August 2009 - TWH Heritage Society

Heritage Highlights
Published By: TWH Heritage Society
Volume III
Number 8, August 2009
The above photo was taken out the window of the USDA
building in Whitehall, Wisconsin after a rainfall. The
beautiful rainbow came out after the rain. I should be clear;
this photo was not taken in 2009. We haven’t had enough
rain in western Wisconsin to even think about seeing a
rainbow in the summer of 2009.
Bo’s Miss Muffin – “Stella”
From Sandra van den Hof, Hechtel, Belgium:
Bo’s Miss Muffin & Tempest Wind 5-29-09
Our condolences go out to Nya and Rocky Bates on the
loss of “Stella”. Stella passed away on August 1. Nya
writes:
“In September of 2007 we exhibited several horses at the
FOSH North American Gaited Horse Championship in
Castle Rock, Colorado. While there, I was very impressed
by a stallion named Generator's Mack Attack that was
being shown. Upon learning that that there was a mare in
foal to this stallion, we struck a deal for the purchase of
Bo's Miss Muffin (Stella). This mare was also the dam of a
wonderful mare that was showing well at the NAC named
Peach Muffin. Stella was dual registered TWHBEA and
MFTBEA and we were able to get her TWH Heritage
Society Certified.
Stella traveled to Idaho from Missouri along with her black
filly Papa's Miss Star (by Papa's Royal Delight) and
arrived in October of 2007. By early Fall of 2007, Stella
developed severe colitis and was nursed back to health but
we lost the foal. By the summer of 2008, Stella was
healthy so we bred her to Go Boy's Windwalker and she
delivered a wonderful filly, Tempest Wind. Last Friday
Stella suffered a twisted intestine and, despite heroic
efforts, we were unable to save her.”
Pleasure’s Flamin Sambuca aka Sam is the spitting image
of his sire, Ravi, with a deep red coat and long legs. Sam
is 3/4 Heritage TWH and a true eye catcher with already a
stallion look over him.
All our foals are registered with TWHBEA, chipped,
vaccinated and dewormed. We wean the colts not prior 5
months of age. Sam will be our only colt this year.
For more information contact Sandra at Pleasure Gaits
Walking Horse Farm at Sandra@pleasuregaits.com .
(Sandra, we’ve never seen a horse do a handstand
before!)
From Nya Bates:
Pleasure’s Flaming Sambuca
Savanna Belle (Nya’s granddaughter) & Go Boy's
Windwalker
Sam with his dam, Rose
To see Sam in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz2XY9oHVuU
Savanna Belle was born with the horse gene. Since infancy
she has always preferred spending her time with the horses
- watching, riding, feeding, grooming and playing with
them. One day, at age 3, while leafing through a Voice
magazine, she pointed to a photo of a TWH and said "steppace"....and she was correct!
Go Boy’s Windwalker (Larry), known for his kind and
patient disposition, has always been the most
steadfast horse for our family. Used for shows, parades,
trail, field trial, cattle work and lessons, he is now
Savanna’s riding partner.
That smile says it all!
Savannah Belle grooming Larry
From Tyler Pierce, Cornersville, Tennessee
via Email:
From Joan Hendricks, Owen, Wisconsin via
Email:
If you all remember Tyler, he is the young man with
the pretty red gelding that he trail rides in several
states
“Here's a little story and a photo (which didn't turn out too
well because of the shade) about our ride today at Lake
Wisota.
“Well summer is over and school has started back now. I
had a pretty good summer I guess you could say. I got to
go to Washington with my class. It was really cool.
We have rode about every Saturday night during the
summer. I also have been riding Red, with my friends here
around the farm during the week. We went to Circle E in
Winchester, TN for the 4th of July. It was a good weekend.
I played a lot on the rocks and hills there. We had a lot of
friends and family with us so that always makes it more
fun. I spent a lot of time riding Red bareback around the
campground there also. I really like playing around with
him like that. We have also been to a few country boy
shows near our home. Red and I won a couple of ribbons
at them, so that was good. I really enjoy riding him around
in the parking area to talk to friends and family. He is just
a lot of fun. I am almost ready to try to find me another
Heritage horse. I am wanting to get me a young gelding to
mess with. I kinda miss getting to teach things to Red. He
has gotten really good. Well, I will keep you informed
with our fall riding. I think we are going back to Big South
Fork. It is real nice there....c-ya Tyler Pierce”
During the summer, the flies are so bad around home and
at many of the places we like to ride that are fairly close to
home. The one place we can go in summer is Lake
Wissota near Chippewa Falls. We have been going there
most every week, but much of the time this year I have
gone with my Quarter Horse friends and I end up so far
ahead on my gaited horse that I can hear them talking but
don't know if they are talking about me because I can't
understand the words they are saying.
This week, Denise Wenz went along on her Chantilly Lace
(aka Tilly), I was on my Equinox (aka Eek) and a new
young friend who hasn't ridden a gaited horse before rode
my No Fear Merry (aka Tweak). We had a fun time and
left the quarter horses behind for much of the ride!
The photo, left to right is Robin McDonald on Tweak, me
on Eek, and Denise on Tilly. Lake Wissota is in the
background.”
Hey Tyler! We are looking forward to hearing about
your fall adventures!
The Wild Bunch
Tyler & Red
Don’t Discount the Geriatric Trail Horse by
Franne Brandon, Petersburg, Tennessee
Meet Jack, sometimes called Jack-a-Poo. His reg. name is
Mark's Little Jack 885575, and he is a twenty-one year old
TWH trail gelding.
Even though many people would consider this somewhat
odd equine couple much too old for serious riding, they
have been proving over the past year that they can hold
their own and earn their keep, even on some rugged trails.
On Sunday, July 19, they were joined by Heritage Mare
Tanasi Gold 975827, the only palomino mare sired by the
late Red Bud's Rascal, on a trail ride that would have taxed
the energies of many of the breed's so-called trail pleasure
horses.
Mark’s Little Jack
Tanasi Gold
This is Sunnie, so called because of her iridescent red
Allen summer coat. She is reg. as Model Dawn 894353.
She is a retired broodmare that was well broke before she
entered a broodmare band. Her current life's assignment,
besides grazing, is taking care of novice riders whether for
"first rides ever" or on longer trail loops.
Model Dawn
For this ride, we needed a driver, since none of the riders is
experienced enough to pull a gooseneck loaded with three
adult horses. Because we needed Harry, who has hauled
three plump trail mares over Monteagle Mountain to the
quarantine center in Atlanta (when it was still functional),
we also chose a trail site that was not a long distance. Still,
the farm belonging to Uncle Pete is large and well-suited
for trail riding as it has gravel farm roads, logging trails in
the woods, hayfields, and no row crops. The terrain is a
nice mix of flat hayfields, level to rolling roads, and
logging trails heading up steep hills and on the hilltops
where prospective house sites have been cleared of trees,
but no building is yet in progress.
Toward the trail!!
The farm owners own a construction firm. Their
equipment stays on a gravel lot fronting the farm's access
road. After all three horses had been loaded and taken to
the farm, the equipment lot is where we parked to tack up.
Unfortunately for my nerves, across the road from the lot
was a yippy but invisible dog and several other horse
monsters. It's been a while since I groomed Tanasi Gold
with her head quite so high in the air!
and my mare seemed to handle the slope better at a canter
than at a walk. We learned later that the footfalls echoed in
the valley where the trailer was parked. Harry joked that he
had half expected to see a mare with white mane and tail
flying come down a hillside without its rider. Oh ye of
little faith!
