-leader.com
A controversial breed might be getting a new hoof in the door at the Kentucky Horse Park, and equine welfare groups are not happy.
The Horse Park is in negotiations to allow a sale this month of Tennessee walking horses, possibly including some wearing controversial hoof pads that exaggerate their gait. The Kentucky After Christmas Sale hopes to offer about 300 horses for sale Jan. 25 and 26.
Horse Park director John Nicholson said that legal activities have a right to use the state-run park. Padded horses are legal — although several groups headquartered on the park's campus, including the American Association of Equine Practitioners, are working to change that.
The organizers of the sale say they want to be transparent and will use inspectors that the state specifies.
But questions have been raised about one of the sale's partners, David Landrum, who was accused of abuse last summer involving a horse in his care.
History of the sale
For 25 years, the Kentucky After Christmas Sale was at Tattersall's at The Red Mile, but that facility has been demolished.
State Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, a prominent walking horse advocate and breeder, said she lobbied to keep the sale in Lexington. She said she doesn't see why this should be newsworthy.
"It was either move it or keep it in Lexington," she said. "If I'm going to breed a horse, I want to be able to sell it here."
Webb herself has been cited by North Carolina horse show inspectors in the past year for violating the federal Horse Protection Act.
Renting the Horse Park's Alltech Arena is proving unpopular with horse advocates who argue that a state facility devoted to horses should not provide a showcase for people who might be involved in what they consider abusive practices.
"The Kentucky Horse Park is a public facility. Families go there. We question whether it is appropriate for padded, chained horses to be shown there," said Teresa Bippen, president of Friends of Sound Horses. "That horse was banned from the World Equestrian Games. Nobody wanted to see that horse there."
During the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games at the Horse Park, Games organizers would not allow padded Tennessee walking horses to perform.
Given that and the bad publicity in the past few years concerning padded horses, the Horse Park seems to be going "against the tide," said Keith Dane, director of equine protection for the Humane Society of the United States.
"Kentucky is supposed to be the Horse Capital of the World, supposed to love its horses," he said. "This is a serious problem in the industry that isn't being addressed. Providing new venues for that kind of horse to be shown and sold, particularly the Kentucky Horse Park, which is a top-level, state-run park, is a disconnect."
The question of whether to allow the sale will be on the agenda for the Kentucky Horse Park Commission at its board meeting Wednesday. The contract for the venue has yet to be signed, and the commission could block the sale.
The Horse Park is funded by revenue from events at the park, with supplementary revenue from the non-profit Horse Park Foundation and from the state.
Last year, the park came under scrutiny from the General Assembly when Gov. Steve Beshear requested an additional $3.5 million appropriation for the park despite its drawing a record number of new major events. That could make turning away a paying customer difficult. Rental of the arena and stalls could generate about $10,000 for the park.
Nicholson said he has received numerous calls and e-mails from people concerned about the sale, which usually has at least a few dozen padded horses — animals wearing thick front horseshoes used to help create an exaggerated, high-stepping gait known as "the big lick."
The big lick is often associated with the worst abuses under the federal Horse Protection Act, including "soring," the deliberate injuring of walking horses' front legs.
The painful treatments that trainers sometimes use to encourage the big lick include painting caustic chemicals on the horse's front legs, piling on heavy chains that bounce on tender spots, applying huge padded shoes, or inserting objects (including nails, tacks or golf balls) under the pads to create sore feet, a practice known as "pressure shoeing."
Allegations made online
David Landrum, vice president of the Kentucky After Christmas Sale, and some perennial horse sellers at the sale have been associated with violations of the federal Horse Protection Act.
A database of HPA violations lists five suspensions for Landrum from 1997 to 2010 — for soring, for putting a foreign substance on a horse's leg, for violating show rules and for verbal abuse.
Last summer, Landrum also was involved in a dispute that erupted online involving a horse allegedly abused while at his stables to be trained. It remains unclear exactly what happened to the horse and when.
