Hearing reset for Blount County trainer in horse soring case

Cross-posted from KNOX News

Reported by LANCE COLEMAN

Authorities seized 19 horses who may have been subjected to animal cruelty from a Blount County, Tenn., barn and transported them to safety on Thursday, April 25, 2013. (Kathy Milani/Humane Society of the United States)

MARYVILLE — The case against a Blount County horse trainer charged with aggravated cruelty to livestock due in court this morning was reset to June 26.

Larry Wheelon, free on $5,000 bond after his April 25th arrest, was given a reset date in front of Blount County General Sessions Court Judge Robert Headrick because Wheelon needed time to consult with his recently hired attorney, Rob White, of Maryville, officials said.

According to Assistant District Attorney General Ellen Berez, Wheelon’s preliminary hearing was put on a special setting docket, “meaning there won’t be a docket with 50 to 70 other cases on it.”

Wheelon, 68, was charged after federal and local authorities removed 19 injured horses from his stables April 25.

Investigators suspect the horses’ injuries were caused by soring, a banned practice of applying caustic chemicals and chains to a horses’ front legs to produce exceptional high-stepping, known as “the Big Lick.”

Several of the horses were barely able to stand, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

Wheelon also is being evicted from the stables he rents as well. Read full report >>

RELATED READING

– Nineteen sored horses seized; trainer charged with felony animal cruelty

Kentucky Senator and Big Lick queen ‘Just Like Lance’ says Roy Exum

Cross-posted from The Chattanoogan
WRITTEN BY ROY EXUM

ROY EXUM. Source image.

Robin Webb, a Democratic state senator from Kentucky, just became “the Lance Armstrong of the Tennessee Walking Horse industry” after it was revealed two of her horses were ticketed with violations of the federal Horse Protection Act at a North Carolina horse show in October. There was evidence of scar-rule violations on both horses, which means the horses had been sored and, in the Walking Horse world, to sore is to cheat.

As unbelievable as it may appear, Senator Webb (D-Grayson) was even lauded as the 2012 Performance Horse Ambassador by the industry’s Breeders and Exhibitors group in December ,but now she has been shown to be “just like Lance” after two of her horses, Showstopper and Air Force One, were found in violation of the scarring rule and banned from competition last fall in Creedmoor, N.C.

In a scathing story that appeared 10 days ago in the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, Webb was portrayed as a typical “Big Lick queen” who still favors the scurilous padded hooves and action devices that the American Veterinarian Medical Association, the American Association of Equine Practitioners and many other animal rights organizations want to ban.

Kentucky State Senator Robin Webb. Google image.

Of course, Senator Webb denied everything at first, telling writer Janet Patton, “I don’t sore my horses. I love my horses, and they love me.” But as she was interviewed, Webb called pending Congressional legislation to end soring as “extreme” and even defended the horrifying tape that showed Jackie McConnell, who is now a felon, beating and torturing horses.

Webb had the audacity to tell the newspaper the tape that has now been viewed by millions of horse advocates around the world “was taken out of context” and that Tennessee Walking Horses are “dangerous” animals. “You don’t know what happened five minutes before or five minutes after the tape was made. These are animals that are very dangerous. Every breed has training techniques that animal rights groups find offensive.”

And this woman was just chosen as the Performance Horse Ambassador of the Year? Sweet mother of pearl! Lance wouldn’t have said something that stupid to Oprah! Asked about the violations, Webb said “the scar rule is very subjective,” but her trainer, Donald Stamper of Richmond, hung up on the reporter rather than demonstrate his ignorance. But he was also ticketed for violating the Horse Protection Act.

Asked why she didn’t challenge the tickets, Senator Webb said she was unaware she had been ticketed and, as far as she knows, she has not been suspended. But the Lexington newspaper article left no doubt she is a proponent of the padded, or “performance,” horse and that her Ambassador award was for her work in the discussions with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Read more >>

RELATED READING
– Tuesday’s Horse Posts on Horse Soring >>

Equine Federation passes new ruling against horse soring

Cross-posted from The Chattanoogan

Horse Soring. Google image.

The United States Equine Federation has passed a new rule prohibiting participants in its licensed competitions from using certain devices “that have long been associated with the abusive practice of ‘soring’ show horses to make them perform the artificially high-stepping gait known as the ‘Big Lick’.”

The rule bans the use of action devices and stacks for use on any member of the Tennessee walking horse, spotted saddle horse or racking horse breeds, in all classes at any USEF-licensed competitions.

Under the rule, only humanely trained flat-shod horses in these breeds will be allowed to compete in non-recognized divisions at USEF competitions.

“Soring” involves the application of painful chemicals to horses’ front legs and the use of chains and heavy stacks instead of regular horse shoes.

Officials of the Humane Society of the United States praised the new rule, saying, “The Tennessee walking horse breed was formerly included as a recognized horse show division by USEF’s predecessor, the American Horse Shows Association, but was removed from its rule book in the 1980s in the wake of persistent abuses of walking show horses. However, Big Lick horses have continued to be exhibited at USEF-licensed shows in non-recognized divisions.

The Big Lick has been popular in the South but is falling out of favor after investigations and law enforcement actions have revealed the abuses these beautiful, gentle horses endure. Undercover video footage released by The HSUS in 2012 showed a nationally known Tennessee horse trainer and his accomplices chemically soring show horses and brutally beating or “stewarding” them to teach them not to react to pain during inspection—practices that have been illegal for decades under the federal Horse Protection Act and Tennessee state law.” Continue reading >>

Google image. Not filed with original source report.