Soring - The Downfall of the Equine World

Soring has long been an incredibly controversial topic in the Tennessee Walking Horse world. For many years now, animal rights activists have been working tirelessly to abolish soring once and for all in this beautiful and unique horse breed. As an animal rescuer myself, I have been working to raise awareness and put an end to soring once and for all. I hope this article inspires you to try to make a difference to stop this despicable act and together we can give a voice to these innocent horses.  

Credits to the USDA

Soring in Horses: 

So, what exactly is soring? Soring is the illegal, immoral and incredibly unethical practice of purposely inflicting pain to exaggerate the leg motion of horses to gain an unfair advantage in the show ring. The expected and desired outcome is an unnatural chest-high stride, and this ‘achievement’ is known as the “big lick”. The breeds that suffer and are most commonly victim of this practice are Tennessee Walking Horses. However, many other gaited breeds are used, including but not limited to: Racking Horses, Spotted Saddle Horses, Rocky Mountain Horses and Missouri Fox Trotters. Horses can become crippled and damaged due to soring, often going lame or even dying. Once the horse is injured like that, they won’t eat due to the immense pain and even with all the pain medicine that is sometimes administered, they won’t get up, get out of their stall or go to their trough to eat. If a horse is this far gone, it is usually ended by putting them down and many horses have also succumbed to due stress colic from all the pain. The owners are not stupid, around 95% know that their horses are being sored according to an ex-trainer. This trainer also claims that the ones who don’t know, choose not to know - meaning the movement of the horse is very forced and wrong, but it’s hard to believe that the gait is natural and non-influenced at all. A horse will not walk the exaggerated movement on its hind legs unless it is sore. It is bluntly common sense and to this day, a lot of the trainers will argue with that, saying that the gait is natural, arguing that it is not man-made because only a small amount of chemicals is effective, and it takes less to achieve the gait than other breeds.  

The Process: 

Soring is done by irritating and/or blistering the horse’s forelegs through the injection and/or application of chemical irritants and/or painful mechanical devices. The process of chemical soring is very cruel and involves the application of a caustic chemical to the hair and skin of the horse’s lower leg, followed by covering the leg with plastic and a leg wrap for several days. The applier will do this to allow whatever chemical they used to sink in and “cook” into the skin. There is a diverse amount of chemicals used for this type of soring, but the most common candidates are Kerosene, diesel, croton oil, GoJo hand cleaner, WD40 oil and mustard oil. These chemicals will obviously make the horse's skin very irritated and sensitive. Next, the applier will then place “action devices” around the pastern which will slide up and down as the horse moves, further irritating the already painful areas. One action device per limb is allowed according to the Horse Protection Act. The device must be made of lignum vitae (aka hardwood), aluminum, or stainless steel only and must have individual rollers that are smooth and uniform in size, weight and configuration and cannot weigh more than a total of 6 ounces. In addition to sensitive skin, the chemicals also cause the horses hoof to become responsive to something as minimal as striking the ground. Today, chemical soring is the most popular version of soring. As stated above, the purpose of putting the chemicals on the pasterns is it makes the horse walk “deep” and more on the hind. When they put the chain on top of the sore, that makes it all work and it would do no good to use the chemicals if they couldn’t use the chain. If the chain wasn’t used, there would be absolutely no purpose for the chemicals.  Now, these chemicals can and will produce skin scars and send up “red flags” to inspectors. As critical observation and examination of scarring violations has increased, yet another cruel practice has emerged: owners and trainers apply a chemical stripping agent to the legs to burn off scar tissue caused by the initial soring, which as one can imagine, is an additional painful process to the horse.

Another version of soring is mechanical/physical soring. This type involves trimming the hoof and/or applying devices that cause the horse’s hooves to be painful in general, therefore forcing the horse to pick up its feet faster and higher. Putting something between the shoe/pad and the foot is the most common way to achieve the desired gait via mechanical/physical soring. Most use blue putty. When the putty is used, it puts extreme pressure on the bottom of the foot, more specifically the sole, just like the bolts - tightening a bolt into a horse’s foot is very similar comparison to the use of putty. The putty goes between the hoof and nail pad and after the pad is nailed down, the putty swells and hardens. When it hardens, the putty is there until removed. Once taken out, usually right before a show, there is a sore in the foot, and it will remain for a couple of days. So, they don’t use the putty at the show, just the sore is already there in the sole of the horse's foot.  Some other variations of mechanical/physical soring are: 

- Grinding down the sole of the hoof, exposing the sensitive, spongy tissues underneath the sole. 

- Rolling the sole; Making the hoof wall shorter than the sole. The hoof wall bears all the weight on the goof, removing its support causes the sole to bear all of the weight. 

- Putting hard, uncomfortable objects between the shoe or pad and the sole to cause pressure and pain.  

- Blocking; Standing the horse with the sensitive area of the sole on a block or other raised object for significant periods of time. 

- The natural fix; Purposely causes laminitis (aka founder), the immensely painful inflammation of the internal foot tissues. 

- Excessive over-tightening of the metal bands that wrap around the hoof resulting in pain from excessive pressure on the foot wall. 

