Walking horses still sored to force high steps
http://www.kentucky.com/254/story/459836.html [2008-7-14]
Tag : Camphor Powder
When U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors, accompanied byarmed guards, came to a recent walking horse show in Owingsville,they were looking for intentionally maimed horses.
But they barely got the chance. Only a handful of the estimated200-250 horses stayed to compete.
The rest went home without ever getting off their trailers.
”A good part of the people just decided they weren't going toshow. They didn't feel comfortable with some of the inspectionprocedures,“ said Kenny Smith, who heads the Kentucky WalkingHorse Association's affiliate inspection program.
The USDA had good reason to suspect some of those horses might havebeen ”sored“ — deliberately injured, usually bythe use of chemicals or pressure shoes on their hoofs — in aneffort to exaggerate their natural gait.
New technology tested last year found that half of the horsesinspected at 14 of the biggest shows were positive for at least oneprohibited substance.
And competitors in Kentucky and elsewhere know that when USDAinspectors — and not just paid industry inspectors —are present, the chance of getting a citation is much greater. In2007, industry inspectors issued 629 tickets at 506 shows; USDAinspectors issued 325 tickets at 31 shows. Violators facesuspensions and sometimes fines, but these are not always enforced.
Earl Rogers Jr., KWHA president and manager of the OwingsvilleLions Club Show, said that competitors left because they did notwant to risk a citation so close to the big national competition,the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration in Shelbyville,Tenn., in late August. But last year, according to anti-soringactivists, one trainer competed — and won a ribbon — atthe Celebration while ”serving“ a multiyear USDAsuspension.
The USDA said tickets were issued at the Owingsville show but they do not yet have a final count.Three tickets, out of 111 horses inspected, were issued at the sameshow in 2006.
Donna Benefield, executive director of the Horse ProtectionCommission, the only vet-run inspection program, said soringpractices are still prevalent more than 20 years after the sportclaimed it had cleaned itself up.
”It's all just basically chemical warfare instead of acompetition of horsemanship,“ Benefield said.
”Society is no longer going to accept what they're doing tothese horses. You can't keep selling this lie.“
The Kentucky Walking Horse Association, one of the largest of theTennessee walking horse breed groups, sanctions about 140 events ayear, about half of those in Kentucky.
About 21 percent of the soring violations cited from 2002-2006 werefound at KWHA-sanctioned shows, according to an analysis of USDAdata done by Friends of Sound Horses, an anti-soring organizationthat promotes naturally gaited walking horses.
Asked about the USDA's new testing for residue on legs, Rogersfirst said, ”I have a big problem with the USDA'sswabs.“
In an effort to establish irrefutable scientific, rather thansubjective, evidence of violations, the USDA has turned to gaschromatography/mass spectrometry. Vets swab horses' legs and sendthe samples to the USDA lab in Iowa. Soring agents, such askerosene or camphor; numbing agents such as lidocaine; and maskingagents, such as hoof black, are all prohibited.
But Rogers said horses can pick up traces of anything from shampoosand from auto exhaust on grass that can earn a positive.
Then he backtracked, saying the swabs are fine. ”The majorproblem is inconsistent palpation of the legs,“ Rogers said. Vets palpate — or feel — the legs for soreness.
He didn't want to say more. ”I'm scared the USDA's going tocome back to our show next year because of something I mightsay.“
The KWHA is one of the largest Tennessee walking horseorganizations to not sign onto the USDA's show ”operatingplan,“ in which groups agree to impose uniform penalties andhonor each other's suspensions.
In 2002, the KWHA formed a committee ”to offer ideas relatingto ethical industry issues.“
Those ideas include better marketing to overcome the ”publicstigma created years ago,“ according to its Web site, with anemphasis on ”the need to control any negativism within ourindustry. “ They urged shows to better publicize theircharitable and economic benefits.
The committee notes do not mention soring.
But other groups have a lot to say about it.
”Basically, they're being injured, in my opinion,“ saidDon Vizi, executive director of the National Walking HorseAssociation, which is based at the Kentucky Horse Park.
Vizi's group, formed 10 years ago, has zero tolerance of pads,chains and soring. His group has dropped out of the USDA'soperating plan because members think penalties have been toowatered down.
”We had people who said, "We don't want our horsesdamaged,' “ Vizi said.