A mare named Jose's Wine and Roses was brought to a new trainer, Joe Cotten, a Louisville native and a former Landrum employee who now lives in Bell Buckle, Tenn.
Cotten said that when she arrived he was shocked at the condition of the horse's feet and posted photos on Facebook. He also demanded to know how she had passed previous inspections by officials from the USDA-accredited horse-industry group called SHOW, an acronym that stands for "Sound horses, Honest judging, Objective inspections, Winning fairly."
In an interview with the Herald-Leader, Cotten said L.M. Murphy, husband of owner Deborah Murphy, told him the mare had been in Landrum's barn.
Cotten said the horse also was examined by a veterinarian who took separate photos of the horse's front feet. Copies of those photos — obtained by the Herald-Leader, labeled "Jose's Wine and Roses" and dated June 18, 2012 — appear to show scars and injuries.
Deborah Murphy said Friday that she thinks the injuries happened while the mare was with Cotten.
"She was fine. ... I was there every week, and she was fine," Murphy said. "When this fiasco on Facebook came out, my husband picked her up. ... She was fine when she went there; after a week, she wasn't. I know it had to happen at Joe Cotten's. ... Why Joe Cotten put this on the Internet is beyond any of us."
Murphy said there are no photos with the report she got from the vet who examined the mare at Cotten's barn. She declined to release the report to the Herald-Leader. Murphy later said that the veterinarian has told her no photos were taken.
"It's none of your business. None of this is," Murphy said. "I want to close the book on this. I don't want to go through this again."
The veterinarians, Dr. John Bennett and Dr. Belinda Mendenhall, did not return calls from the Herald-Leader.
Landrum told the Herald-Leader that Jose's Wine and Roses had not been sored. He said she had been shown in 2011 at the National Futurity in Shelbyville, Tenn., and was inspected at the time by the USDA.
"I don't know what horse those photos were of," Landrum said. "The horse left my place in great shape."
Cotten insisted the Facebook and vet photos are of the horse Murphy brought him that day from Landrum's stable and that the injuries did not occur in the days she was under Cotten's care.
Cotten, who also has multiple HPA violations according to an online database, said no industry investigators had ever contacted him about the incident but he wrote online in June that he had been warned that walking horse insiders would "drop the hammer" on him.
Within days, Cotten was handed a 7½ -year suspension and fined $5,000 by SHOW inspectors. "It's a classic whistle-blower case is what it is," Cotten said.
The inspectors
SHOW is accredited by the USDA to license designated qualified persons to inspect walking horses at shows and sales for signs of soring, including scars, tender legs or foreign substances.
Landrum said SHOW officials investigated Jose's Wine and Roses and found no problem.
That is not entirely accurate.
SHOW interim leader Mike Inman told the Herald-Leader that the group stepped in and took the horse to a vet for at least two weeks of care.
"It needed medication attention to get its feet back in proper condition," Inman said. "I was not here at the time, but I know the horse was taken, at SHOW's expense, and given treatment. This was done as a goodwill gesture for the good of the horse."
SHOW did not establish how or when the horse got in that condition.
Inman said the group doesn't have the authority to examine records related to the horse's circumstances outside the show ring.
"Joe Cotten claims one thing, David Landrum another, and the owner claims another. We can't decide what's right or wrong," Inman said.
SHOW had previously been the inspecting horse-industry organization for the Kentucky After Christmas Sale but will not be this year, because the USDA is attempting to decertify SHOW, which would strip the group of the authority to inspect shows or sales.
Protecting horse, park
Landrum and the sale's president, Jerrold Pedigo, both said that USDA standards are upheld at the sale.
"We've never conducted a sale without inspectors certified by the USDA," Pedigo said.
There have been horses that failed inspection, he said.
"They're seldom ... but they have occurred," he said. "That's the whole purpose of having the inspections. We have to make sure they don't get in the sale."
To ensure that there are no sore horses at the Horse Park, director Nicholson said, the state specified which horse industry organization will supply the inspectors.
The International Walking Horse Association — one of three accredited to inspect walking horse shows that want to be eligible to receive funds from the taxpayer-funded Kentucky Breeders' Incentive Fund — will do the inspections.
