Campaign contributionsPublic campaign records tally the following contributions from the Tennessee Walking Horse industry to Tennessee and Kentucky political candidates and from 1989-2014.Lamar Alexander – $19,799Rep. Marsha Blackburn – $16,400Rep. Chuck Fleischmann – $0Rep. Scott DesJarlais – $0Sen. Mitch McConnell – $38,800Source: Sunlight Foundation, OpenSecrets.com
Certainly at this year’s 76th annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration special honor should be accorded to Tennessee’s congressional delegation – especially Sen. Lamar Alexander and Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann and Rep. Scott DesJarlais. Kudos also would be in order for Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell. And, yes, there has been something of a pay-off for them – something along the lines of at least $75,000 in campaign contributions over the past 25 years.
All of these Republicans are helping the walking horse industry hold onto a tradition of pain and abuse for a beautiful breed that provided a smooth-gaited, high-stepping ride for aristocrats surveying their plantations.
The abuse, known as “soring,” has turned the final days of the walking horse Celebration in Shelbyville, Tenn., into a sadistic parade of horses with over-sized, padded front hooves and a “big lick” gait exaggerated into something akin to a tortured lunge.
Soring techniques include caustic chemicals, chains or pressure shoeing under those tall hoof pads. Those physical injuries make the horses’ stretch to keep their legs in the air as long as possible because it hurts when they hit the ground. Michael Blackwell, former dean of veterinary medicine at the University of Tennessee, has likened the “excruciating” pain to biting into something with an abscessed tooth.