Heading out on the trail. From Left: Franne on Tanasi
Gold, Daniel on Sunnie, and Kristi on Jack
The other two had a more "been there, so what's that?"
attitude. Eventually, girths were tight and we could swing
up to warm up the three on the gravel area before they
headed for the first big hill. My mare had decided that the
horse monster had changed to something else, so all three
were fairly relaxed but eager to see what was up ahead as
we headed up.
The rest of the farm loop involved more logging trails, a
rugged downhill laced with rocks, brush, tree roots, and a
log or two, then a flatwalk through a hayfield that took up
back to the staging area. Since Kristi and Daniel had
promised his nieces that they could ride, we returned for
them and to tell Harry, who'd been watching the pair,
that he could go home. However, he decided to visit with
Daniel's parents, while we rode some on the road before
we let the girls have a turn. This road has little traffic,
although there were distractions like a Cat dozer flattening
some dirt and a pair of riding mowers taking care of tall
grass that had grown in the recent rain. All three horses
seemed to enjoy the varying perspectives on the road ride.
This is where my mare is at her best as lead horse, because
she is faster at dogwalk and flatwalk than the older two,
and with her setting the pace, all three can cover some
ground.
Riding past construction equipment
The first hill we rode was steeper than I had expected. My
mare had been ridden almost daily all summer, but the
other two were older and had less recent time under saddle.
Their pre-ride conditioning at home had done its job,
though, as all three topped the hill and still had energy to
spare on the lovely, level logging track on the hilltop. We
descended the other side of the hill (did I mention that
heights make me sick?), then turned toward the next hill.
Kristi asked if I thought my mare would lope that hill. I
told her to go ahead and ask Jack, and that we would
follow if he would lope it. Jack was happy to oblige her,
On the way to the logging trail
After the road riding was over, we returned to grandma's
house so the two girls could ride. By this point, Jack and
Sunnie were just a little tired.
Tanasi Gold got her second wind, head alert and ready to
go again. Tori and Lori, ages eleven and nine, still novice
riders, doubled on Sunnie, while Kristi led on Jack on a
ride back through the hayfield and up into the edge of the
woods where the land was more level. The three horses
looped this area twice before I persuaded Kristi that I was
getting hungry and ready to head back to the trailer.
In total length, this ride was a little over two hours. The
terrain was not easy, though, and we rode in a variety of
gaits. All three horses came through without undue stress,
and while Tanasi Gold could probably have gone much
longer, the other two did quite well, proving that older
horses which have been conditioned are still capable of
providing pleasant and relaxing trail rides. Novice riders
who are not yet ready for lengthy or difficult rides, and
older rides whose bones and butts insist that the days of the
all-day ride are finished, would do well to consider an
older trail horse as their riding companion. These horses
are not only seasoned, they are well set in their gaits, and
often bond better than a younger horse with lessons still to
learn.
than-pleasant habits which he demonstrated while the
children were aboard. Beauty is one of those Tennessee
Walking Horses that senses its rider's ability, and gives
accordingly. Knowing her new children need to build
confidence, she shows them perfect manners and great
sensitivity. All novice riders need to feel secure and
comfortable as they acquire riding skills, and Curry's
Beauty is just the mare for that job!
Beauty with Henry Scott on board
This message came from Janel Scott, the kids’
mom, on August 9:
“Kids love her more and more each day. She is such a
good horse!! I think they wanted her to come in the house
yesterday, because of the rain. I assured them she was all
right in the barn. We got over three inches yesterday, and
it was much needed!” and “We had my family over this
weekend. The kids had a ball with her. Nine kids I think
beauty was just soaking in the love.”
Jack and Sunnie proved these points quite strongly. While
this pair is not for sale, others are out there, looking for
new homes and new partners who appreciate their many
good traits.
Thank you to Lori Griffin for the photos of the horses
under saddle!!
One older mare who recently changed careers again is the
Heritage Mare Curry's Beauty #846838. Beauty, a black
granddaughter of 1960 WGC Mack K's Handshaker and
out of a daughter of 1948 WC Stallion, Any Age, Locke's
Cotton Ginner, has spent her life alternating as a
broodmare and a riding horse. Now, at age 25, she is
filling her final niche as a children's confidence builder.
Her new family owns a Quarter Horse with some less-
Asia Scott on Beauty
Montana to Tennessee: How I’m rounding up
a new herd of horses for my Narrow Gauge
Farm in Minnesota by Mike Davis, Wabasha,
Minnesota
It was Memorial Day weekend, 2006 and Mary and I were
returning from a canoe and camping trip in Northern
Wisconsin when we saw some nice looking horses in a
small pasture with a sign “Tennessee Walking Horses for
Sale”. We drove on about a mile and I hit the brakes and
turned around. “Mary, let’s go back and have a look, what
do you say.” She was all for that and we turned in to have
our first up-close look at a breed of horses that I had never
really paid any attention to before.
My daughter talked me (harangued me) into a grade horse
named Peggy in 1989. I had grown up around an ornery
old buckskin named Dixie, my big sister’s project. She
liked to bite when you tightened the cinch and she
especially liked to get into a “pogostick” trot and run ME
under low hanging oak limbs. I really didn’t like horses
much at that time (1960 or so). But Peggy was a much
nicer, and smaller, critter that the horse trader told us was
the same age as my daughter Anna – 9. He was a good
salesman, but he didn’t do us any wrong at all. I ended up
owning Peggy until she died in 2008 at age – who knows?
The important thing for this story is that she turned me into
a, well, a horse appreciator at first. Our first ride was
double on Peggy bareback (no saddle yet) in the winter.
Peggy slipped on a frozen puddle and we all went down.
Then we all got up and got back on and laughed most of
the ways back home, no harm done! It all got better after
that. Within two years we had a horse for each of us in the
family.
Over the years I kept my horse life simple, Peggy and one
old quarter horse decorated my present home for about 15
years. We rode trails right out the back door, and I threw
in hay and piled up manure and chopped ice out of the
water barrel all winter. Then we came by that farm in
Wisconsin. We never did buy anything at that farm, but
that is where my eyes opened up from whatever slit-eyed
horse awareness they had before. In the fall of 2006 I
bought a 20-year-old registered TWH mare over the
Internet – sight unseen – from another horse trader (but
like the first one, he didn’t do me any harm). Emma.
After a few days of riding her I came to ask myself a
question over and over, why would anyone ride another
breed? The first time Emma slipped into her running walk
my hair stood on end – there was no going back!
I started reading up on this marvelous breed of horse. I
joined the TWHBEA. Then I got my first issue of the
“Voice”. On the front cover was an image I’ll never
forget, a shiny enormous horse with huge hooves with
chains around them with his front feet about up to his ears!
Oh boy, I thought, what have I gotten into here? The value
of this kind of performance was lost on me. I like the idea
of usefulness, this image did not compute. I delved into
the history of the breed and was relieved to find that the
“big lick” show is not where Tennessee Walking Horses
started out, or where they have to end up either.
I was looking for a stallion to breed Emma to and having
trouble finding a local to use. Somehow I stumbled upon a
stately looking stallion with a very interesting background
story, but he lived way out in Montana. Tempting as it
was and as accommodating as the owners were (Shellie
and Mark Pacovsky), at the time I didn’t even own a
trailer; remember, I just rode out the backyard. Eventually
I found a registered stud in the area and bred her to him.