Nicholson said he has urged the USDA to send federal inspectors, something that often causes trainers and riders to flee horse shows in Kentucky and elsewhere to avoid that scrutiny.
Pedigo said he would welcome USDA involvement and wants the sale to be transparent.
"I would hope the main goal is make sure the participants follow the law," Pedigo said. "So long as we do that, the system put in place protects the animal. I can certainly appreciate, respect and agree with those individuals who don't want to see an animal sored."
Nicholson said the state has taken steps to ensure that all walking horses at the sale are protected. Walking horses are popular for trail riding as well as other kinds of sports and have sweet dispositions, he said. The Horse Park's Parade of Breeds includes some Tennessee walking horses that are "flat-shod," meaning they do not have padded hooves.
The Horse Park "is a public facility, publicly supported," Nicholson said. "Law-abiding people who love and properly care for their horses have the right to utilize it. Soring of horses to enhance performance is abhorrent, repugnant, immoral and, thankfully, illegal.
"Illegal practices will not happen at the Kentucky Horse Park."
Landrum said that the Kentucky After Christmas Sale could be an important move to rehabilitate the image of the Tennessee walking horse and bring it back into the mainstream.
"We believe we can bring a product that will be accepted. We have faith in the consignors and the horses they're bringing," Landrum said. "I think this could be a breakthrough and people could realize what a nice animal we have. We want people to come out. I think it can all be a very, very positive thing. It's important to give this breed a chance. We're coming in the right way."
Whether that will be enough is unclear. Groups including the National Walking Horse Association, which is headquartered at the Horse Park, are skeptical. The NWHA promotes flat-shod Tennessee walking horses and prohibits the use of pads in all events.
"I feel like if the International Walking Horse Association does the inspections, only sound horses will show," said Jason Crawhorn, NWHA president.
Will that include padded performance horses?
"If the performance horses still show up at the sale."
**********
In other news, both Rate My Horse PRO and the Lexington Herald-Leader have picked up on the story that Senator Robin Webb was cited for soring horses. I've copied and pasted the Lexington article below.
Rate My Horse PRO article
Lexington Herald-Leader article
**********
State senator cited for violating Horse Protection Act
Published: January 12, 2013
By Janet Patton — jpatton1@herald-leader.com
A high-profile walking horse proponent and padded horse rider, Kentucky state Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, has suffered an equine black eye.
At the North Carolina Walking Horse Association championships in October, Webb was cited for violations involving two horses.
"Senator Robin Webb Busted" read the headline Dec. 4 on an anti-soring blog called "For the Tennessee Walking Horse."
According to the USDA's database of Horse Protection Act violations, Webb was ticketed for violating the "scar rule," which establishes criteria to look for certain scars on the horse that are considered evidence that a horse has been "sored" and is ineligible to compete. Webb, as owner, was cited as a responsible party for two horses, Air Force One and Showstopper.
In an interview last week with the Herald-Leader, Webb denied soring either horse and said she did not see anything wrong with the animals at the time of the competition.
"I don't sore my horses," Webb said. "I love my horses, and my horses love me."
She said Showstopper is a young horse whom she bought not long before the show; Air Force One is a prize-winning horse she has ridden in shows for years without incident, including a week after he failed the inspection.
"They were turned down on a scar rule and sent back to the barn," she said. "The scar rule is very subjective."
She said she did not appeal because she never received paperwork on either violation and, as far as she knows, she was not suspended.
Her trainer, Donald Stamper of Richmond, also was cited. Stamper confirmed Webb has horses in his barn but said he did not recall the incident.
"Where was this at, now?" Stamper asked in response to a reporter's question. He hung up when asked for comment on his role.
Webb also has been a vocal opponent of federal legislation, filed by U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Hopkinsville, to ban the use of pads and chains, called "action devices," on horses.
"The Whitfield bill is extreme," Webb said last week.