- Improper shoeing techniques that violate the act, including but not limited to: extreme wedging of pads to cause an inappropriate heel/toe ratio, metal bands place too high on the hoof, and excessive weight added to the pad/package (ex. Lead). 

Whether it’s a flat-shod horse or a padded one, it doesn’t matter. All horses of all shoeing styles can be sored. 

Detection 

There are three main ways of detecting soring. First is simply visual observation. A horse’s posture may be a tell all, for instance a horse in pain may lay down more often than usual, may be unwilling to move and/or it may show a “standing in a bucket” pose, where its hind legs are more closely together and positioned more forward than usual to take weight off the painful front legs. When the horse moves forward, it may initiate “praying mantis stance” which is where it rocks back and bears most of its weight on its hind legs, resembling the posture of a praying mantis insect. This movement is the direct opposite of a horse’s natural mechanics, as naturally they bear anywhere between 60-65% of their weight on their front limbs. Sored horses many also move forward very slowly with short, choppy, uncomfortable strides. The second method is physical inspection. The inspection of the horse’s lower limbs, especially at the coronary band (where the hoof and leg meet), heel bulbs (back of the hoof), and both the front and back pastern areas (between hoof and fetlock) are the key areas when attempting to detect soring. If the animal has been chemically sored, the skin may be swollen, painful, abraded, or even oozing blood, serum or pus. Also, the hair on the lower regions of the front legs may be wavy, rippled or curly and there may be underlying scars. Something as minimal as finger pressure over the sored area my cause a pain reaction, like trying to withdraw its leg. Unfortunately, however, stewarding of horses may result in no response despite the presence of pain. Stewarding is the use of harsh and/or painful training methods at practice inspections to teach the horse that flinching or reacting will cause worse pain (ex. Beating, electrical punishment). Lastly, the use of additional tools is the final way of detection. Due to the fact that methods of soring are constantly becoming more advanced and sophisticated, the use of new technological methods has become essential during inspections. Thermographic images are taken with a thermal or infrared camera which measures the relative temperatures of the desired area. Excessive temperature of either warm or cool areas indicate abnormalities and the need for deeper evaluation. The excessive warmth can be due to increased blood flow, inflammation or irrational, while excessive coolness may be due to decreased blood flow or the application of a cooling substance, most commonly a numbing agent. Gas chromatography / mass spectrometry is another testing procedure that identifies the composition of chemical mixtures that may be applied to a sored horse’s legs. Along with those tools, the USDA can perform blood/saliva tests to detect drugs used to mask pain, utilize hoof testers to determine if laminitis or other hoof pain is present and collect x-rays to determine if there are pathologic changes to the bone surrounded by the hoof (the third phalanx) or if any nails, screws or objects have been placed between the shoe or pad with the intent of causing pain. 

Laws 

Soring is illegal. Not only is it inhumane and unethical, but soring is also a violation of federal law. The Horse Protection Act (HPA) of 1970 made soring illegal, and it is punishable by fine and/or imprisonment. This act also makes it illegal for sored horses to participate in shows, sales, exhibitions or auctions as well as prohibiting transporters from transporting these horses to or from and of these events. The USDA is responsible for enforcing the HPA and enforce it in several ways. Designated Qualified Persons (DQPs) are assigned veterinarians knowledgeable about the industry and trained by the USDA to detect any evidence of soaring. They are hired by the manager of the event to ensure no sored horses go into the show ring. The DQPs physically inspect EVERY single horse before it can show, sold or exhibited and are responsible for reporting horses that do not meet the federal regulation. Veterinary Medical Officers (VMOs) appointed by the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service conducts unannounced inspections at horse events where soring may occur, and last but not least Horse Industry Organizations are USDA certified, which “self-police” the industry. The HIOs are approved to perform inspections for violations of the HPA. 

Currently 

Why does soring continue to happen? Soring continues to occur for a wide variety of reasons, most commonly being detection avoidance by trainers/owners, judges rewarding sored horses in the show ring and budget restraints at USDA. It is believed by some individuals that that they only way to stop soring is to get rid of the use of pads and chains. The chains and the pads have to be present in order to get away with the soring. Also not mentioned below, there have been many accounts of bribery and corruption within the industry. It happens very frequently and is commonly overlooked. Judges being paid to tie a certain horse in a show to improve their likelihood of winning. DQPs and inspectors are frequently also guilty often being paid to let horses through or to turn a horse down.  See these points elaborated below: 

• Avoiding Detection: detecting soring is not as simple as one would think, as unethical trainers and owners have a number of strategies to help them avoid detection. Many are masters at camouflage, hiding soring to get through USDA inspections. A big one is the use of numbing, freezing agents, shots or pain medicine like Demosedan, which mask pain during inspection but wear off by show/exhibition time. It even has gone as far as testing the pain meds at home and seeing how long it takes for it wear off, knowing when to give the horse the shot and having it timed out perfectly at shows ready to go. There are even medicines that can take the pain medicine out of their system. Another massive problem is the morals of some of the veterinarians. The vets are the ones selling the owners/trainers the pain removal medicine in the first place, over checking the horses. According to several sources, the vets know exactly what its used for and know what's going on. Furthermore, when the media presses in and gets involved in the subject, they often deny that they knew anything was going on.  Stewarding is also popular. Distraction devices involve the application of something painful in another sensitive location other than the sored area, like a bit burr under the saddle, hand twitch, alligator clips on sensitive tissue (ex. Genitals, underbelly), or surgical staples under the mane just before inspection. Lastly, horse switching which is providing a substitute horse for inspection under false paperwork and actually showing the sored horse in the ring.  

