Tennessee Walking Horses Tortured **GRAPHIC VIDEO**

[cynatnite]

Graphic undercover video shot by investigators from the Humane Society of the United States and obtained by ABC News has revealed shocking alleged torture of horses under the supervision of renowned Tennessee Walking Horse trainer Jackie McConnell.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/video/undercover-video-prize-horses-tortured-16360945

According to ABC News, the alleged abuse was intended to force the horses to produce the "high-stepping gait" on which they are evaluated in competition.

In the video, McConnell presides over the stable hands as they allegedly use electric cattle prods to force the horses to lift their feet in a special way.

McConnell also supervises as hands allegedly apply corrosive chemicals to the animals' ankles, allegedly so the mixture will eat into their skin and prompt them to lift their legs high.

"That creates intense pain and then the ankles are wrapped with large metal chains so the horses flinch, or raise their feet even higher," the Human Society's Keith Dane told ABC News.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/16/undercover-video-reveals-tennessee-walking-horses-tortured-to-win-championships_n_1522621.html

In college, a friend did an extensive presentation over this very subject. She has family that trains these and they pretty much don't talk to her because of her efforts to stop this torture. What she showed us was quite graphic. I was very unsettled by it.

She said that the owners and trainers of the horses have discovered ways to hide the torture devices from the humane society when they come to the shows. She also said that these horses do not learn this naturally. It is a forced act and never pleasant for the horse.

This shit should really be outlawed and the owners and trainers jailed.

[Brickbat]

1. There is a ton of abuse in show and dressage. It's shocking.

[yankeepants]

2. In dressage???

How so?

[magical thyme]

3. whoa. there are many, many different horse show "disciplines."

What trainers do with Tennessee Walkers, and how they "train" and show them, has NOTHING to do with dressage training. NOTHING.

That is not to say that there aren't people in every discipline who break rules or use force. But the "saddleseat" world is very much its own world, just as the western reining world is its own, hunter seat, jumper, combined training, endurance, tb racing, arab racing, quarter horse racing, show jumping and so on...all use different types of horses, have totally different goals and objectives, and different challenges.

The humane societies and horse show organizations have been after the Saddleseat world (mostly Saddlebred and Tennessee Walkers) forever. There was a terrible case several years back when a national champion Saddlebred, Wild Eyed and Wicked, died following injuries to his ankles from having snake venom injected.

The arabian I rescued 22 years ago may have had ginger put under his tail to make him carry it higher...or one massage therapist who helped me with him suggested they may have used a cattle prod on him, back when he was showing the arabian A level halter circuit.

But none of this has anything to do with the dressage world. That's not to say that there aren't abusers there. But the fact is that horses don't do well in dressage if they are abused because the objectives are a relaxed and supple horse. Abuse makes horses tense, so abusers end up failing. Cheaters are more likely to be using pain killers or tranquilizers on dressage horses.

[Brickbat]

6. Yep, I understand that.

The objectives may be a relaxed and supple horse, but the modern attitude of quick results without a lot of understanding has meant rollkur, for example, is still widely practiced in training barns and in warmups.

[magical thyme]

10. but why conflate bad dressage with bad saddleseat?

At least be fair and address that abuse exists throughout the equine competition world, instead of picking out a single discipline and mixing it in with the one the article addresses.

Further, as much as classical dressage trainers may despise rollkur, it is not apparently considered so abusive as to merit banning, or even to prevent its chief proponent from practicing it openly and winning Olympic gold medals. In looking at abuse in the dressage world, I would look more to the catastrophe that befell poor Poetin, forced to perform in an insurance auction while clearly in severe pain from founder. And I still say you are more likely to find dressage horses being fed pain killers to keep them training when they shouldn't be, then to find pain deliberately inflicted.

[lonestarnot]

5. Race horse bidness too.

[spanone]

7. this is not dressage. this is tennessee walking horses. they abuse these horses.

they sore their feet. if you've ever seen them live, it's totally unnatural.

this fucker should be in jail. NOW.

dressage is not abusive.

[Brickbat]

8. I understand the difference; I was adding to the discussion.

Dressage should not be abusive, but there are abusers in dressage.

[magical thyme]

11. there are abusers in every discipline

this article is about Tennessee Walkers and saddleseat, and their specific forms of abuse with cattle prods, chains and corrosive chemicals used to burn skin.

Not about dressage and rollkur hyperflexion during warmup. Nor about tb racehorses being run into the ground on overly hard tracks before their knees have even closed.. Nor quarter horse halter horses bred with huge bodies on tiny feet that can't carry the weight, or with known genetic diseases that cause their skin to fall off due to faulty collagen. Nor arabian horses with their tails gingered to make them lift them higher, or having cans full of rocks shaken at them so they are so tense and nervous when people come near them they become nearly impossible to handle when you have to treat an injury or try to ride them. Nor combined training horses who are pushed to hard and collapse in competition. Nor endurance horses who aren't prepared properly and tie up in competition. Or jumpers being poled. And so on.

[cynatnite]

9. I remember how stunned I was when my friend gave the presentation...

I had no idea that this was unnatural or how the horses were trained. It was truly barbaric.

[sense]

4. I used to board my horse

in a barn where Tennessee Walker show horses were stabled. When I questioned why their legs were always taped and there was saran wrap under the tape I could not get an answer that made any sense.....until the trainer was barred from showing them for "soring", or burning their legs with chemicals to make them exaggerate their gaits. I never understood why anyone would do that to a animal. People are sick.