Whitfield said in a statement Friday that his bill "eliminates the self-policing system currently employed, allowing for a more uniform enforcement. ... It is far from 'extreme,' which is why it carries the support of the American Veterinarian Medical Association, the American Association of Equine Practitioners and numerous others."
The American Association of Equine Practitioners, headquartered at the Kentucky Horse Park, has said the ban is necessary to end soring.
Dr. René A. Carlson, president of the American Veterinarian Medical Association, said in June that her group is asking for a ban on "the use of action devices and performance packages in the training and showing of walking horses, because they appear to be facilitating soring."
The U.S. Equestrian Federation, also headquartered at the Horse Park, also does not allow the use of action devices in the show ring.
At the annual meeting of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders and Exhibitors Association in December, Webb criticized the AAEP and other veterinary groups who have called for a ban, dubbing them "agenda-driven entities."
Webb was honored by Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders and Exhibitors Association as its 2012 Performance Horse Ambassador for her participation in USDA discussions.
Last week, Webb told the Herald-Leader that the Tennessee walking horse has been "demonized," particularly in light of a video, shot by an undercover investigator from the Humane Society of the United States, showing top walking horse trainer Jackie L. McConnell abusing horses in his Tennessee barn.
Webb said the footage, in which McConnell was shown striking tied-up horses in the face, was taken out of context.
"You don't know what happened five minutes before or five minutes after. ... These are animals that are very dangerous," Webb said. "Every breed has training techniques that animal-rights groups find offensive."
**********
While Webb has not received any type of fine or suspension as of yet, these articles are still very telling of her stance toward the horse itself. It certainly says a lot about her trainer that he hung up on the reporter. But at least he didn't run his mouth and basically say he approves of what McConnell does. Case in point: first she says she loves her horses and they love her, but later on she claims that they are "dangerous" and implies that they deserve to be beaten to be punished. "Every breed has training techniques that animal-rights groups find offensive." Actually, I think most people would find stewarding offensive, which is the training technique McConnell is using in that video to force the horses to stand still and take the pain of the inspection. Except for you, of course, since you clearly support what he's doing to those horses in the video. It sickens me that someone can blatantly support such heinous and wicked acts against another living being. Webb, I cannot figure out how you sleep at night knowing your horses are probably going through the same torture. May you get what you deserve.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
NEWS and RESEARCH - USDA Horse Program Activity Report 2012
We start off the new with the list of inspections performed and violations found by the USDA for 2012. Click here for the link. Below is the final page of the report.
What this shows is the number of horses inspected at each show the USDA attended, and then the resulting violations. It is not a representation of all the horses shown at each show, nor is it a representation of all the horses shown in TWH shows across the country. The USDA inspected 9,962 horses in 2012 and found 582 violations. If we take the numbers as is, then this is means that with horses inspected by the USDA and violations found, we have a 95% compliance rate. (Huh. Now where's that 98% compliance coming from again?)
Now, I went through and made some changes to the report in red text to show some different types of numbers. Click here to see the entire PDF file with my changes in red text. Below is the final page of the PDF with my edits.
I went through all the shows with zero violations and I red-lined the shows that were flat shod only. The only show I did not red line was the SSHBEA show, and that is because it is common for horses to be sored at SSHBEA shows; this is where Barney Davis showed most of the time. This removed eight shows from the list, bringing the total amount of horses inspected to 9,199. This leads to a compliance rate of 94% for 2012.
It's too bad we can't know which inspected horses were BL and which ones weren't. That would help in our research a lot. But of course the industry isn't going to let us have THAT information. It would expose those pesky things called FACTS that totally mess up their lies! It might be available through the USDA, though, so hopefully I can find that information.
I'm not sure if I posted this information on the blog before, but I thought it was very important to note this information from the USDA concerning the 2012 Celebration. Click here for the link.
