Editorial Staff, To whom it may concern…

Below you will find an editorial sent to me by a friend and a friend of the TWH..I, in turn forwarded it on to several people and we all agree that it should be widely published and widely read..Seeing all of the negative things that have been going around about our beloved TWH’s , we feel that it is time that something positive should be published, and this might just be it…I believe that it is well written and describes the process of inspections that we all know goes on but are not so well able to put it into words as well as this author does.

Thank you for your time,
Jerri Alberti, A long time owner, exhibitor and supporter of
the Tennessee Walking Horse

As promised, I want to take a minute to explain what it involves to own, show, love and train a Tennessee Walking Horse (TWH). I have Friesians, I have TWH’s, both flat shod and performance shod, meaning they wear pads on their feet. First, the pads DO NOT injure, harm, or otherwise have a negative impact on the TWH, despite what the liberal media radical animal rights extremists state as truth. It is not. The pads only enhance what is a natural gait for the TWH. The media and the activists organizations have tried in every manner to portray anyone that owns, shows, rides, and loves a TWH as an animal abuser. Again, a total lie, used by the activists to destroy the performance TWH in both the public image and perception. Now that the political parts are out of the way, I will explain in detail what one must endure to show, own, train and love a TWH.
The USDA has the HPA to use as their basis for all of what I am about to explain. Finding these procedures under the HPA will be a challenge to anyone that chooses to research it since they do not exist under the HPA law as written. What the law does state is that no horse will be allowed to show at any horse show, horse exhibition or horse sale if that horse is deemed “sore”. That is the law, it is a commerce law, and it was put in place to prohibit a “sore” horse from winning a show over a horse that is not “sore”. The basis of the law was to keep the “sore” horse owner, rider, trainer from not receiving awards and premiums over a non-sore horse, which under the HPA would cause a commerce issue. All the animal rights issues ARE NOT part of the HPA. That is something that has been allowed to grow and become an issue because the HPA has been interpreted and reinterpreted every show season. What is legal one year is illegal the next, and so it goes on and on until this is where the industry is regarding the ability to show a TWH.
At a show where the USDA is in attendance, as described above regarding the Savannah, TN show, or any other TWH show where the USDA is in attendance, the TWH must be led to the inspection area necked. No saddle, nothing but a bridle on the horse. Attendants must follow with saddles (and western saddles are no light saddle mind you). When the horse is first led to the inspection area, the first inspection is a retina scan of the horse’s eyes. This is being used as a “carfax” for horses, such that the USDA can see everything that this horse has ever had questioned on it, whether or not it was dirt on its foot (a foreign substance federal criminal violation) to a scar rule ticket (which is written when an inspector feels or sees something out of their subjective opinion). Once the retina scan is complete, the horse then moves to the Thermograph machine inspector, who shoots images of the horse’s legs to look for heat or any sign of soring. The next stop is at the x-ray machine inspector, to look for anything in the horses hooves, or to see if the horse has any rotation of their coffin bone (this rotation is common in all breeds of horses, but the TWH will not be allowed to show rotation on the x-ray, and yet it has ZERO to do with soring a horse, go figure) The next stop in the inspection tent is the “Swabbers” who are inspectors with swabs to rubs on the horses feet, looking for any foreign chemicals on the feet, then the swab samples are then sent off to some lab somewhere inside the USDA to test each swab, at a great tax payer cost) and one day in the future the owner will receive a letter stating what was on that swab. Most of the agents to date are common every day products, hair spray, shampoos, lotions, hoof polish, etc, yet under the USDA foreign substance rule, ANYTHING (dirt, flyspray, shampoo, etc. is deemed a violation of the federal HPA and can result in a federal criminal charge). The next stop is when horse is directed to walk a tight figure 8 inside and outside of orange cones. If the horse does not appear to walk “just right”, then it is again subject to a criminal federal charge. The final stop in the inspection tent is when the USDA and/or Industry inspectors physically mash and prod on the horse’s foot for a reaction of any kind. If that horse moves, twitches an ear, blinks an eye, again, information will be taken by the USDA for a potential federal criminal charge of horse soring. Now, bear in mind, this is a horse, a fight or flight animal, that has undergone several gauntlets already, who now must stand statue still while a stranger lifts it leg high into the air, and mashes, pokes, prods, parts hair, and digs around on the foot, and expects the horse not to react in any form or fashion. How many of you with Friesians think your horses would stand for this type of inspection? How many do you think would stand statue still while one leg is suspended in the air sometimes for 3 minutes at a time? However, once a TWH passes thru all these gauntlets of inspection, it is declared compliant with the HPA to show. The happy exhibitor greets their horse after the inspection, and horse is saddled and prepared for the class to show. After the class is over, usually 15 minutes tops from first presentation at the inspection station, if that horse should be lucky enough ( or unlucky enough, depends on your prespective) to place in the first three places, it wins a ribbon and it then gets to go BACK thru the inspection gauntlet again AFTER it has shown. It is after the class, after it first passed all the preshow inspections, that the famous SCAR rule tickets are born. Because you see, a horse will pass the preshow inspections, and then 15 minutes later, after the class is over, and the owner is so happy with their 1st thru 3rd place ribbon, they then receive a SCAR rule ticket as a parting gift. And yes, a SCAR in the USDA’s eyes means that the horse was SORE sometime in its PAST… not at that moment as previously proven 15 minutes earlier with the preshow inspection… but regardless, it is classified as a SORE horse because a SCAR appeared in 15 minutes, and along with that quick forming scar, a new Federal Criminal charge is born.

So, let’s see, why do I love my TWH’s and why do I continue to expose myself to federal criminal charges every time I go to a TWH show??? BECAUSE I know what is right. I know my horses are compliant with the HPA. I know that most, and I believe the last compliance percent was 98%, of ALL TWH that are shown are compliant. So, why do 9 inspectors for the USDA attend a Saturday night TWH show with less than 100 entries total? I will let you answer that one on your own….”