Walking horse trainer Jeff Green, of Shelbyville, Tenn., has had six suspensions, including two for soring walking horses. Green holds onto gelding Extreme Makeover in the corral outside the annual Nolensville Lion’s Club Horse Show in Franklin, Tenn.Eight of the last 10 winners of the Trainer of the Year award from the Walking Horse Trainers’ Association have been suspended for soring at least once, according to data compiled by an industry watchdog group.
One of the winners, Charlie Green, racked up the most violations of the Horse Protection Act, with 22 — for everything from one-foot and two-foot soring to scarring on a horse’s legs, a possible indication of previous soring — according to a review by The Tennessean of a database maintained by Friends of Sound Horses. Green declined to comment on his record.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency charged with enforcing the federal Horse Protection Act, has online records going back to 2010, which confirm that four of the 10 Trainers of the Year have violations in their recent past. The advocates’ database goes back more than two decades.
Soring is the practice of pouring caustic chemicals, cutting or otherwise abusing a horse’s hooves and lower front legs to induce the high step that wins Tennessee walking horse competitions. The trainers’ violations prove that it remains far too prevalent in the industry and isn’t limited to a few offenders, said Lori Northup, president of Friends of Sound Horses, a group formed more than a decade ago to promote the humane treatment and training of gaited horses.
Keith Dane, equine protection director of the Humane Society of the United States, said soring is far from isolated. The Humane Society shot an undercover video detailing soring and other abuses by high-profile trainer Jackie McConnell and three others in a West Tennessee barn.