• Winning: Judges are a large part of the issue as many judges continue to use judging criteria that encourage soring practices, but Monetary rewards are usually the big culprit in this section. Events that feature “natural” horses have much lower monetary rewards than events that have featured sored horses. For example, in 2011 The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration World Championship class paid a 1st prize of $15,000, while the largest award paid in a class at either the National Walking Horse Association’s (NWHA) The National or Friends of Sound Horses’ (FOSH) North American Gaited Horse Championship was only $300. Several trainers have come out and said that the only way to win the Celebration is by soring. Some trainers agree that you can only train a horse to walk without soring up to a certain point. No matter what, regardless of how much training put into a horse, the deep walk will never be accomplished without soring, and therefore, you will not win if you don’t sore them. Without some type of soring and the pads and chains, a horse cannot do an animated big lick gait. Lastly in this section, future income opportunities. In addition to the immediate cash and recognition received by winners, owners, and trainers are also often time awarded with future breeding and training fees from fellow showmen and women to have a winning horse. 

• Budget Constraints: Unfortunately, USDA inspectors only attend a small percentage of shows to budget constraints and “self-policing” by HIOs are ineffective due to a constant conflict of interest of many industry inspectors who are actively involved in the industry as owners/trainers. To add, historically even when ticketed, punishment of HPA violators has been minimal. However, the USDA is actively taking steps to strengthen its enforcement of the Act.  

When convicted horse trainer Barney Davis was asked, “Were people around you soring horses?” in an interview, he replied: “Every trainer sored horses. I mean you have to. You have to, to get them to walk.  At some point in time, I know a lot of the trainers say you don’t have to do anything to this horse, well at one time he’s had to be sored. So, the horse has had to be sored to walk.” He admitted to knowing that soring hurts the horse and has even seen “plenty” of hooves break off from the band in the quick or the sole. The area would bleed because of the band and is 90% of what makes a horse go lame in his opinion, “If that horse ever breaks their foot off into the quick, nine times out of ten you’re going to get some rotation in that foot when it grows back. If they’ve got rotation in their feet, they’re never actually healed. They are in pain for the rest of their life”. Davis also claims that if you are around soring so much, like himself, you don’t really think about it.  

What Can You Do? 

If you suspect or know someone who has sored their horse, please report these incidences of soring to the USDA. This includes instances at barns or shows, reporting barns, trainers and owners engaging in these practices and reporting “outlaw shows” organized without licensed HIO inspections. There is also a large amount of people that are uneducated and are convinced that the animated gait is just the natural way that Walking Horses walk. By bringing awareness to the topic, you can help eliminate ignorance from the discipline.  

Success 

Barney Davis is a former Tennessee Walking and Spotted Saddle Horse Trainer who pleaded guilty to felony under the Horse Protection Act. Davis was a successful trainer, having showed sored horses trained by him multiple times at the Celebration. Davis says that all of his horses were sored. He was sentenced to serve one year in federal prison and was released in June 2012. While one year is a minimal sentence, and it should absolutely be lengthened, this is one example of justice for these cruel acts. Humane World for Animals has a very interesting interview with this man where he discusses how rampant and frequent soring is in the industry.   

Summary 

To recap quickly and simply, soring is a cruel practice of applying chemicals or extreme mechanical devices to a horse’s forelegs or hooves to cause pain when a horse steps on the ground. This in turn forces them to move their legs faster and higher to avoid touching the ground. Soring is mostly focused on the Tennessee Walking Horse to created exaggerated leg motion and make them look more “attractive” in the show ring.  Although soring was made illegal by Congress in the 1970s through the Horse Protection Act (HPA), several Tennessee Waking Horse Trainers still use soring techniques. Lack of funding from the USDA is the main factor, and this prevents officials to be able to attend every Tennessee Walking Horse show. All horses at shows are supposed to undergo thorough examination by show officials, but some trainers have found sneaky ways to avoid detection. In addition to this, judges continue to award the “Big Lick” gait, which is the result of soring. The Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act hopes to finally put an end to this unethical practice and hopes to end the practice of soring and strengthen the penalty for those who still use this training technique. Though the act has been passed by Congress, it still needs to receive a passing vote in the Senate in order to make it to the President’s desk.  

Honestly and personally, I'd love to see people burn in acid for doing this to horses. This is beyond sick and I cannot believe the depths to which humanity has sunk. By doing my part, and you doing yours, I believe that we all can contribute to ending this practice for good.  

Sources:  

Horseyhooves.com 

American Veterinary Medical Association 

Human World for Animals