I'm sure anyone that has read this blog knows my views on soring in the gaited horse world. Trainers that sore are the bottom feeders of the horse world. Owners that keep their horses with trainers that sore should be banned from ever owning an animal.
So now a federal grand jury has handed down indictments on incidents that have happened since 2002. You can read the full story here:
http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=18167
My question is: What took so fucking long? When you found out the first horse was sored their asses should have been in jail. To dick around for 8 years is just unacceptable. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you busted these idiots. There should be a special jail for Barney Davis, Christen Altman, Jeffery Bradford and Paul Blackburn. They should have to walk across nails every day, have their heads tied back to their ankles so they get jerked on every step and had to live with a tail speculum stuck up their ass.
The fact that this kind of shit is still happening is a disgrace. The state of Tennessee should have the balls to stand up and BAN padding. They should ban tail harnesses. And they should tell those abuse enablers that run the Celebration to clean their act up or find another venue. Governor Bill Halsam, are you fricking listening? Your state promotes, condones and encourages the most abusive and messed up treatment of horses in the entire United States. Your state horse is a padded walker. You can't drive through Tennessee without seeing the padded up walker silhouette on signs, U-Haul vans, farms and bumper stickers. It's messed up. You might as well get a license plate that says: Tennessee; We're Animal Unfriendly.
I'm sure a bunch of you will pop up and say: You can't blame Tennessee for all the soring. Wanna bet? They host the Celebration, the biggest clusterfuck of abuse in the US. I don't care if the HPA inspectors are on the grounds, the abuse that takes place leading up the show is horrific. The padding, chains, long shanked twisted wire bits, tail braces and all the other accoutrements are just WRONG! There are no excuses. There is no legitimate reason to brace a horse's tail. There is no reason to use huge pads on a horse. It just serves NO purpose except to condemn the horse to a life of being stall kept, constant pain and not living the life that most horses lead.
Stop the crap Bill Halsam, grow some balls and clean up the horse show industry in Tennessee!
