NC State Fair cancels Tennesseee Walking Horse show after protest

Leaders respond quickly to fight of painful ‘big lick’ tactics

IMAGE CREDIT: TENNESSEAN FILE PHOTO.
Santana, ridden by Jackie McConnell, won the Tennessee Walking Horse World Grand Championship in the late 1990s. A Humane Society video showing horse abuse was filmed in McConnell’s barn.

RALEIGH — After more than 30 years, the N.C. State Fair will no longer offer the show featuring performances by the high-stepping Tennessee Walking Horse.

The decision comes in the wake of a protest at the fair during the October show and a petition with 19,700 signatures demanding the State Fair ban the performance category for the breed. Protesters claimed that the training methods to prepare a horse for this type of show are cruel and inhumane.

The protest, the petition and many emails calling for its cancellation were all factors in the state Department of Agriculture’s decision to ban the performance category, said Chief Deputy Commissioner N. David Smith. But he added, “It was a culmination of many factors including a lack of horses that participated, and the added cost of those particular shows when we had to bring in vets to certify the horses.”

Tennessee Walking Horses will still be welcome at the fair’s non-trotting, open-horse shows, but the breed is known for its unique high, quick-step gait. During performance category shows, the horses trot around the ring raising their feet as high as possible, a gait nicknamed the “big lick” that has drawn criticism.

“The big lick is a pain-induced gait. You cannot have a big lick without pain,” said Clant Seay, spokesman for the All American Walking Horse Alliance, a national group of professional horsemen and owners of Tennessee Walking Horses.

The high step is achieved by stacking the horse’s shoe, making it heavier to exaggerate the steps.

Advocates to end big lick shows allege some trainers use what are called soring techniques to sensitize the hooves and ankles to pain, resulting in more dramatic steps.

Horse soring x-ray. Some 49 nails were used to hold the pads together on this Tennessee Walking Horse. USDA image.

They also claim that some trainers use chemicals such as diesel fuel and kerosene to create blisters on the horse’s ankles and attached chains to the stacked shoes designed to irritate the sores.

They say some trainers will even stick sharp nails or tacks into the sensitive area of the hoof to increase pain.

Cross-posted from Charlotte News-Observer »
BY TAYLOR KNOPFTKNOPF@NEWSOBSERVER.COM
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Note: Photographs used here not part of source report.

FROM THE EDITOR
Congratulations to Sound Horse Advocate Michelle Disney who brought the attention of America and the world on the animal cruelty associated with the “Big Lick” Tennessee Walking Horse with her Change.Org Petition.

Congratulations also to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture for joining the University of of Mississippi Medical Center for severing ties with “Big Lick” competitions.

Huge thanks to everyone who took part in these protests via Petition and social media.

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