Emma had a beautiful foal we named Mayapple. I
watched her being born and picked her up and carried her
in my arms about an hour after her birth. She still thinks I
am part of her “herd”. Now I was really hooked.
After that I wanted to breed Emma again and eventually
found the website of the Heritage Society. That led me to
Diane Sczepanski in Whitehall, Wisconsin – almost my
backyard! Diane invited me over to see her “family” and I
was privileged to cast my eyes on Echo’s Star Gray
Wilson – retired. What a beautiful animal he was! The
more I read about the breed and its foundations the more I
liked that and wanted to distance my horses from the high
steppers on the magazine cover! I asked Diane what she
knew about a horse named Jubal and she told me she had
visited the Pacovsky ranch and what a nice horse Jubal
was!. Turns out he was the very same handsome lad I had
thought about the year before! Wish I had bought a trailer
back then.
I’m not one to shy away from a somewhat preposterous
adventure so I hitched up my V6 Ford pick-up to my
“new” rusty old 16-foot bumper pull and loaded Emma in.
Sixteen hours later and way too many gallons of $4 gas we
arrived in Bainville, Montana. Awesome country,
amazing scenery, and grass, grass, grass. Every TWH
horse deserves to spend one June in Montana! Run
straight ahead until you can’t stand and then lie down and
eat grass! Just remember to go back to Tennessee before
winter sets in!
Slush Creek’s Jubal S.
But that was last year. My old quarter horse turned 27 last
January, old Peggy returned to the cosmos the winter
before. Emma is getting stiff in the knees; she fell down
with me onboard one day. Later, as I nursed my bruises
and poured down a home brewed ale, I realized that I was
getting close to being out of a ride. That would just not do.
Renewal was in order here on the Narrow Gauge Road!
Mayapple was only 10 months old – I needed a new ride
sooner than she could provide it.
By then I was on Diane’s Heritage Highlights mailing list.
Suddenly a bunch of names came into focus. Leon Oliver,
Bob Long, Carl Parks, Billy and Danny Taylor, Tod and
Penny and Abigail Finley. And Bob had a mare for sale
that was in foal to Society’s Lee Allen. Ostella’s Della
Ann looked like a sound mare in the picture and Leon and
Bob’s account of her left me burnin’ to head south. Little
did I know that I would not only see the Della mare with
Bob, but visit all those other Heritage breeders too. He
and Leon took my friend Bernard and I all over Central
Tennessee.
Our arrival didn’t start out all that great though, we had
just signed into the local motel and when I called Bob he
was in a real turmoil. A big thunder-bumper had just
rolled over and his house had a hole blown in its roof by a
lightening strike. I hoped it wasn’t a bad omen of our
arrival! It turned out to be quite the reverse of that. We
planned to meet at the local café next morning and when
we got there a guy was sitting in a booth next to us with a
Brown Shop Road Farms hat on. Hmmm, that sounds
familiar I thought. Then Bob Long and Leon Oliver came
in and Buddy, the guy in the next booth, who turned out to
be Leon’s brother, came over and we all introduced
ourselves while Bernard and I polished off our coffee.
When we arrived at Leon’s Brown Shop Road Farm the
heavy rains from overnight had little creeks running down
from the hills and right through Leon’s barnyard, even a
couple of waterfalls decorated by a herd of goats watched
by a Great Pyrenees dog that thought he as a goat too. A
Jack brayed from the adjacent pasture pleading for access
to a couple of Jennies on the other side of the real creek.
Then out came Bud’s Sterling Bullet. I don’t think I ever
saw a horse quite like that. Real muscular but light on his
feet and although looking real hard at the mares across the
drive, he was calm and friendly too.
Leon told us all about him, his grand sire Red Bud’s
Rascal, and about the tombstone in his front yard too. This
man has to have a serious load of horse blood in his veins!
We listened in astonishment as he told the history and
relatives of about a hundred and lebenty seben horses he
has known. But as the day went by I found that a lot of
folks we visited also had interesting stories of generations
of TWH’s in their families.
Old Bud’s headstone in Leon’s lawn
From Leon’s place Bob took us to see Ostella’s Della Ann,
the mare I had come consider buying. The road kept
winding around and getting smaller and smaller until we
finally went through a gate and up a hill to a lush pasture
where a herd of mares and young stock stood high above
us on a ridge. A couple of hollers from Leon and the
appearance of the white pail with corn in it and they soon
were all headed our way. Della Ann was due in just a few
weeks, she carried herself very well and came right up to
us, I was impressed – and Bud’s Sterling Bullet was her
sire too!
running walk. Super smooth ride, I steered him through a
big puddle of water and he never flinched, we went around
another time and then stopped at the barn.
Mike, Leon, and Della
Now I wanted to see Carl’s stallion.
But first we stopped at Todd and Penny Finley’s place to
see Red Buds Ramblin’ Slim, the stallion I wanted to breed
Della Ann back too after she foaled. Todd, Penny, little
Abigail and Ramblin’ Slim all greeted us warmly.
Another bunch of beautiful horses resides with the Finleys,
and a sister to Della with a new colt by Slim happily gaited
across the barnyard to see us.
After a walk down the lane to see the rest of the herd and
hear more horse genealogy we headed off to see Carl Parks
place.
When we arrived Carl headed off to the barn and out came
Society’s Lee Allen leading along calm as any horse I ever
saw. Carl saddled him up made a few trips around his
track showing us the gaits and calmness that seems to
characterize all the stallions we saw. Then he got down
and asked if I was ready to take him for a ride. I’d never
ridden a stallion, all I had ever seen of stallions before was
the wild-eyed beasts they brought out to breed my old
quarter horse mares a couple of times! The concept of
actually riding one had not even occurred to me before I
started learning about these Heritage horses. Well, like I
said before, I don’t necessarily shy away from a new
adventure. Lee Allen was real good to me, we went round
a couple of times counterclockwise and then I asked him to
turn around and go the other way, and pick it up to a
Mike on board Society’s Lee Allen
Carl got back on and then dropped the reins and stood
straight up on the saddle, like Roy Rogers would do.
Bob and Leon were giving us a full day tour. Next stop
was Billy Taylor’s place where Lee Allen’s brother Dan
Allen stands at stud. Dan Allen really liked Bernard for
some reason and followed him around like a puppy.
It’s a sight I’ll never forget.
Society’s Dan Allen and Bernard
Billy’s mares were all about as friendly as any horses I had
ever been around, and Billy handed us a bunch of reading
material and told us about growing up with two young
mares that his father brought home from a fair and how he
and his brother Danny just got on them one day and started
riding. Their descendants are still on the farm today. We
went down the road a ways to see Danny’s horses, more
stories, my brain was getting on overload with all the
names and places and who was related to who. Sun's
Smokey Midnight stands at Danny’s Elk River Farm.
Bob and I closed a deal for Della and her rebreeding to
Slim and we headed home for MN. Della produced a
maximum sabino colt in mid May and after determining
she was safe in foal to Slim, we planned our return trip.
Meanwhile, I hauled Emma back to Montana to see Jubal.
And I found myself coming home with a playmate for
Mayapple named SCW Coral Cameo!
