"Today, Tennessee Walking Horses are known throughout the industry
as the breed that shows abused and tortured horses."

~ Jim Heird, Ph.D., Do Right By The Horse, February 2010

"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity,
you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."

~ St. Francis of Assisi

Monday, August 26, 2013

NEWS - Update on Black Week

It's amazing...things are going well for the horse on the first weekend of Black Week.

Of the Aged Stallion Class for Saturday night that was split into two divisions (probably to make more money to be in the final WGC class), only three horses were in the A division, and only two in the B division.  I've included their violations from the HPA database.

A Division:
WC: He's Vida Blue- Chad Williams (4 violations)
Reserve: Swing Batter Batter Swing - Danny Hughes (3 violations)
3rd: I'm Deuce - Casey Wright (6 violations)

Didn't show:
Moody Star - Bobby Hugh
Seige - Scott Beaty
Lucky Grand Slam - Charlie Witherspoon
He's Slim Shady - Jimmy McConnell

B Division:
WC: Lampshade - Bill Cantrell (2 violations)
Reserve: The Thug - Dick Peebles (5 violations)

Failed Inspection:
A Bruce Pearl - Jimmy McConnell
Honors - Larry Edwards
Jose's Crystal Lite - Charlie Green

Didn't show:
Putting Cash on the Line - Jimmy McConnel
The Metalist - Herbert Derickson
The Golden Sovergin - Chad Williams

It's also rumored that He's Vida Blue received a ticket after the class, but whether or not he did hasn't been confirmed.

The big contender this year was Honors, a horse "guaranteed" to win because it was "his time."  But being ticketed means that he can't show the rest of the show, and neither can any of the horses that didn't show in this class because it was a required preliminary class to the WGC.

The crowd was so upset that Honors wasn't in the class that they got up and left.  Simply left.  But it's not like it was that big of a crowd anyway...check it out (via Billygoboy's website):


Normally this place would be packed.

Of course, the Lickers are placing blame all over the place.  HSUS is being blamed, USDA, probably us at FTTWH and Billygoboy, and even at David Howard, the man who continues to shoot himself in the foot by banning TWHBEA from the show grounds, forcing anyone who wants to show at the Celebration to only show at SHOW shows, etc.  (And yes, this is partially his fault.)

However, they aren't touching on one bit of fault: the trainers and owners.  Perhaps, just maybe perhaps, Honors, et al were actually sored.  How about that?  Hard to fathom?  Why not?  This industry has chosen to hinge all its bets on the sored horse.  For decades they have gotten away with abusing animals for fun and profit.  They are so deep in denial that many of them will never make it back out again and will go to their graves supporting the sored horse and claiming he wasn't sored.  It's sickening to say the least, flat out support of abuse and torture to say the most.

I highly recommend hanging out on Billygoboy's website and Facebook page to learn more about the goings-on at the Celebration this year.  There are play-by-plays on there as well as an audio of the crowd's reaction to Honors not being in the ring.

God bless the horse...maybe they'll be lucky and there won't be a Celebration next year.

No comments:

Blog Archive