Just when you think the TWH industry might be cleaning itself up, we read about this: http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=12242
What can be said? It's an industry based on cruelty, vanity and abject stupidity. The TWH show ring is an embarrassment to the horse world and to the state of Tennessee. Disgrace is too mild a word for how the Big Lick horses are treated.
After reading the article I can't decide if we're supposed to be sympathetic to the poor Big Lick trainers that had to withdrawal or risk "overly aggressive" inspectors. Oh, you poor babies! Overly aggressive inspectors that might actually bust you for soring and cruelty!
Let's get back to the state of Tennessee and their endorsement of Big Lick cruelty. The state horse is the Tennessee Walking Horse, and the photo they show of this horse on their website is a Big Lick walker. Nothing like statewide promotion of such cruel practices.
http://www.tennesseeanytime.org/homework/symbols.html
You can even get a picture of one of the poor crippled buggers on your license plate and drive around advertising abuse and cruelty: http://www.tennessee.gov/revenue/vehicle/licenseplates/misc/misc.htm
There are several things in the horse industry that piss me off, abuse being the main one. But it seems the TWH show industry is the only one that supports abusive measures on a whole scale basis. They endorse it, promote it, and try to excuse it. They try to insinuate that the rest of us are stupid because we don't see the merit in putting a horse up on stacks and making it walk with chains around its ankles. How shortsighted of us!
Looks like even their own association is ashamed of the abuse:
http://www.twhbea.com/gaits.htm The pictures on this page show the big lick horses. But the videos that pop up first are all flat shod. What's the problem TWHBEA? Don't you want people watching horses stagger around throwing those stacks up in the air and struggling to make it around the arena? You have to click on the menu option of the video screen to see the "performance" horse moving. The canter gives me the creeps. There is no reason a naturally comfortable horse would move like that. http://www.twhbea.com/gaitsVideocanterFSH.htm
When is the horse show industry going to stand up and refuse to sanction anymore of this blatant and unnecessary abuse? At what point do we stand up and say: ENOUGH!