2012 Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration Results
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) enforces the Horse Protection Act (HPA) to prohibit horses participating in shows, sales, exhibitions, or auctions from being subjected to soring. To facilitate enforcement of the HPA, USDA established the Designated Qualified Persons (DQP) program. Through this program, show or sale managers hire accredited veterinarians with equine experience or other knowledgeable horsemen who have been formally trained and licensed by USDA-certified horse industry organizations or associations to physically inspect every Tennessee walking horse before being shown. USDA also attends some horse shows unannounced to serve as a second line of defense in detecting sored horses. Working together, USDA and DQPs strive to ensure that only sound and healthy horses participate in shows.
Given the interest in the enforcement of the HPA at this year's Celebration, USDA wanted to post preliminary inspection results now, rather than at the end of the year. This year, USDA and DQPs inspected 1,849 horses and found 166 violations - an approximate 9% violation rate. This rate is slightly lower than the 9.5% violation rate from the 2011 Celebration, during which 2,143 horses were inspected and 203 violations were found.
So, here are the facts:
So if the number of violations are just barely decreasing, where's all of that amazing work the industry has been doing to clean this up? Shouldn't they be nearly non-existent at this point?
In my truly honest opinion, there is no excuse for these numbers to have to continue. There should be zero violations every single year. This is not just a few bad apples or they'd have been caught 40+ years ago. This is all the same shit, just a different year.
I have some ideas in the works we want to implement starting this month to raise awareness and support for the horses. So hopefully we will see some real changes this year, if not the end to pads and chains.
Now, I went through and made some changes to the report in red text to show some different types of numbers. Click here to see the entire PDF file with my changes in red text. Below is the final page of the PDF with my edits.
I went through all the shows with zero violations and I red-lined the shows that were flat shod only. The only show I did not red line was the SSHBEA show, and that is because it is common for horses to be sored at SSHBEA shows; this is where Barney Davis showed most of the time. This removed eight shows from the list, bringing the total amount of horses inspected to 9,199. This leads to a compliance rate of 94% for 2012.
It's too bad we can't know which inspected horses were BL and which ones weren't. That would help in our research a lot. But of course the industry isn't going to let us have THAT information. It would expose those pesky things called FACTS that totally mess up their lies! It might be available through the USDA, though, so hopefully I can find that information.
I'm not sure if I posted this information on the blog before, but I thought it was very important to note this information from the USDA concerning the 2012 Celebration. Click here for the link.
2012 Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration Results
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) enforces the Horse Protection Act (HPA) to prohibit horses participating in shows, sales, exhibitions, or auctions from being subjected to soring. To facilitate enforcement of the HPA, USDA established the Designated Qualified Persons (DQP) program. Through this program, show or sale managers hire accredited veterinarians with equine experience or other knowledgeable horsemen who have been formally trained and licensed by USDA-certified horse industry organizations or associations to physically inspect every Tennessee walking horse before being shown. USDA also attends some horse shows unannounced to serve as a second line of defense in detecting sored horses. Working together, USDA and DQPs strive to ensure that only sound and healthy horses participate in shows.
Given the interest in the enforcement of the HPA at this year's Celebration, USDA wanted to post preliminary inspection results now, rather than at the end of the year. This year, USDA and DQPs inspected 1,849 horses and found 166 violations - an approximate 9% violation rate. This rate is slightly lower than the 9.5% violation rate from the 2011 Celebration, during which 2,143 horses were inspected and 203 violations were found.
So, here are the facts:
- Soring is still going on, and it is not at the supposed 98% compliance rate the industry wants us to believe.
- When we remove the flat shod only horse shows, the numbers clearly change.
- The number of violations are just barely decreasing.
- Between the 2011 and 2012 Celebration, 294 less horses were shown, with 37 less violations.
So if the number of violations are just barely decreasing, where's all of that amazing work the industry has been doing to clean this up? Shouldn't they be nearly non-existent at this point?
In my truly honest opinion, there is no excuse for these numbers to have to continue. There should be zero violations every single year. This is not just a few bad apples or they'd have been caught 40+ years ago. This is all the same shit, just a different year.
I have some ideas in the works we want to implement starting this month to raise awareness and support for the horses. So hopefully we will see some real changes this year, if not the end to pads and chains.
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