Hon, Andrew
Mrs.Grooms
Animal science, 1st
18 November 2015 Horse Abuse: Big Lick Horse are such a beautiful animal, these animals have always helped us since we started farming all the way to riding, and showing. Today many people abuse their horse to supposedly “look good”. One of the major thing that you can do to a horse is
“soring,” this method involves the infliction of pain to a horse's legs or hooves forcing the horse to make an artificial, exaggerated gait. Many people also use Caustic chemicals which are blistering agents like mustard oil, diesel fuel and kerosene these chemicals are applied to the horse's limbs, which cause extreme pain
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Others "steward" their horses at home, putting them through mock inspections where in if the horse reacts to palpation, he is beaten with a whip, bat or other blunt instrument. The horse learns to be more fearful of the beating than the pain in his legs, and learns to stand quietly. Other trainers will attach alligator clips and other pain-inducing objects to sensitive parts of the horse prior to inspection, causing him to focus on the new source of pain rather than his legs and feet.
In addition to extreme suffering from being sored and shown, many Tennessee walking horses die at a young age from colic, believed to be caused by the extreme stress placed on them in training and by exposure to the toxic chemicals used for soring.
Lets face it, nothing we do with our horses is naturally what they would do in the wild, but cantering the big lick horse crosses the line of unnatural and moves easily into the cruelty and abuse category. The horses labor, pant, and break out in a lathered sweat after only a few minutes of work. These horses are in agony and the terror in their eyes is