But his group is still in the minority among walking horses. Andeven flat-shod horses sometimes have been sored to achieve a”performance gait.“
Keith Dane, director of equine protection for the Humane Society ofthe United States, said that, although many people don't sore theirhorses, the main breed groups don't appear to be committed tostopping those who do.
”They're not even trying to find it, and the punishment is solax it wouldn't matter much if they did,“ Dane said.
Although walking horse groups say soring is a thing of the past, asrecently as 2000 the USDA reported that 42 percent of horsesinspected showed abnormalities that indicated previous soring.Among horses on padded shoes, the rate was 76 percent.
The regulators are hamstrung. The Horse Protection Act wasimplemented in 1970 with a $500,000 appropriation cap, andpolitical pressure has kept it there. That means USDA inspectorscan go to less than 10 percent of the shows and have to rely on thepaid inspectors.
”If we really want to end it, we need more money,“ Danesaid. ”To some extent, we're just wasting half a milliondollars. We're just regulating the problem, not blocking it.“
But people with the KWHA said that inspectors abuse their power,and that is why so many people left the Owingsville show.
”That was kind of an anomaly,“ Smith said.
But it was not necessarily unusual. About two weeks earlier,something similar happened at a show in White Pines, Tenn.
”I think a lot of (Owingsville) was reaction to the negativepublicity from White Pines,“ said Duane Rector of SmithsGrove, who is on the oversight committee of the KWHA's inspectionprogram.
Rector said a different group of federal inspectors came in, useddifferent procedures, ”and there was a lot of controversyover the inspection process.“
The slightest deviation, he contended, can cause the horse toreact, and that can result in a ticket. That doesn't necessarilymean the horse was ”sored“ or that illegal trainingprocedures were used, Rector said.
”We're trying to produce a compliant horse. There are maybe afew people that are not. Maybe a few people who are trying to drivea little wedge. I don't believe that anybody sets out to do this. Ihonestly try to stay compliant,“ Rector said.
He said he has never had a federal citation, although informationwas taken on one of his horses after a show earlier this year and aticket may yet be issued.
He said challenging a ruling is costly, so people instead take thetwo-week suspension. ”We plead guilty even though we'reinnocent,“ Rector said.
When U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors, accompanied byarmed guards, came to a recent walking horse show in Owingsville,they were looking for intentionally maimed horses.
But they barely got the chance. Only a handful of the estimated200-250 horses stayed to compete.
The rest went home without ever getting off their trailers.
”A good part of the people just decided they weren't going toshow. They didn't feel comfortable with some of the inspectionprocedures,“ said Kenny Smith, who heads the Kentucky WalkingHorse Association's affiliate inspection program.
The USDA had good reason to suspect some of those horses might havebeen ”sored“ — deliberately injured, usually bythe use of chemicals or pressure shoes on their hoofs — in aneffort to exaggerate their natural gait.
New technology tested last year found that half of the horsesinspected at 14 of the biggest shows were positive for at least oneprohibited substance.
And competitors in Kentucky and elsewhere know that when USDAinspectors — and not just paid industry inspectors —are present, the chance of getting a citation is much greater. In2007, industry inspectors issued 629 tickets at 506 shows; USDAinspectors issued 325 tickets at 31 shows. Violators facesuspensions and sometimes fines, but these are not always enforced.
Earl Rogers Jr., KWHA president and manager of the OwingsvilleLions Club Show, said that competitors left because they did notwant to risk a citation so close to the big national competition,the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration in Shelbyville,Tenn., in late August. But last year, according to anti-soringactivists, one trainer competed — and won a ribbon — atthe Celebration while ”serving“ a multiyear USDAsuspension.
The USDA said tickets were issued at the Owingsville show but they do not yet have a final count.Three tickets, out of 111 horses inspected, were issued at the sameshow in 2006.
Donna Benefield, executive director of the Horse ProtectionCommission, the only vet-run inspection program, said soringpractices are still prevalent more than 20 years after the sportclaimed it had cleaned itself up.
”It's all just basically chemical warfare instead of acompetition of horsemanship,“ Benefield said.
”Society is no longer going to accept what they're doing tothese horses. You can't keep selling this lie.“
The Kentucky Walking Horse Association, one of the largest of theTennessee walking horse breed groups, sanctions about 140 events ayear, about half of those in Kentucky.
