VOICE LATE NEWS
AP NEWS RELEASE CREATES NATIONAL STIR THROUGHOUT WALKING HORSE BUSINESS
EDITOR’ S NOTE: The following news release appeared as an AP story in newspapers across the nation Thursday, May 12, 1966. Needless to say. Walking Horse enthusiasts from coast to coast have rallied around a common cause to relay the facts to those who would destroy our breed. The following " White Paper " arrived recently at the VOICE office and expresses the vast majority of opinions regarding the subject at hand. W ' e are indeed grateful to Mr. GEORGE H. HOLMES. Chardon. Ohio, who is a life member of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders Association and has been a key personality within the Walking Horse business for years, for preparing this article.
" Tydings Seeks Horse Gait Law
" WASHINGTON( AP)- A federal law against interstate shipment of horses that have been abused to alter their natural gait was asked Tuesday by Sen.. JOSEPH D. TYDINGS, D-Md.
' The widespread abuse of the beautiful walking horse for the purpose of affecting its natural gait,’ requires corrective legislation, he said in a prepared Senate speech. " Tydings explained that the back stride of the Tennessee walking horse, a favorite mount of President. JOHNSON, is long and that its front feet barely touch the ground. This prancing step, he said, makes the horse a show ring favorite. " Tydings said, however, that some unscrupulous owners and trainers have found that the desired longstriding step can be obtained by " soreing” the horse’ s front feet, usually by using chains or tacks inside the quarter boot or by applying a burning agent to the pastern, the area just above the hoof. Another technique cited was the driving of a nail into the tenderpart of the hoof."
WE ANSWER AS FOLLOWS:
" The festering feud between the Tennessee Walking Horse exhibitors and the hunter and gaited horse owners has finally erupted with the announcement that Senator. Joseph Tydings, Maryland Democrat, has introduced Federal legislation to prohibit the interstate shipment of Tennessee Walking Horses. This is understandable as Maryland and its neighbor, Virginia, produce the majority of the hunting horses and saddlebred horses in America. " As long as three or four pleasure Walking Horses piddle-paddled around the nation’ s horse show rings, there was no animosity or hostility from the exclusive hunting crowds and the expensive gaited horse breed. But after World War 2, when the population exploded into the suburbs and rural areas, the family pleasure horse took on new meaning. For those home owners who couldn’ t golf or boat, a couple of acres of grass and rural roads gave birth to a family recreation project that could fulfill the new demands for togetherness. Five hundred thousand families became enamored of the horse, spurred on by the emergence of the horse, as a television star. Beginning as weekend recreation, the project burgeoned into a horse for each member of the family and soon into family
10 breeding and exhibiting stables. But a person who has a pretty good horse has to have a place to show it, share it and enjoy it. The snobbery of the Hunt Clubs barred the doors to these new horse lovers. The astronomical prices of the best gaited horses, Arabians, Morgans and other breeds provided a formidable financial barrier. The long hours, skill, and hard work required to bring a 1200-pound beast to show peak discouraged many weekend riders. " Then out of Middle Tennessee came the perfect horse for this kind of post-war American. Gentle, pretty, easy-gaited and tractable, the Walking Horse was the answer to the tyro’ s prayer. Soon pleasure trails in all fifty states began to see the swift, smooth gait of the Walking Horse. Horse Show Committees, alert to the new trends that might bring more dollars to the community, began to include Walking Horse show classes. The National Walking Horse Celebration, where the World Champion Walking Horse is named in Shelbyville, Tennessee, grew from a pasture show back of a high school into the biggest horse show in America. Last year, at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show, the Walking Horses outnumbered all breeds except hunters. This has been duplicated in horse shows all over America. And when a person once rode a Walking Horse, he lost interest in other breeds. Breeders of hunters, saddlebred horses, Arabians and others began to feel it in the pocketbook. The cheering crowds at the horse shows deepened the hatred of other breeders whose classes became smaller and customers fewer. " Around Long Island, Maryland and Virginia, the muttering against the walking horse took the form of criticism of the manner in which the Walking Horse is trained. It was said he was artificially gaited with cruel training methods. The U. S. Department of Agriculture in 1932 certified the Walking Horse as a distinctive breed specially bred to go the smooth 1-2-3-4 gait, but the opposition chose to ignore this certification and insisted that walking horse people were cruel and inhuman. They adopted the same tactics that the Anti-Vivisectionists and the Humane Societies adopt when they talk about animals for medical research. They ignore proof and rebuttal evidence of useful purpose, careful housing, kindness, adequate feeding, and maintenance of the animals. Applying the emotional appeals that touch the humane spirit of most Americans who love pets, they pictured the Walking Horse owner as a monster who drove nails into his horse’ s coronet band, pastern and frog. 1 hey made wild charges of acid being poured
on a horse’ s feet to produce the gait that was the envy of the horse world.
Now this presents a pretty terrible picture, if true. And there may have been drunken, ignorant trainers who jeopardized the welfare of their horses in this manner. It is also true that every community in this country has parents who beat, maltreat and abuse their children. We don’ t think this is universal or an
accepted way of life. And no horseman could apply these practices and present a sound horse for his own pleasure or for the show ring. But the charges persisted, flamed by an internecine feud within the
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VOICE of the Tennessee Walking Horse