What a tour! I had no idea that Bob was going to drive us
around all day in his pickup; he and Leon are real generous
people. We went back to Leon’s to get our car. But before
we could leave Leon offered to show us how Bullet rides.
He led him out with a bridle on and a saddle pad on his
back, over to a big rock and up on his back he went and off
down the road riding bareback!
Cameo brings another “using horse” line to Minnesota
from North Dakota and Montana where Tennessee
Walkers were brought in to use on cattle ranches many
years ago. Cameo is Heritage Certified; a daughter of
Jubal and a certified mare that goes back to Allen’s Gold
Zephyr (Roy Rogers’ Trigger Jr.). See the Slush Creeks
website for some very interesting history about these
Tennessee Walker ranch horse’s origins
http://www.nemontel.net/~pacovsky/ourbreedingprogram.
html
Shellie gave my friend Bruce and I a grand tour of their
ranch that included standing among herd of friendly young
horses that surrounded our truck and stole Bruce’s potato
chips right off the front seat! We were honored to have
Shellie show us the ancient Teepee rings on their land on a
knoll just above a spring. There must have been 15 or 20
of them and the Pacovskys have left them undisturbed all
their lives.
.
Meanwhile, Cameo and Mayapple are just being horses
this summer in the pasture.
Moonshine
When it came time to go get Della, I managed to
complicate things a bit by deciding to buy a different horse
trailer - in Tennessee. Bob and Leon happily agreed to
take a look at it for me and it turns out it was in the
neighborhood of Cornersville too. We arrived on a Friday
morning, picked up the trailer and, thanks to Bob and some
good luck, got the lights and brakes matched up to my
truck at Leon Medley’s repair shop. Then we followed
Bob and Leon over to Todd and Penny’s to see Slim and
settle up for the stud fee and mare care and revisited the
other horses and little Abigail who was turning 2 years-old
and full of charming smiles.
On Saturday we loaded up Della with the help of a sending
off party that included John Oliver, Leon’s nephew who
had ridden Della for several years and “put about a million
miles on her”. We discussed types of bits and the
possibility of joining a “Bullet Ride” next spring, and then
we headed back to Minnesota. Della and her colt,
Moonshine, are doing great and swatting Minnesota flies
and mosquitoes just fine. Today they are mowing my lawn
and waiting to be introduced to their new herd mates.
Della and Moonshine back home in Minnesota
Emma’s still in Montana and now safe in foal to Jubal so
I’ll be heading west again to get her home soon. It took a
lot of traveling around the continent and next year I’ll be
buying a lot more hay than I’m used to, but I have some
REAL horses here now!
From left: Bernard, Mary and Mike
From Cynthia Priebe, Grafton, Ohio via
Email:
I am new to the Heritage Horse and this group, but can’t
wait each month to read the newsletter when it comes.
Keep up the great work, and I hope everyone that reads
this is doing his or her part to share with the world how
great these “original” walking horses really are!
Anyone that has followed Rascal’s and my escapades
might be interested in our most recent adventures. We
competed at our first breed show on July 18th put on by
The Buckeye Walking Horse Association at our usual fair
grounds up here in Northern Ohio . They don’t normally
hold events this far north and many of the horses that
competed were hauled up from Tennessee , Kentucky and
Southern Ohio . Trainers and amateurs alike compete at
this show, and I recognized many of the horse and rider
pairs from their membership directory and awards pictures.
It was the first time I saw the performance horses in
person. But as in most TWH shows, the types and style of
horses ran the gambit. I was a little intimidated, but
looking forward to showing them what a family-owned
and trained, keg shod, trail horse could do.
Last year, while researching my newly purchased gelding,
I tracked down his sire’s owner giving me the opportunity
and pleasure to talk to Leon Oliver. Leon told me that if he
was remembering Rascal correctly, he just wouldn’t think
of Rascal as being a show horse. I told him that I had to
agree, but we were going to do our best, because all the
other characteristics about Rascal made up for any
shortcomings he might have in this area. Besides, I only
show about 4 times a year and locally. I wasn’t looking for
a show horse.
The last weekend in June, my conversation with Leon
sprang to mind when Rascal and I competed in our 3rd
show of the year and he went the absolute worse he’s ever
gone in the ring. Or should I say worse he hasn’t gone in
the ring! I think if I hadn’t been working so hard to keep
him going, he would have fallen asleep. We got the gate in
all 4 of our classes.
Now, I am not looking to place blame. It just wasn’t very
good. So, I gave Rascal a couple of days off to strictly turn
out. When I started riding him again, we played games and
just kind of putzed around. We kept it simple. I don’t have
the ability to go trail riding as many of you do. I knew that
Rascal was getting bored, and he made it known for sure
by the results of his last competition.
I know, get to the point! Well the point is, when my dream
of competing on my own horse at a TWH breed show
came true, Rascal proved why he was the horse to take me
there.
After the poor performance a couple of weeks early (in this
same ring) I decided that no matter what happened, I was
going to have fun. We went into our Country Pleasure
Western class with 6 other horses and tied fourth! He was
steady and consistent, just nodding his little head, loose
and relaxed. I had a smile on my face the whole way
around the ring. We aren’t as big striding or head nodding
as the other horses so that fourth place ribbon is a first to
me. He went the best he’s ever gone! You could have lit up
the whole arena with my smile. The great ride we had was
made even sweeter by our poor previous competitive
attempt. A couple of hours later, after a long nap by
Rascal, we tied fifth against the same horses in Country
Pleasure. See attached picture – Rascal trying to stay
awake waiting for his next class.
The lessons learned from Rascal over these past few
weeks:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Always dream, and never give up.
Take each reward or blessing for what it is worth
- One person’s fourth may be another person’s
first!
Listen to those around you – even if it is a horse –
and try not to take things too seriously. You may
be better off if you don’t.
And sometimes you just need a break – all work
and no play makes for a dull horse!
Thanks Rascal for some invaluable lessons!
You need to know, this isn’t a physical, conditioning, diet
or stamina issue, this is a mental issue. He just didn’t want
to be there. He was bored. He had been in this ring earlier
this year and already done well. So he just didn’t
understand why he needed to do it again. Rascal didn’t do
anything bad, he just didn’t do anything. That same day,
other horses were spooking, jumping around, taking off
with riders, and all around being goofy. It was windy and
threatening to rain, although it never did. Rascal fell asleep
in between classes, he was so relaxed. I always tell people
that when I am looking for a horse, the “whoa” is more
important to me than the “go”, but Rascal didn’t need to
take me quite so literally.
Rascal trying to stay awake
Thank you to FOSH for allowing us to bring
the Sound Horse Conference to our readers!
This month we have several speakers featured
as they all spoke on the same subject matter –
The Truth About Soring.
The Truth About Soring presented by Dr.
Donna Moore, DVM at the 2009 Sound Horse
Conference
Dr. Donna Moore, DVM is past USDA Horse Protection
Coordinator, veterinary advisor to the Horse Protection
Commission and an active veterinarian in an all-equine
practice that services a wide variety of horses. In addition
to her veterinary degrees, she completed graduate training
in equine sports medicine. She has a special interest in
lameness, and has published research in that field as well
as biomechanics. Dr. Moore has been a member of the
American Association of Equine Practitioners for 23 years.