About 21 percent of the soring violations cited from 2002-2006 werefound at KWHA-sanctioned shows, according to an analysis of USDAdata done by Friends of Sound Horses, an anti-soring organizationthat promotes naturally gaited walking horses.
Asked about the USDA's new testing for residue on legs, Rogersfirst said, ”I have a big problem with the USDA'sswabs.“
In an effort to establish irrefutable scientific, rather thansubjective, evidence of violations, the USDA has turned to gaschromatography/mass spectrometry. Vets swab horses' legs and sendthe samples to the USDA lab in Iowa. Soring agents, such askerosene or camphor; numbing agents such as lidocaine; and maskingagents, such as hoof black, are all prohibited.
But Rogers said horses can pick up traces of anything from shampoosand from auto exhaust on grass that can earn a positive.
Then he backtracked, saying the swabs are fine. ”The majorproblem is inconsistent palpation of the legs,“ Rogers said. Vets palpate — or feel — the legs for soreness.
He didn't want to say more. ”I'm scared the USDA's going tocome back to our show next year because of something I mightsay.“
The KWHA is one of the largest Tennessee walking horseorganizations to not sign onto the USDA's show ”operatingplan,“ in which groups agree to impose uniform penalties andhonor each other's suspensions.
In 2002, the KWHA formed a committee ”to offer ideas relatingto ethical industry issues.“
Those ideas include better marketing to overcome the ”publicstigma created years ago,“ according to its Web site, with anemphasis on ”the need to control any negativism within ourindustry. “ They urged shows to better publicize theircharitable and economic benefits.
The committee notes do not mention soring.
But other groups have a lot to say about it.
”Basically, they're being injured, in my opinion,“ saidDon Vizi, executive director of the National Walking HorseAssociation, which is based at the Kentucky Horse Park.
Vizi's group, formed 10 years ago, has zero tolerance of pads,chains and soring. His group has dropped out of the USDA'soperating plan because members think penalties have been toowatered down.
”We had people who said, "We don't want our horsesdamaged,' “ Vizi said.
But his group is still in the minority among walking horses. Andeven flat-shod horses sometimes have been sored to achieve a”performance gait.“
Keith Dane, director of equine protection for the Humane Society ofthe United States, said that, although many people don't sore theirhorses, the main breed groups don't appear to be committed tostopping those who do.
”They're not even trying to find it, and the punishment is solax it wouldn't matter much if they did,“ Dane said.
Although walking horse groups say soring is a thing of the past, asrecently as 2000 the USDA reported that 42 percent of horsesinspected showed abnormalities that indicated previous soring.Among horses on padded shoes, the rate was 76 percent.
The regulators are hamstrung. The Horse Protection Act wasimplemented in 1970 with a $500,000 appropriation cap, andpolitical pressure has kept it there. That means USDA inspectorscan go to less than 10 percent of the shows and have to rely on thepaid inspectors.
”If we really want to end it, we need more money,“ Danesaid. ”To some extent, we're just wasting half a milliondollars. We're just regulating the problem, not blocking it.“
But people with the KWHA said that inspectors abuse their power,and that is why so many people left the Owingsville show.
”That was kind of an anomaly,“ Smith said.
But it was not necessarily unusual. About two weeks earlier,something similar happened at a show in White Pines, Tenn.
”I think a lot of (Owingsville) was reaction to the negativepublicity from White Pines,“ said Duane Rector of SmithsGrove, who is on the oversight committee of the KWHA's inspectionprogram.
Rector said a different group of federal inspectors came in, useddifferent procedures, ”and there was a lot of controversyover the inspection process.“
The slightest deviation, he contended, can cause the horse toreact, and that can result in a ticket. That doesn't necessarilymean the horse was ”sored“ or that illegal trainingprocedures were used, Rector said.
”We're trying to produce a compliant horse. There are maybe afew people that are not. Maybe a few people who are trying to drivea little wedge. I don't believe that anybody sets out to do this. Ihonestly try to stay compliant,“ Rector said.
He said he has never had a federal citation, although informationwas taken on one of his horses after a show earlier this year and aticket may yet be issued.
He said challenging a ruling is costly, so people instead take thetwo-week suspension. ”We plead guilty even though we'reinnocent,“ Rector said.
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