My horse is not only something that I cherish, but something that can always brighten my
day no matter what. I don’t think of him as a pet; I think of him as a partner. Together we can
achieve big things. Horses have been in my life for eleven years and I would have never thought
they’d have such a huge impact on my life. Horses have had a special place in my heart from the
very beginning. I have grown connections with many horses in my life and never has the
thought of harming or abusing my horse, or any other horse to make them do something they’re
incapable of doing naturally crossed my mind. As I grew older, I started hearing more about
horses being hurt due to people doing something called soring. My mind was exploding with the
though of, “Why on earth would someone ever want to abuse an animal that has done nothing to
you?”

The act of soring in the Tennessee Walking horse breed is abusive and should be banned.
Soring is a form of animal abuse, specifically used on horses. According to Lahle Wolfe, the
practices of soring were passed by congress in 1970 and were made illegal. Yet, to this day,
people are still doing it. The act of soring is injecting chemicals and applying chemicals (diesel
fuel, kerosene, mustard oil, salicylic acid, etc.), to horse’s legs to make them get a more
exaggerated look when they move. Since the chemicals put them in pain and make them blister,
when they move they lift their legs up high and put all their weight on their hind end to try and
escape the pain from their front legs. On top of it all, the people use complicated bits and heavy
shoes to help get the look they want. This type of movement is known as the “Big Lick” gait.
But, of course, the main thing that keeps all of this going is a horse that never gives up and keeps
trying despite of everything going on.

The only breed that people use the soring technique on is the Tennessee Walking horses.
This breed didn’t come into this world wanting to be put into pain and fear. This breed was
meant to live like any other breed of horse. They are supposed to have loving owners who love
them for their natural ability. Not something that is fake. Using all types of chemicals and
different objects to make them move “better” is turning them into something that they aren’t.
Their natural selves are calm horses who are good for going on relaxing trail rides. But the
environment they are put in now is the complete opposite. Now, they are in an environment that
is unnatural to them; full of screaming people, loud music, and the feeling of being hurt. We
shouldn’t be forcing horses to do something they are completely unable to do without the help of
chemicals and objects.

Horses never want to let their owners down. They always want to give everything their
all no matter if they’re feeling off or not. That’s one thing about horses that catches everyone’s
attention; if they are hurt or in pain they will always be there to try their hardest for what they’re
being asked to do. People in the Tennessee Walking horse circuit don’t think twice about the
horse being in pain, they only care about the horse doing its job and winning big. The horse gets
put into the show ring and it feels as if it’s surrounded by fear. It picks its feet up higher and
higher trying to escape from the horrible feeling of the chemicals against and inside their legs.
The horse thinks there is good in everything. They’re thinking if they do something, they’ll get
praised for it. Little do they know, they are going right back to the start. More and more
chemicals are added and the pain just gets worse. But the horses never fail to let their owners
down.

Many horses from this breed die at such a young age from colic and lose a lot of there
ability to move correctly after they retire from being sored. The amount of hardcore use and
exposure of chemicals at such a young age causes the horses to become stressed and colic. Colic
is when there is severe pain in the abdomen caused by gas in the intestines or obstruction in the
intestines. Stated in “The Horse Fund” there is a special quote, “Time is money. Why take
months to train a horse, when you can fix them in a fraction of the time?”. Instead of taking the
time and training the horses to pick up their legs naturally, the trainers have to jump right into it.
They start using soring techniques, heavy weight shoes and start riding them under saddle before
the age of two which is very uncommon because the horse isn't fully developed yet. They rather
have their horses be ready to go as soon as possible rand put them to work just to make their
horses die quicker. It’s unnecessary to put little foals into something when they have no clue
what is going on. Why should we be having innocent animals die and suffer at such a young age
just so humans can win big prizes? They constantly use special chemicals to make the horses
become what they want them to be, but by the time they finish their first couple competitions
they struggle to do anymore. They put so much effort into doing what the rider is asking and it
wears them out. Soon enough, they can’t handle it anymore. You can win big prizes without the
use of soring in other breeds. There’s no soring used in any other breed besides this one. There
are tons of other people out there winning big at different types of nationals, finals, festivals,
Olympics etc. Young horses dying and losing their natural abilities due to abuse is unnecessary
and must be stopped.

