Haley Baker

Mr. Workman

English

November 12, 2018

Stop Horse Soring

Have you ever gone to a horse show and watched the horses lift their legs chest-high?

Everyone that isn’t involved in the shows and the training believes that it’s their normal gait but

its not. Behind the scenes of the twinkly lights and the braided manes is a cruel work place,

where horses endure soring as an everyday part of life that weighs their hooves down. Horse

soring needs to be stopped because it’s painful, cruel, and should be illegal in all states.

Horse soring needs to be stopped because it’s painful. “Soring involves the intentional

infliction of pain to a horse's legs or hooves in order to force the horse to perform an artificial,

exaggerated gait” (Humane Society). The act of soring is to achieve a chest-high walk. Soring is

used in shows to get the “wow” factor, if a sore horse tries to escape the pain in their legs, the

pain will cause the horse to have a tremendous lift in the front known as the “big lick” (Horse

Fund). The act is committed by an excessive amount of chemicals, chains, nail, screws, and

being locked up. Even though the gait is beautiful and loved by many, it also causes horrific pain

and cruelty.

Horse soring needs to be stopped because it’s cruel. In horse soring there are two popular

used techniques which are chemical and mechanical soring. Chemical soring is the process of

applying acidic products to the horses’ hocks causing horrific pain to change the animals’ natural
gate to win big. The chemicals are very harmful and toxic, the chemicals are diesel fuels and

kerosene which are applied to the bottom of the heel and will cause a burning or blistering

(Horse Fund Fact Sheet). When using mechanical soring: metal beads, nails, and screws are

placed under the pad causing pressure and a large amount of chains to rub up and down their legs

when moving. “Mechanical soring includes pressure shoeing, where the hoof is trimmed so that

the sole is in direct contact with the pad or shoe” (Horse Fund Fact). The most commonly used

way of soring is when the trainer uses both chemical and mechanical soring. The horse is stalled

for days while they’re covered with plastic wrap to allow the chemicals the soak into the flesh,

also while riding the horse the chains will slide up and down to help irate the sores more

(Humane Society).Not only is horse soring cruel it is also abuse, they may not appear emaciated

as the animals we see on T.V. However, the trainers know ways of covering them up, have you

ever seen the booties some wear in shows? Those are there to cover the cuts and sores. Why do

trainers use these methods and its illegal?

Horse soring should be stopped and needs to be illegal in all states. Soring is illegal and a

felony in the state of Tennessee, however this act hasn’t stopped. “A trainer, by the name of

Jackie McConnell was under investigation by the Humane Society with a horrific video that was

sent all over the world of her committing the cruel crime. The evidence was enough to conflict

him of a felony and put him away” (Prevent All Soring Tactics). Horse soring isn’t only

happening in Tennessee but is also happening all over the world and needs to be stopped. If

Congress can pass the PAST Act, which was reviewed in the House in April, with a “companion

bill introduced to the Senate in August. If passed, the bill would amend the Horse Protection

Act” (End Soring). Now in 2018 the act is illegal but there are not enough agents to inspect the
shows so the torture continues. To stop soring, we all need to be aware, this isn’t going to stop in

one day.

The most common argument that goes around about this act is that soring is good and

only used for: Tennessee Walking horses, Rocky Mountain horse, Racking horses, and the

spotted saddle breed. Trainers believe that’s soring is okay to do to these types of horses because

of how their gate already is. The act of “trying” to change a horse’s gate doesn’t not do any right,

the trainers believe that when you win big soring is good, but how is it good when the animal is

in pain the entire trip? The high rise gate that is performed around the ring isn’t real and it shows

they’re in tremendous pain. Why do trainers only pick a select few breeds? Why would you want

any breed of horse go through that pain? We need to end this act!

Horse soring can be stopped by having frequent barn checks and no longer participating

in the shows. Everyone needs to help get rid of this harmful act and this is how were going to do

it. Ring workers believe that soring is okay because of the big lick, which attracts many people

and earns them a lot of money. One of the first steps to stop this is to have an animal cruelty

worker to check behind the scenes to make sure the horses participating and sound and not sore,

and who is sored will be disqualified. The next step that we can all participate in is to stop going

to the shows. The less people that participate will help the trainers and ring workers realize that

the big lick isn’t as popular as what they think it was, they come to look at the beautiful animal

but not to see how high they can get their legs. The viewers care about the animal’s health and

they would be disturbed to learn the real action that is involved. Once these motions are set in

place and once they learn the true facts about horse soring, you can help by signing the PAST act

to end horse soring all over the world.

 Works Cited

“Horse Soring Fact Sheet.” Horse Soring Fact Sheet, horsefund.org/horse-soring-fact-sheet.php.

“Horse Soring.” Horse Soring FAQs, horsefund.org/horse-soring-faq.php.

Kangas, Cathy. “End Soring of Tennessee Walking Horses.” The Huffington Post,

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 15 Nov. 2013, www.huffingtonpost.com/cathy-kangas/end-

soring-of-tennessee_b_4261187.html.

“What Is Soring?” The Humane Society of the United States,

www.humanesociety.org/search/search-results.html.