“Good Morning, I’m really glad to be here, had a little
trouble getting here, my luggage still hasn’t arrived so it
just makes me more thankful that I arrived safely. I did
want to talk about some ideas of how we can hopefully get
soring to stop. I think that’s the reason we’re all here and I
thought I would kind of, there are some really promising,
encouraging developments going on, this is kind of an
exciting time to see changes in the Walking Horse
industry. One of the things that I think is really great is the
efforts FOSH has put forward in putting on a conference
like this; and some of the other things they are doing as far
as publicity, getting some more true to life statistics out
there, etc. Another thing that’s been really helpful, I think,
is the White Paper that AAEP came up with and I hope
you’ve all had a chance to look at that, if not maybe we
can get it distributed throughout the course of the
weekend.
I thought I’d start out by just making some comments on
some of the recommendations that AAEP put in their
paper. Donna mentioned one of the frustrating things is we
haven’t seen their recommendations implemented yet but it
sounds though, not all the HIO’s have embraced them; it
sounds as if it’s the intention of USDA this year to
implement them pretty much down the line. They’re
talking about not accepting any scarring, calluses, or other
skin conditions on the pasterns of horses, having the
holding area supervised, not allowing tightening of bands
after inspection, monitoring stables and show grounds in
addition to DQP inspection area, having tack removed to
make sure that methods haven’t been employed to distract
the horses from their response to palpation. Of course,
they’re planning to be using thermography, they’re going
to be swabbing limbs for foreign substances, planning to
possibly pull some shoes post-show, maybe further
examination with radiography, hoof testers, etc. All of
these are things that were recommended by the AAEP so
it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming
show season.
But there are some other things I wanted to address just
based on my background and experience. I worked with
USDA a number of years ago in the horse protection
program and since that time I’ve worked with the Horse
Protection Commission as one of their veterinary
commissioners and that’s given me a perspective on the
soring problem kind of from the regulatory aspect. From
that perspective one of the things I wanted to comment on
was AAEP recommended that the DQP program should be
abolished because there are so many problems with it
primarily stemming from conflicts of interest. Of course,
when you have conflicts of interest it’s been referred to as
putting the fox in charge of guarding the chicken house. I
agree with that, I think it’s a terribly flawed program; I’d
like to see it replaced by something else but at this point
honestly, I don’t have anything better to come up with.
One of the things they suggested was that we establish a
core of veterinarians known to be independent of the
Walking Horse industry and those veterinarians would
then be certified by an organization created solely for the
enforcement of regulations and I would like to comment
on that.
There has been a lot of talk lately about veterinarian
involvement, both from that perspective and even in some
of the changes that have been going on really recently with
the, I’m going to call it, the new HIO called SHOW. I
know it’s not really new but it sounds like it’s going to be
undergoing sort of a rebirth after the dissolution of the
National Horse Show Commission. It’s been
recommended that the group have veterinary over sight,
whatever that means. It sounds good but honestly, I think
it’s not a magic bullet and I don’t want people to get the
idea in their heads that’s going to be the solution.
Veterinarians can have conflicts of interest issues just like
other people involved in this issue, and it was interesting,
not at all encouraging in the taped presentation we heard
this morning, that person even said there were a number of
veterinarians involved in soring. I know from my past
experiences with the Dept. of Agriculture, examples I read
about in show reports, veterinarians have interfered with
inspections, they have tried to intimidate the government
veterinarians who are trying to inspect horses. There have
also been a number of prominent veterinarians who have
acted in an advisory capacity to various horse industry
groups and they’ve done that in ways that have weakened
the ability to keep sore horses out of the ring. I think we
need to be careful as we go forward and not look at the
involvement of veterinarians as a magic bullet.
One of the things that we’ve done in the Horse Protection
Commission, that’s kind of unique, well, I think we have
two things that are unique. One is that the commissioners
who are in charge of the group are all veterinarians and it
was established, it’s in our rules; that’s the way it has to
be. The other thing that we have done which I think might
be helpful is that the only thing that we do is related to
DQP program and I think for other horse industry groups, I
think it would be helpful if their DQP programs could be
separated out and made independent. When they’re tied in
with the same group that’s trying to award year end points,
championships, and breed incentives, and put on shows –
all these things are great but it tends to dilute the focus and
you tend to get competing interests. Personally, I think it’s
helpful when the regulatory part of the program is
separated out and that’s all they do. The other thing that I
wanted to mention is that in the Horse Protection
Commission we’ve had some experience with trying to
recruit veterinarians to do this inspection job at horse
shows and to sort of hire them on as DQP’s and that hasn’t
been a uniformly successful effort and I think there are a
couple reasons for that.
In many ways when you’re examining a horse to
determine if it’s in violation of the Horse Protection Act,
you’re really looking for a legal determination as much as,
or maybe more than, a medical diagnosis. May not be a
great analogy but I kind of had the picture in my mind of a
policeman who pulls someone over for speeding. The
policeman says, “Look, here’s the speed limit, you were
going over it, that’s the end of the story.” The mechanic
wants to come along and say, “Now, why was that car
going so fast? I think I need to adjust this here under the
hood.” Veterinarians tend to be like that mechanic; we
want to figure out why is this horse reacting this way?
What’s really going on with the horse? But in the
inspecting to determine where the horse is in compliance
with regulations that’s not always the point so we need to
have someone who’s much more focused on compliance
with the law and with the regulations.
Some other comments as far as the DQP program. If we
can’t abolish it, I think there are some things that could be
done and need to be done in order to make it more
workable. The number one thing we’ve said over and over
is that we must abolish conflicts of interest. There are
prohibitions against conflicts of interest for DQP’s in the
regulations but I think it needs to be clarified. It says
DQP’s are prohibited from inspecting horses at shows
where anyone in their immediate family or their employers
are showing. Many DQP’s are self employed as farriers. If
we recruit veterinarians, they may be self employed as
veterinarians. What about their clients? By definition those
are not really their employers but that is a conflict of
interest and I think it needs to be specified as part of those
prohibitions. The other thing is we really, really need to
extend this prohibition against conflicts of interest to
anyone involved in a leadership capacity in a horse
industry organization and until we do, these problems will
not be solved. There are examples in the record of DQP’s
who have been spoken to by USDA veterinarians at shows
who are passing horses that reacted to tests for soring; for
not inspecting them properly; for allowing things that were
against the regulations to slide by and they replied that
they were just doing what they were instructed to do. So,
until we eliminate those conflicts of interest higher up,
we’re not going to get anywhere. Another thing that would
help, I think, with this conflict of interest problem is
currently violators are given what I call an amnesty period.
They have a violation, after a certain number of years, it’s
taken off their record so if five years later they have
another violation, that’s counted as a first time violation
rather than a second time violation and I think that is
detrimental to progress in this program. Another thing I
would suggest is that we need to look outside of the
walking horse industry for people who might like to be
involved as inspectors. When we only look for people
from within the industry, we’re going to get all these
conflicts of interest. I think this can be done; one example
that occurred to me is at the racetracks. They have people
that are hired as investigators and their job is basically just
to walk around and look for anything that’s going on that’s
not supposed to be going on and those people do not have
any connection. They do not own race horses, they don’t
train them, no one in their family does. They become
familiar with the industry because they work there on a
regular basis but they work there more as policeman and
not participants and I think maybe that’s the model we
need to look at.