Many people may ask, why is soring still happening if it’s illegal? Well, at many
Tennessee Walking horse shows, there are inspections for any signs of soring. According to “The
Horse Fund” , during inspections they look at the horses general appearance, locomotion, physical examination, and compliance with the scar rule.

All of these will help lead up to the conclusion if the horse has been sored or not. But not at all
shows are there inspections. The “Humane Society” states, “…the USDA’s own inspectors
found that 100 percent of horses randomly chosen at that show tested positive for prohibited
foreign substances applied to their pasterns.” There aren’t enough people in the world who care
about animals being abused and that needs to change. Hundreds of people go and watch these
horses but don’t have a clue as to why they look the way they do. The “Humane Society” says
since there’s a lack of funding against soring horses, the USDA (United States Department of
Agriculture) can’t send agency officials to every Tennessseee Walking horse show, therefore
people can sore their horses all they want. This is why funding needs to increase so we can have
people go and make sure these horses aren’t being tortured. But, even if there are people
checking for soring, the owners and trainers have a way of hiding it. To hide the soring, trainers
may either, numb the horse so they don't flinch when they're being checked, they may time the
use of their chemicals so when they’re checked the chemicals wont be detected, and the most
common one is teaching the horse not to react to the pain. Teaching the horse not to react to the
pain requires punishing the horse in a severe manner after they see the horse show any signs of
being in pain which is also a form of animal abuse. There needs to be more laws enforced on the
act of soring horses because it is unfair to the animals.

The problem is that there is not enough people in the world who care enough about
horses being abused. Even the many people who are in the so called “horse world” don’t think
enough about horses suffering for an inappropriate reason. Our people need to think more about
the environment around them and not just their life. Just a little more funding and a little more
technology brought to us will slowly get us somewhere overtime. People who sore horses are
cruel and must be stopped. They are treating these animals like toys rather than living things. The Unstoppable
My horse is not only something that I cherish, but something that can always brighten my
day no matter what. I don’t think of him as a pet; I think of him as a partner. Together we can
achieve big things. Horses have been in my life for eleven years and I would have never thought
they’d have such a huge impact on my life. Horses have had a special place in my heart from the
very beginning. I have grown connections with many horses in my life and never has the
thought of harming or abusing my horse, or any other horse to make them do something they’re
incapable of doing naturally crossed my mind. As I grew older, I started hearing more about
horses being hurt due to people doing something called soring. My mind was exploding with the
though of, “Why on earth would someone ever want to abuse an animal that has done nothing to
you?”

The act of soring in the Tennessee Walking horse breed is abusive and should be banned.
Soring is a form of animal abuse, specifically used on horses. According to Lahle Wolfe, the
practices of soring were passed by congress in 1970 and were made illegal. Yet, to this day,
people are still doing it. The act of soring is injecting chemicals and applying chemicals (diesel
fuel, kerosene, mustard oil, salicylic acid, etc.), to horse’s legs to make them get a more
exaggerated look when they move. Since the chemicals put them in pain and make them blister,
when they move they lift their legs up high and put all their weight on their hind end to try and
escape the pain from their front legs. On top of it all, the people use complicated bits and heavy
shoes to help get the look they want. This type of movement is known as the “Big Lick” gait.
But, of course, the main thing that keeps all of this going is a horse that never gives up and keeps
trying despite of everything going on.

The only breed that people use the soring technique on is the Tennessee Walking horses.
This breed didn’t come into this world wanting to be put into pain and fear. This breed was
meant to live like any other breed of horse. They are supposed to have loving owners who love
them for their natural ability. Not something that is fake. Using all types of chemicals and
different objects to make them move “better” is turning them into something that they aren’t.
Their natural selves are calm horses who are good for going on relaxing trail rides. But the
environment they are put in now is the complete opposite. Now, they are in an environment that
is unnatural to them; full of screaming people, loud music, and the feeling of being hurt. We
shouldn’t be forcing horses to do something they are completely unable to do without the help of
chemicals and objects.