Young horse, less than two years old, in training 2006
Abused pastern recorded during a USDA horse show inspection
in 1972
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Making the Gait:
The Story of the Tennessee Walking Horse. In
the name of competition, the high-stepping Tennessee Walking
Horse show horse has suffered too much, for too long. For
the first time in the history of the breed, well-known
trainers and owners—some of them past abusers—have come
forward to tell their stories. These are inspiring stories
about horses that have been saved, and horse enthusiasts who
dare to defy the Tennessee Mafia.
To win in the show ring, sore-horse trainers are willing to
experiment with all manner of abuse to produce the coveted
Big Lick; to make the gait. Soring is a dirty business based
on an illegal practice. In the late nineteen-fifties and
early sixties, abuse spread across Tennessee like the
plague. Through the application of toxic chemicals, painful
shoeing, and heavy chains worn over sore pasterns, Tennessee
Walking Horse trainers perfected the vaunted Big Lick show
gait. Soring was openly practiced in the fifties and
sixties. During high-speed Big Lick show classes, blood from
abused pasterns splattered across arena walls. The gentle,
kind-hearted Tennessee Walking Horse is one of the few
breeds that will tolerate such abuse while pressing forward
in response to its riders bidding.
In nineteen-seventy, Congress passed the Horse Protection
Act, specifically designed to protect the Tennessee Walking
Horse. Nothing changed for the horse. The only thing that
changed for the Tennessee Walking Horse industry was the
added sport of defying an invasive Northern law that had
little to do with a long-standing Southern tradition.
A general attitude of justified defiance, not unlike the
ideology of the Klu Klux Klan, settled into the minds of
belligerent owners and trainers who were not about to change
their way of life. They are called the Tennessee Mafia, and
to this day they continue to threaten violence to maintain
their grip on Middle Tennessee.
As he enters today’s show ring a sored Tennessee Walking
Horse appears to float in a gait that is virtually
other-worldly. He moves in a manner that defies an equine’s
normal range of motion. Experts agree it is a gait that can
only be created through pain. Though soring is practiced in
other divisions, the big gait, the one that brings in the
crowds, is known as the Big Lick.
As the list of Horse Protection Act violators will attest,
small stables and backyard trainers in Tennessee and across
the nation continue to sore their horses with varying
degrees of success. In this effort to bring the plight of
the sored Tennessee Walking Horse to a broader audience,
owners and trainers intimately familiar with the tragedy of
the sored horse, share their experiences. If we pass the
word, if we all work together, the beleaguered Tennessee
Walking Horse will one day walk free.