I guess the last thing I would say about the DQP program
and possible ways to get some improvement in it. I think a
lot of the people involved in that aspect of the industry
need a paradigm shift. There was an article that came out
in the Walking Horse Report the end of last month,
February 28, they were quoting a prominent person in the
industry and I quote: “The DQP needs to stand behind his
ruling and not write a ticket if he doesn’t think the horse is
in violation.” They then clarified that a letter was sent out
to DQP’s by the HIO in the fall of 2008 stressing that
point. It seems like the clear slant of this thinking is that
the DQP is an equal or higher authority to the USDA
VMO and I think until that paradigm is changed, I don’t
think we’ll get the progress that we need. USDA does not
delegate interpretation of the Act or the regulations to the
HIO’s. That is their prerogative. The HIO’s need to step up
to the plate, do the inspection, determine whether the
horses are in compliance or not, but they are NOT the ones
who make the rules. I would really like to see a change in
philosophy.
A couple of other things that I wanted to mention, moving
on from the DQP program, other things that I think might
help. One that came up last year at the Sound Horse
Conference was that we need to change the standards of
judging and this was also mentioned in the AAEP White
Paper. I think this is absolutely true. I’d like to, if I may,
take a quick poll, how many people in the audience here
are members of WHOA, the Walking Horse Owners
Association? Only a very few, okay. I’m not sure why that
is but it does seem that owners may be a key in a lot of this
because it sounds like a lot of them send their horses to the
trainers, they don’t want their horses sored, they don’t
approve of it but they may not be very educated and
they’re certainly not speaking up. Maybe we need to get
more owners educated and more owners involved. There
was a proposal put forth recently. I believe it was related to
the change of staff and so forth that’s going to be going on
at SHOW and they were proposing to delegate certain
tasks to the trainer’s association, the owners association,
etc. and they proposed delegating to WHOA, the owners
association, the job of coming up with ways to change the
standards of judging so that might be something that
people here would want to get involved in and give their
input.
Just two more things really quick, I’m kind of putting out a
bunch of little bullet points here because I think the
purpose is to get some questions and answers going so I’m
trying to give you food for thought that might get some
discussion going. Another thing that I think is very helpful
in our efforts to end soring is publicity and FOSH has done
a great job of this. I do think that we need to see statistics
that reflect the ongoing need for enforcement; we need to
see them publicized more. I could even say as an equine
veterinarian and a member of AAEP, I think there is a lot
of ignorance among our membership and among
veterinarians that aren’t in areas where this is a big
problem. They are relatively ignorant of it; they think
that’s something from that past that has gone away so I do
think we still have a lot of educating to do and we need to
make efforts to report these number of violations based on
the numbers of horses actually showing not the number of
entries, because that falsely distorts the numbers.
the time I got out of the school of veterinary medicine in
1963 it was horrible. When they would park in the show
ring the blood would be running out on the ground and the
trainer would get off and scoop up dirt and work it into the
raw bleeding tissue.
Dr. Tom James, DVM, grew up in Tennessee riding
walking horses when they were still shown in keg shoes.
Since then, he has shown performance walking horses, and
has served as a Veterinary Medical Officer (VMO) for the
USDA’s Animal Care, and before that the USDA
Veterinary Services, the agency responsible for horse
protection. He received his degree from Auburn University
in Alabama, and has served as President for the Tennessee
Veterinary Medical Association, as well as Chairman of
TVMA’s Ethics and Grievance Committee. Dr. James has
been in private practice and is now retired.
As you know the Horse Protection Act was enacted in
1970. I hired on with USDA veterinary services 1976,
because I’d grown up on and around these horses I was
immediately put to work working these horse shows and
they were awfully bad in the 70’s. In the Celebration of
1978 alone, not counting the other shows through the
country, our inspection team cited, I believe it was 54 head
of horses, at the Celebration. In 1979 I believe it was the
DQP program was instituted, I don’t know how else to put
it, I quit in disgust in ‘80 and went back to private practice
because my reasoning was the steward program hadn’t
worked and why should we think that the DQP program
would work. The reasoning given to me was “well the
USDA is going to monitor this program and that will make
it all nice.” I didn’t believe it then, I don’t believe it now. I
got a call in the late 80’s that a new agency was being
created and would I be interested, it was called Animal
Care, and I came back. Found out I wasn’t allowed to work
horse shows in the State of Tennessee. I asked about this
and they said I wasn’t politically acceptable. I was allowed
to go to Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, and North
Carolina to help the other veterinarians but for a long time,
several months, maybe a year I wasn’t allowed in
Tennessee. Finally I was allowed there but in kind of a,
what’s the word, I wasn’t allowed to be the Number One
man at most of the big shows. I was fired from USDA
Animal Care in the spring of ’93. I was told over and over
that I was not acceptable to the horse industry but of
course, that wasn’t the way they used to fire me and I
won’t go into that, at any rate I was fired. I won my case
after four years and three months, got back on with USDA
in ‘97 and the committee that wrote the decision
reinstating me to the job, there’s a paragraph in there that
says obviously the horse industry exerts too much pressure
on the agency. That’s enough about me; let me talk to you
about the horse a little bit.
“I grew up in Middle Tennessee before soring ever was
thought of. The horse was developed to be a smooth riding
utility horse and he served admirably for that. Had a low
head, wasn’t too pretty but you could ride him to town to
get a sack of sugar for Mama. You could also do this and
show him on Saturday night at the county fairs around.
Soring started when a horse started when a horse named
Talk of the Town, you all know this but let’s recap it
anyway, horse named Talk of the Town won the
Championship at the national Celebration in Shelbyville
1951, ‘52 and ‘53. Since he was a gelding there was no
percentage to retiring him to stud so they kept showing
him and he got three wins. He did this with a big lick. I
didn’t see the horse but I know a veterinarian in that area
very well, now gone on, but he told me Talk of the Town
was a chronically foundered horse. At any rate the big lick
was born and the trainers had to scramble around to
produce this if they were going to win so apparently soring
was born. Various chemicals and devices were tried but
through the years, oil of mustard became the favorite. By
As the soring progressed, breeding changes had to occur. If
the old horse that I grew up with as a child had been sored
and chained and weighted, he would have trotted. When I
give these presentations I take a yardstick and say over
here is a pace, and over here is a trot, and somewhere out
here in the middle is the running walk. The gait that
distinguishes the Tennessee Walking Horse is the running
walk. Yes he’s got a big pretty flat walk but the gait that he
does that no other breed can do is the running walk and
that’s why they developed him in the first place so when
you went to town to get Mama that sack of sugar you
could move on and ride smooth and go back home feeling
pretty comfortable. Now, as I’ve said if you sored that
horse he would trot so in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s breeding
changes, and I’m not aware of what all was done but I saw
it being done, and the pace – not just a pace, but an
extreme pace. I’ve been to the barns watching this and it
was a hard, fast pace and in the ‘60’s – the faster, the
better, so that you could hardly sit on one of them doing it.
After they’ve got him settled him into this pace, they
Last little bullet I wanted to throw out there, another
recommendation that AAEP made is possibly penalties for
sore horses could include a lifetime disqualification of the
horse. I believe that would take a regulatory change but if
you stop and think about it, it would be pretty effective in
stopping this problem so it’s something to think about.”
Truth about Ending Soring as presented by
Dr. Tom James at the 2009 Sound Horse
Conference
started what they called squaring him up, bringing him
back toward the trot but not going to the trot – hopefully.
