"Although soring is illegal, some trainers and owners unfortunately still employ these techniques in order to win at any cost. However, after the Shelbyville Celebration was not able to award a World Grand Champion in 2006 because eight of the 11 finalists failed inspection due to evidence of soring, something had to be done.

Since then, the Walking Horse industry has been making a concerted effort to improve training techniques and standards, and it has included American Humane in this ongoing process. I was invited to be part of a working committee comprised of equine veterinarians, veterinary academics and horse industry leaders to develop a plan to end soring, and I spent an entire day during my recent visit meeting with this committee to find solutions.

This year, a new inspection structure, more consistent inspections and more serious penalties were implemented at the Celebration -- and quite a few competitors were disqualified as a result. In addition, three people recently received lifetime suspensions from the sport as a result of violations at a July horse show -- the strongest penalties ever given in the Walking Horse industry and a bold move that demonstrates the industry’s commitment to ending the practice of soring.

I applaud the industry’s efforts to continually improve, and I hope that in the not-too-distant future, these inhumane techniques will be a thing of the past. As I attended the last three nights of the Celebration, that hope was reinforced by something very special that I witnessed. About 15 young horses were being led around the ring during the Weanlings Class competition. As I watched these adorable, frisky young horses displaying their natural, unspoiled gait, I thought, “If these little guys are trained with good, humane techniques and can grow up without pain or scars and compete with others just like them, that will be a great thing.” It occurred to me that, thanks to all of those interested in the welfare of these wonderful animals, I was seeing the bright, new future of Tennessee Walking Horses."

Read the Celebration web site: http://www.twhnc.com/news_views.htm.

The Humane Society's web article, "The Cruelest Horse Show on Earth," pulls no punches about the 2009 Celebration, saying that contrary to the horse industry claim that soring is defeated, the number of violations has been on the rise. (See http://www.humanesociety.org/news/news/2009/09/cruelest_horse_show_091709.html.) Larry Taft of The Tennessean wrote an excellent account of the 2009 Celebration entitled "Tennessee Walking Horse Abuse Triples in 4 Months." The article is as frank as the Humane Society's. He reminds us about the Horse Protection Act and says that for 30 years a group made up of owners and trainers oversaw compliance with the law in the Walking Horse industry. But that group fought with the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) over matters of interpreting and enforcing the law. This group dissolved in March 2009. Then the Celebration took it upon itself to make sure the law against soring was followed. After much discussion and meetings with relevant groups, officials finally came up with the  plan of two veterinarians enforcing 30 stewards, who would do the inspections necessary to discover which horses were sored. Inspections were supposed to be at as many gaited horse shows as possible. In a Woodbury horse show, for example, inspectors found a device in a horse's mouth to distract him from reacting to the stewards checking his sore feet. Three men were cited for taking one horse to an inspection before a show and swapping another horse in the post-show checkup. And Doyle Meadows, the CEO of the Celebration, removed 9 stewards he thought were not rigorous enough in their examinations. (See http://www.kentuckyhorse.org/en/art/285/.) The Humane Society adds in "The Cruelest Horse Show on Earth" that the trainers of "all three of the horses who took home the top awards" were cited for violating the scar rule. One owner was suspended for alleged bribery of an inspector. Certain training barns got many tickets. Inspectors found more than 400 violations. The "usual suspects," people who got citations in previous years or even during the 2009 show, kept participating and even winning.  But the Humane Society mentions lapses in the inspectors' performances: they did not watch well enough for stewarding; did not seem to be looking at all the horses who placed from first to third; and failed to put drug screening in place.

To give credit to the USDA: in light of some trainers trying to evade detection of soring by using masking or numbing agents on horses' legs, inspectors used gas chromatography and mass spectrometry for chemical analysis; infrared thermography for heat detection in the legs; and digital radiography. But, the Humane Society adds grimly, the USDA funding is far too little, only enough to send the inspectors to 7 percent of Tennessee Walking Horse shows throughout the nation.