Humane Society Releases Video of a Horse Being Sored

Look at this video if you dare. Thank you to The Humane Society and its brave undercover person who photographed the poor horse being sored. While we can describe in words how a horse suffers from soring, to see it first hand as in the following video is so poignant that many viewers will weep.  What can be done? First, boycott the Tennessee Walking Horse Celebration and let people know you're doing it and explain why. Maybe if the money dries up for this event, the non-sorers will do something to get rid of the vicious people who shame the Celebration by somehow entering sored horses. An organization that fights soring is FOSH as does The Humane Society. Join both. If you know anyone in state or national politics, look into that. Is there anything that can be done there?
Look at this video if you dare, and then act!
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120517/NEWS03/305180035/Humane-Society-releases-video-Tennessee-Walking-Horse-abuse-graphic-video-

A Call to Action: Friends of Sound Horses



Many good people are trying to eliminate soring in the face of this truth: Although this loathsome practice is illegal, it keeps going on. What does one do about the contemptuous defiance of the Horse Protection Law that those who sore demonstrate? The severity of this issue demands action rather than fruitless hand-wringing. Theory flies out the window when horses are still tortured. We should rise above theory and take productive action to expose the villains and see to it that the truth about what they do to horses is communicated to the world. Men and women who sore flourish in secret, work covertly. I am never surprised when people tell me they don't know what soring is.
Friends of Sound Horses (FOSH) is devoted to acting on its conviction that education is paramount to understanding the problem of soring, and that  people who sore should be exposed and punished. In this posting, I'll be quoting from the group's website at http://www.fosh.info/. I believe that FOSH represents the highest hope for ridding the equestrian world of this shameful practice and freeing horses from this abuse.
In deciding whether to join an organization, it's helpful to read and agree with the principles that motivate the group. Here they are for FOSH:
"All FOSH events adhere to the requirements of the Horse Protection Act.
Horses are to be treated with dignity, respect, and compassion.
Horses must be presented as sound in both body and mind.
The preferred way of going is natural, correct, and without exaggeration.
Shoeing is intended only for the protection of the foot and its structure. Barefoot horses are both welcomed and encouraged where practical.
Handlers & riders are expected to use training techniques and equipment that conform to the highest humane standards as recognized by the general equestrian community.
Exhibitors have a duty to conduct themselves in an orderly, responsible, and sportsmanlike manner."
To give legs to these principles, FOSH has many programs to see that natural gaited horses are the rule rather than tragic, sored horses like the one above. Here are several examples of FOSH thinking.
1. The horse is always the first consideration. In its shows, FOSH "no longer allow[s] two-year olds under saddle, manhole cover shoes and hooves longer than 4 1/2 inches. Our philosophy is different from most other equine showing and inspection organizations, and we take risks with these rules. Sometimes it's about doing the right thing and not what's popular."
2. "Because the horse comes first, FOSH does not allow trainers on its Board. We realize there are sound, wonderful trainers who are FOSH members; however, we have observed that some organizations suffer turmoil through trainer battles. There is also a perception that trainer Directors have a show ring benefit over others or push for rule changes that provide advantages to them and their clients at the expense of the horse. This could cause the FOSH 'horse first' mission to become watered down."
3. FOSH has an Independent Judges Association with a set of rules, "designed to showcase a more natural horse because the naturally moving horse will be more marketable and less likely to end up at auction or with an unhappy owner and home."
4. FOSH provides inspectors for horse shows to make sure there are no sored horses in the ring. Remember my previous blog that discussed the fact that sometimes inspectors are often appointed who have an interest in not finding sored horses? FOSH says, "Our inspectors are the gold standard in the industry and our Licensed Designated Qualified Persons (DQPS) . . . pay close attention to the HPA regulations and use our experience to negotiate the Operating Plan with the USDA . . . "
5. "No other gaited horse showing organization fights soring to the extent of FOSH. We have spent thousands of dollars attending Horse Protection Act (HPA) meetings, researching soring/pain/pressure technology, and fighting the evildoers tooth and nail on ideas they try to slide through the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). We post the HPA suspensions and Horse Industry Organization (HIO) Meeting Minutes on our website, organized the Sound Horse Conference, and track and quantify thousands of HPA violations (this is a tremendous use of our dollars and time) so we can issue press releases and keep the world informed." This last function of the group impresses me the most. The FOSH site has listed more than 8,700 HPA violators who were suspended from 1986 to the present. Imagine the number of people and groups this invaluable information helps: as The Humane Society says on its web site, "individuals selecting a professional trainer for their gaited horse can use the . . . [FOSH]Web site to research the trainer's violation history. A buyer can verify the seller's reputation for soring. Horse rescues that are placing horses with new adoptees can verify their HPA history before placing the horse. Show management and enforcement officials can familiarize themselves with names of repeat violators, listed in one of the search options. The site also provides current data, such as suspension proportions by state, and by violation type." Informing the world, indeed!
There are many more advantages to becoming a FOSH member. But see for yourself. Go to http://www.fosh.info/ and read the whole web site. I'm confident that you'll  join the fight to end soring by joining FOSH.