You heard one of the people talk on the film, the horses
varied individually. Some of these horses were a little too
square, they couldn’t take that; they had to be culled for
pleasure horses. So the show horse that they were looking
for was a horse that could do that hard fast pace and hold it
so when you added the chains and the mustard oil you
brought him over here and got this running walk so he
would sort of shake his head as he went around the ring.
Now, Horse Protection Act and bad publicity in the ‘70’s
brought this thing to the public’s awareness, something
had to be done, they had to clean up a little bit. Now what
they did was introduced some bloodlines from a horse
called Pride of Midnight. Now Pride of Midnight, he got a
lot prettier than the horse that I grew up with and he’s a
little bit squarer, so not quite so much is being done, I
know you don’t like to hear this but promise you, they
were worse in my day than they are now as far as at least
outward appearances. The horse isn’t quite as sore. They
used things like dishwasher detergent, GoJo, a quart of
kerosene with a dropper full of mustard oil in it and
painted on with a paintbrush, that sort of thing.
One of the problems that I worry about is have we bred the
running walk out of the horse. Now all of you tell me we
haven’t, it’s still out there. I hope so; I hope so! The ones
I’m seeing do not do the running walk. I have an old DVD
with me that Dr. Bob Womack made, it’s called a Look at
the Past and it shows the old horses of the ‘40’s and ‘50’s
doing this running walk. It was a marvelous gait to ride,
and I rode it many, many times. I’m hoping that we can
stop soring. I’m hoping we can end this horrible thing. If
and when we do, I think some breeding changes are going
to have to be done to get this gait back where it was. One
more thing and I’ll make all of you mad. When they called
me to be on this thing I said I’ll make everybody mad
before I’m over – the horse industry, USDA, and probably
make FOSH mad too. But I am, I do not, I can understand
where the trainer’s coming from. I know a trainer, I talked
to him on the phone and I asked him when did you start
doing this. He said when I was 13. Now, the day that he
stops producing a big lick, like they said on the film, is the
day when all those rich folks go down there to that barn
and take their horses somewhere else. So he is under
tremendous pressure and even though I deplore what is
being done, I can understand what is being done. It is a
difficult, difficult problem and I’ll hush. Thank you so
much.”
The Truth About Ending Soring as presented
by Dr. Midge Leitch
Dr. Midge Leitch received the American Association of
Equine Practitioners (AAEP) President’s Award in 2008.
Dr. Leitch is a radiologist at The New Bolton Center at the
University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine
and a diplomat with the American College of Veterinary
Surgeons. She has traveled with the U.S. Equestrian Team
to Seoul, South Korea, Atlanta, and Sydney, Australia, and
she served as a member of the U.S. Equestrian
Federation’s Veterinary Committee. Dr. Leitch recently
chaired the AAEP’s Tennessee Walking Horse Task Force
which developed the “AAEP White Paper” on the subject
of soring in 2008.
“It started up here as age before beauty and that makes me
next. I’m not naïve enough to think age didn’t have
something to do with the fact that the AAEP asked me to
chair the task force that wrote the White Paper. You know,
you have to have some level of security that comes with
age in order to be able to speak your mind if you’re
earning a living in a service profession. That’s what I do, I
work in a service profession, and have always, and now
I’m old enough that my security is reasonably at, it was as
Harry Warner who is President of the AAEP and here
today, said to me the other day, his 401 is a 101, but you
know, nonetheless we have some age on us and some level
of security. The other thing is that unlike most of the other
panel members here, I have distance from this group and
so I think that was the other reason I was selected to chair
this task force in that I’m a pretty good information
gatherer but not really intimately involved in the
Tennessee Walking Horse industry. We had a number of
members of the panel who had great experience with this
industry and then some of us who did not.
We had requests after the task force White Paper was
produced to focus on pressure shoeing and I think that we
have now very nearly ready for complete public release a
rehashing, really, of what was already in the White Paper
that addresses pressure shoeing specifically. I have put the
points of the pressure shoeing protocol that we’re
suggesting on PowerPoint so that we can go through them
but in actuality, those of you who have read the white
paper are really already familiar with all of them, we sort
of rearranged them a little bit, perhaps expounded on some
of the particular points but really they’re there. I wanted to
make the point that in fact this is really just an
amplification of stuff we have already written and I have
divided this stuff, the suggested parts of the examination,
into pre-competition and post-competition examinations.
The pre-competition examinations would start with
theromographic evaluation. Tracy Turner is here and can
certainly speak to this point in greater detail than I, but it’s
quite clear that any contact, manual contact with any part
of a body, pastern or chest, that is going to be
thermographically examined will be modified by just the
heat that is transferred from the human hand to that body
part so the thermographic screening would have to take
place first. It would hopefully, as you well know it’s in use
this year, will help to define those areas which should
undergo more careful examination including both
palpation and probably swabbing for the presence of
abnormal or forbidden chemical substances.
We’re hoping that this continued use of thermography will
help to define exactly what its role should be and can be
when we have repeatable recognizable patterns that
actually can be linked to specific findings. Subsequent to
that, palpation of the limbs should obviously include what
has been part of the routine pre-competition evaluation.
Assessment of digital pulses is a useful, although
subjective tool for looking at heat and inflammation in feet
and I think that there needs to be critical assessment of
those areas that have been deemed questionable in the
thermographic examination. Inspection of the hooves and
shoes certainly should include evaluation of the feet. Hoof
tester evaluation is again another subjective test but with
experience there can be clear patterns of recognition
established between the hoof tester applier and his hoof
testers. I think that one of the things that’s always been
very true is the application of hoof testers by me as
compared to perhaps Lori Northrup might be significantly
different because, I can bench press, you know, 350
pounds so you have to take that into consideration as to
who’s using the hoof testers. No joke, I really can bench
press 250 so don’t play with me. Even though I can bench
press 250, there’s no question that the application of shoes,
pads, packages, etc. will limit ones ability and you have to
have great familiarity, long term experience, I earned
every gray hair, to know whether or not what you’ve done
is significant and legitimate in terms of producing a
positive result with your hoof testers.
But I think that the other thing that needs to be done when
one’s examining these shoes and feet is to ascertain that
there has been no over tightening of the bands that hold the
packages in place because everyone understands that the
hoof is a relatively elastic structure untouched by man and
if the wall is thinned adequately, almost any amount of
pressure will be easily transmitted to the sensitive laminae
underneath so that if you make an effort to thin the hoof
wall, then you can certainly apply painful pressure to that
thinned wall without much difficulty. Digital radiography
is a wonderful advent to the veterinary field. It allows
instantaneous pleasure, that’s probably not a good choice,
but gratification – that’s the word I was looking for. I was
trained as a surgeon and you know anyone who wants
instant gratification never goes into medicine; you always
become a surgeon; that would be me.
Now you can take a radiograph in the field as long as you
have some degree of electricity and you can see the results
of those films immediately, those images are there for
viewing and no longer to you have to take them off to the
local hospital to develop so you can use digital
radiography as a pre-competition screening technique. It
requires some expenditure, the machines now have come
down in price from $150 to $75,000 to $85,000 for the
equipment but you know, if the industry is serious, the
purchase of some of these machines would be certainly
appropriate. You can detect the presence of acrylic
extensions; you can detect the presence of materials which
are of a different density than the normal hoof capsule and
the soft tissue structures underneath. Are there materials
that will go undetected by digital radiography? Absolutely
so it can’t be the end all and the be all in terms of
determining whether or not some noxious agent has been
inserted beneath a pad, nor can it necessarily define
whether there have been purposefully inflicted damages or
thinning to the sole surface or significant paring out of the
frog. You can do some sole thickness determinations with
radiographs but I would not want to suggest that this
would be a definitive and absolute evaluation of that area.
