Lack of adequate funding prevents the USDA from sending agency officials to every Tennessee walking horse and Racking Horse show. Department of Agriculture's enforcement of the HPA. From the beginning, underfunding and political pressure from industry insiders have plagued the U.S.

In the early 1970s, Congress passed the Horse Protection Act with the intent of banning this cruel practice. Except when being trained or shown, these horses spend all of their time confined to stalls.īack to top Hasn't soring been outlawed by Congress? Performance horses aren't allowed to go outside to graze and play with other horses.

Foreign objects are often inserted between the horse's hoof and these stacks, adding to the horse's suffering. These 'stacks' force the horses to stand at an unnatural angle, much like wearing high heel platform shoes all day, every day. Instead of wearing regular horseshoes, the feet of Big Lick or 'performance'-gaited show horses are fitted with tall, heavy stacks of pads to accentuate their gait. As the horse travels, the chains slide up and down, further irritating the areas already made painful by soring. Whenever the horses are ridden, in training or competition, trainers put chains around the horse's sored ankles. In training barns where soring takes place, it is common to see horses lying down in their stalls, moaning in pain. While being sored, a horse can be left in his stall for days at a time, his legs covered in caustic chemicals and plastic wrap to 'cook' the chemicals deep into his flesh. The life of a sored horse is filled with fear and pain.

Other gaited breeds, such as racking horses and spotted saddle horses, also fall victim. Tennessee walking horses, known for their smooth gait and gentle disposition, commonly suffer from the practice of soring.

Hasn't soring been outlawed by Congress?.

Today, judges continue to reward the artificial 'Big Lick' gait, thus encouraging participants to sore their horses and allowing the cruel practice to persist. Soring has been a common and widespread practice in the Tennessee walking horse show industry for decades. This causes excruciating pressure and pain whenever the horse puts weight on the hoof. Caustic chemicals-blistering agents like mustard oil, diesel fuel and kerosene-are applied to the horse's limbs, causing extreme pain and suffering.Ī particularly egregious form of soring, known as pressure shoeing, involves cutting a horse's hoof almost to the quick and tightly nailing on a shoe or standing a horse for hours with the sensitive part of his soles on a block or other raised object. Soring involves the intentional infliction of pain to a horse's legs or hooves in order to force the horse to perform an artificial, exaggerated gait.

Bill of sale grade horse template