CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee walking horse trainer who was caught abusing horses in an undercover video was sentenced Tuesday to three years’ probation and fined $75,000.

Jackie McConnell, 60, told U.S. District Judge Harry “Sandy” Mattice, “I take responsibility for what I’ve done.”

The video made public this summer by the Humane Society of the United States showed McConnell and others applying caustic substances to horses’ legs and hooves and beating the horses to make them stand.

The process is called soring and is used to enhance the horses’ high-stepping gait. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported (http://bit.ly/ODdD5u) that McConnell cried as he read his statement but showed no reaction to the sentence.

Stable hands Jeff Dockery and Joseph Abernathy were sentenced to one year on probation and ordered to write an article about soring.

Article source The Chattanooga Times Free Press