Sorry, I didn’t advance the slides fast enough.
Obviously examination of these horses in their usual
standard pattern, etc, is appropriate. Then the question is
well, where do you go with horses who have positive
findings on this array of examinations. Certainly those of
us in the AAEP recognize that we have no regulatory
power but we’re here to make recommendations on behalf
of the horse and it will be up to the industry and the
government as to how those recommendations are put into
effect but the thing that seems appropriate and correct
would be that those horses who fail to pass this precompetition inspection in which there are questions
brought forward as to treatment of the pasterns, what has
been done to the hoof capsule, and/or what is beneath the
shoe and pads should be examined in a more careful
pattern before they are allowed to compete. I recognize
this is controversial, I’ve been in the horse competition
business since I was 14, first as a groom and then as a
veterinarian in the horse show world that included
hunters/jumpers, dressage horses, combined driving
horses, eventing horses, etc. I am not a proponent of
routinely or randomly pulling horseshoes just prior to a
horse’s need to compete because there is no question that
getting a horse well shod is not easily accomplished in the
arena of competition. But I do think that if you have a
horse who is suspected of having illegal things done to its
feet, then there is a reason to consider removing that
horse’s shoes and/or eliminating that horse’s ability to
compete because in the end I think it’s necessary to
eliminate the sore horse from the horse show ring. I think
that at the moment, as I understand it, these horses are
allowed to withdraw from the competition and go home. I
think that in addition to this sort of pre-competition
examination, continued observation of these horses while
they are in the make up ring and while they are in the
competition ring needs to take place and continue to be
part of their evaluation. I do not think that horses ought to
be allowed to leave the make up ring and we’ve
recommended that, after they have been examined, and
that in the White Paper we recommended that a limited
number of people be permitted to be into the make up ring
so that once they’re inspected these horses are allowed to
move quietly around and stay warmed up for competition
but that no further significant manipulation of them or their
shoes should take place.
Following competition it seems appropriate to select
horses both randomly and specifically for additional
evaluation. I work as an FEI veterinarian and one of the
things that we are assigned as duties is to help with drug
testing that goes on at these competitions and they ask us
whether or not drug testing is random and/or specific and
pretty much every where I work it’s both. I do believe that
if the opportunity to test winners or horses in the first three
is present and easily accomplished, that’s the only thing
that makes good sense but I agree that as well horses who
have suspicious performances or who are deemed
suspicious but not absolutely selected for further
evaluation that these opportunities should now exist and
include re-evaluation thermographically and as well,
removal of the shoes. I think that pulling horses shoes after
they’ve competed is going to be the only way that one can
absolutely detect whether or not there have been
inappropriate objects or substances applied beneath the
pads and what sorts of treatments be they paring out of the
sole or the frog, or chemical application be applied to the
sole of the hoof. I don’t think we are going to find reliable
means of detecting these things without removal of the
shoes.
We discussed laminitis, be it induced or accidental, as a
means for producing horses who are painful and will
exhibit an exaggerated gait and clearly this is something
that can be well documented by digital radiography but as
well can be documented by the sole of the foot. So one has
to decide because certainly there are going to be those
horses who accidentally develop founder during their
lifetimes; there are plenty of them who are ill, who have
significant unilateral lamenesses who go on to have
mechanical laminitis in the support leg. Those things do
happen but inducing laminitis is not a mystery any more
and easily and almost always results in bilateral laminitis
in front, which will result in that sort of bilateral lameness
that will produce an exaggerated gait. So we’ve included
visual examination of the foot once the shoes are removed
and then weighing of the package and/or shoes for the two
types of horses. There has been a considerable amount of
conversation since the White Paper was produced
originally as to whether or not these sorts of exams can be
carried out in a timely fashion but I think that if you have
an appropriate number of folks and an appropriate number
of digital radiography machines and farriers present, that
these sorts of things can be accomplished without undue
delay of competition. Thank you.”
Our Readers Write
“I just downloaded the highlights and read the tribute to
my dear Bonnie dog--where did you get the shot of her
playing with Salty? That was so nice. Thanks. I know
that Bonnie and I and Salty will all get together again
sometime and it is a comforting, happy thought”, Nancy
Bergman, Whitehall, WI
“The July Heritage Highlights continues to provide a
fascinating insight into the hearts and minds of truly
remarkable folks and critters. I could favourably comment
ad nauseum on every article and photo of these memorable
characters. Briefly for now: I enjoyed the article on RIP I've actually had his pic on file since way back. I just can't
get over all the steel pipe paddock railings. I go green with
envy every time. Red Ice looks quite fancy to me: the
Iceman doed it - 'deed he doed it! Fame at last - I about fell
off'n my pedestal. What do I do for an encore?” Regards,
Henry C Ferreira Bryanston, Sandton, South Africa
And more from Henry:
“Please add my condolences on the loss of Bonnie. Border
collies are widely used to herd sheep out here. They are
instinctive herders of anything that moves, just as you
observed. As for Andrea and Foxxy - we dare not walk
along the verge like they are, without being wiped out.
And her breeding shows in her stride - does she shake and
nod as well?”
“Another great job on the newsletter! I have sent it on….”
Julia Tarnawski, Sunland, California
The Stork Report
“Hey, it's Cathy, Nancy's sister in AZ. What a lovely
article on Bonnie Jean Bergman, the border collie. That
picture of Salty and Bonnie is priceless. I would love to
have a copy of that picture. Salty looks so good in that
picture!” Cathy Guthrie, Scottsdale, Arizona
“Thanks for the Heritage news letter. I always enjoy
reading about the horses. I know several of the people so
that part is interesting too. I sure enjoy my ole time using
horse blood. My six year old grandaughter is absolutely in
love with my horses. It’s almost a daily thing now for her
to come over to ride and she handles them pretty much by
herself. I wish I was more technically advanced and could
send you some pictures and some stories.” Jim
Vandenberg, Keokuk, Iowa
“Thanks for the news letter. Someday I will have to put in
a Tilly story.” Denise Wenz, Boyd, Wisconsin
“We really enjoyed the July Highlights. Great job!” Audra
Burton, Cornersville, Tennessee
NFF Let Freedom Ring born on July 22, 2009. Dam is
Superman’s Blossom, Sire is NFF Wilson’s Iceman.
Blossom and Freedom reside with Joe and Kathy
Grosky in Canton, South Dakota
CONTACT US:
Franne & Harry Brandon, Petersburg, TN
(931) 276-2232
Sandra van den Hof, Hechtel, Belgium
+32 (0) 11 666 158
Leon & Mary Lou Oliver, Cornersville, TN
(931) 293-4156
Danny & Sherry Taylor, Winchester, TN
(931) 967-9553
Billy & Mary Taylor, Winchester, TN
(931) 967-9621
Diane Sczepanski, Whitehall, WI
(715) 538-2494
The Heritage Society does not endorse any
trainer, style of natural training, or tack and
horse equipment, to the exclusion of others, as
each horse is an individual and not all will
respond positively to a particular trainer or
training style. Articles published by the
Society, which include such endorsements,
reflect the view of the author, but not
necessarily that of the Society.
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