Justice and Paul Blackburn

Here is how The Humane Society of the United States answers the question of why soring persists even though the Horse Protection Act outlawed it. "From the beginning, underfunding and political pressure from industry insiders have plagued USDA's enforcement of the HPA. Lack of adequate funding prevents the USDA from sending agency officials to every Tennessee and Racking Horse show. As a result, they have instituted a system that allows horse industry organizations (HIOs) to train and license their own inspectors, known as Designated Qualified Persons (DPQs), to examine horses at shows for signs of soring. With the exception of a few HIOs who are committed to ending soring, most of the HIOs are made up of industry insiders who have a clear stake in preserving the status quo" www.humanesociety.org/issues/tenn_walking_horses/facts/what_is_soring.html.To make matters worse, when perpetrators get caught, they seldom receive the punishment they deserve. Here is a case in point. Paul Blackburn, Jeffery Bradford, and Christen Altman were employed by Barney Davis at his Hidden Creek Farms in Lewisburg, Tennessee, where they sored horses and practiced other illegalities. In a seven-month investigation, a smart agent of the U.S. Department of Agriculture collected enough evidence to indict and convict them all. At the sentencing of Blackburn, he said, "I know what I done was wrong. I am very sorry for it." His attorney argued that Blackburn shouldn't go to jail because he is the father of six children and the family would suffer. The judge listened. Blackburn's final punishments were these: one year of probation, a $1000 penalty, and an assignment to write an article about soring to be published in the local paper. After the sentencing, Blackburn, as reported in a number of newspapers, said "he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."  In the wrong place to get caught? This doesn't square with his courtroom apology. Notably, both the judge and one of the two U.S. attorneys said they didn't know about horse soring before taking over the case. The judge even said that more people should know about soring. I hope that the February sentencing of the others will be as stringent as the law allows, seeing that video evidence shows a plate and bolt being inserted in a horse's foot.
And the future of justice for sorers looks dim. Bill Killian, U.S. Attorney, said that "the case, along with the government's 2011 case in Middle Tennessee against Chris Zahnd, 45, of Trinity, Alabama, who was sentenced in November to two years of probation, are the first criminal prosecutions of Horse Protection Act violations nationally in about 20 years."
To tell the truth, I don't expect the other three defendants to be sentenced severely enough for what they did. The Tennessee cruelty to animals laws are too weak. And some people claim that since horses are still classified in Tennessee law as "livestock" rather than "animal," the latter defined as "a domesticated living creature or a wild creature previously captured," those who torture gaited horses in the state will never be punished even adequately for what they did.
Special thanks to Bill Poovey, whose article I depended on for this posting, and which was reprinted in a number of newspapers.
Next posting: Friends of Sound Horses

Soring Horses, The Horse Protection Act, and FOSH

This is the first post of several in coming days that deal with soring horses, The Horse Protection Act, and Friends of Sound Horses (FOSH). Many people still don't know what soring is. Soring is the deliberate mutilation of a horse to make its gait so unusual that the rider will win prizes in the show ring and prestige from fellow owners and trainers. The methods used to achieve the piteous, grotesque gait in the picture above are blistering the horse's forelegs through the use of chemicals, either applied or injected; cruel trimming of the horse's hooves; and forcing the horse to endure pressure-shoeing: all of this to achieve the unnatural gait you see above. That gait is the result of the poor horse lifting his legs high to avoid any more pain.
Next time, a brief history of how this practice came about.