Soring, the Horrific Practice Used to Train Tennessee Walking Horses

A Tennessee Walking Horse Showing a Natural Gait

Ham on Wry felt pure revulsion when the story broke May 17 about a trainer who had beaten a Tennessee Walking Horse, using the practice of soring. Soring involves using chemical agents on the pasterns, bulbs of the heel, or coronary bands of the horses, causing burning or blistering of the horses' legs in order to accentuate their gaits. Trainers must use a brush and wear gloves when applying the caustic substances because of their toxicity. They then wrap the horses' legs in plastic while the chemicals are absorbed. Soring causes extreme pain, and horses often can't stand after the treatment. In another method, trainers use pressure shoes, where the hoof is trimmed to the quick so that the sole is in direct contact with the pad or shoe. The horse may then be "road foundered," ridden up and down hard surfaces on the over-trimmed hooves, until they are very sore.

Gait After Soring

St. Francis of Assisi captured the essence of the type of person who would treat an animal as abusively as the trainers who use soring on Tennessee Walking Horses. “If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men”  He has been proven right when it comes to predicting psychopathic behavior. Studies have shown a strong correlation between people who torture and murder animals and those who eventually do the same to human victims. 

Damage After soring

Pepsi announced Thursday that it had ended sponsorship of the National Walking Horse Celebration in Shelbyville, Tennessee, after seeing a video shot by the Humane Society of the United States capturing footage of soring as it occurred.  Ham on Wry applauds Pepsi's immediate response and would drink Pepsi as a show of support, if I drank colas. 

As seems more and more typical of state lawmakers, instead of policing organizations that make a living using animals, they have outlawed undercover investigations. Now there's an innovative solution. Stick your head in the ground and pretend not to see. I'd love to punish the trainers who use soring by applying the same treatment they use on horses as their punishment for the damage they cause to otherwise gentle animals.

Shame on all of those who have turned a blind eye to such cruelty!