Big Licks and Old Rope Horses

Writers block is a terrible thing.

As  you may have noticed I'm wrestling with a massive dose of it right now.

Those of you who have read this blog for any length of time will know this isn't the first time it has happened to me, I'm guessing it won't be the last.

I'm not gone, I'm not dropping the blog,I'm way too attached and have learned too much by blogging to stop.

I do have to wait out this dry gulch in my writing, but the rain always comes, so I've learned to be patient. I hope you will be too.

In the mean time, there are thoughts I want to share, and this travesty going on in the Tennessee Walker horse show world is one I can't leave alone.

Snarky Rider/FHOTD has done an excellent job of covering it, so if this subject is new to you, pop over and catch up ( snarkyrider.com), I couldn't have written a better post.

There are two subjects on animal cruelty that send me over the edge. One is puppy mills and the other is training for "The Big Lick." 


This explanation from Wikipedia  of the two categories for TWH classes tells me a lot. "Flat-shod horses are divided into trail, country, light shod, and plantation pleasure divisions. They are judged on way of going, which includes head nod, overstride and front animation. The country and trail pleasure classes have the least animation, the plantation horses the most, with the plantation horses typically wearing a heavier shoe. Flat-shod horses are not allowed to use pads, action devices, or tail braces.

"Performance horses exhibit a very flashy and animated running walk, often referred to as "big lick." They appear to sit back on their hindquarters, lifting their forelegs high off the ground with each step. Horses and riders show in saddle seat attire and tack. Horses are shod in double and triple-nailed pads. These pads, along with lightweight chains around the fetlock, accentuate the gaits, making them more animated."

What this tells me is, many of the classes are designed to showcase the amazing things this breed is capable of, and the rest are designed to showcase the amazing way we humans torture animals for fun and profit.

I'm not going into a tirade about this cruelty. That's being done all over the Internet.

What I am mulling over today is the necessity for crazy advocates. I'm talking the over the top, radical maniacs that come together and make lots of noise about the bad things going on in the world. Today I'm looking at rabble rousing animal activists who have drawn my attention.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA)

FHOTD during the Cathy Atkinson days (Just Cathy)

I realize Just Cathy is only one person, but she's such a whirling dervish of quivering righteousness, she equals the intensity of, oh, let's say, The Black Panthers. I think she should be named an organization all by herself.

I am not an extremist. I accept many aspects of the horse world many don't. I can sit back and watch a harsh training practice and ask the trainer the why's, how's and results without offering an opinion.

My approach is to learn the reason, decide if it's necessary and then figure out a better way. That would be the Mugwump in me, what can I say.

But there is no reason for The Big Lick. It's crazy and cruel and vile. It's ugly to watch. The horses aren't trained for this, they're forced into this shape and movement by pain. They are taught to accept it through more pain. The pain is so intense at times, they lay down and can't/won't  get up.

I was on a walk one day and came across a group of five or six little kids (must have been a home day care) between the ages of about three to about seven. They had a puppy on it's back, screaming in pain and terror, and were poking it in it's soft pink belly with sticks. The puppy was chained to the ground and bleeding.

Yes, I did the right thing, yelled at kids, knocked on door, told the horrified woman what they were doing, went home and called the Humane Society.

That's not my point. Watching the World Championship Big Lick Class made me feel exactly like I did when I saw the tortured puppy.

It made me feel the same way I did when I met a very pregnant teenage girl living on the street with her 50+-year-old, drunken, very creepy "husband." She was about to have her second child with this guy. Their first was taken by Social Services, she was put in foster care and as soon as she could, she ran away and went back to her man.

What horrified and sickened me was neither the young mother or the man, but the fact this girl was safer with him than in the life she had left behind.

There are things that get me.

The extreme factions get things done. We might not like them, we might even hate them, but they get things done. PETA has earned itself one bad rap. The group is behind some extremely dangerous, almost terrorist behavior. HSUS? Same deal.

A post from Humanewatch.org states, "The sad reality is HSUS, which defines itself as the “nation’s largest and most effective animal protection organization,” has almost nothing to do with the direct care of animals in the thousands of shelters across the nation. In fact, according to the organization’s own financial records, only one-half of one percent of its almost $100 million budget actually goes to helping hands-on animal shelters.

"So, out of every $200 Americans pledge to this organization, only $1 goes to actually helping the animals that really need it. Where does the rest of the donated money go? Well, for one thing, according to the Center for Consumer Freedom, in 2008 more than $2.5 million went right into this rich animal rights group’s pension plans.

HSUS also uses those donations to advance a radical animal rights agenda through wide-ranging, expensive lobbying and advertising campaigns. Even though you can’t tell from its commercials, one of the group’s underlying goals is to promote veganism."

PETA Vice President for Policy Bruce Friedrich is a long-time animal-rights movement insider, he has said, "These reflections do not, of course, rule out burning meat trucks. And they don’t mean that when the next slaughterhouse or vivisection lab burns down, I will denounce those who carried out the

 burning, or that I will feel anything other than joy in my heart."

 Then there's this little tidbit. "Federal fugitive Daniel Andreas San Diego is alleged to have planted a secondary explosive device, apparently intended to target emergency responders arriving at the scene of a first bomb he allegedly planted at a California company in August 2003. PETA-grantee and convicted arsonist Rodney Coronado has praised San Diego’s handiwork."

I have no intention of getting into an argument about the good, the bad or the ugly about these organizations. I am not, and will never be a member or an advocate for these groups.

BUT!!! It was a HSUS video that caught the attention of CNN and CBS news. Their work brought the Big Lick out of the horse world and to the general population.

Radical behavior draws attention, good or bad, people notice. Think about what Just Cathy has managed to accomplish. In this case, craziness was good. Middle of the roaders like me don't create awareness like this video did.

If the pendulum doesn't swing to the extreme right it can't counter what's happening on the extreme left.

Eventually, the pendulum slows, and with the increased awareness brought about, middle of the road folks can start getting things done. 

Once the big, huge, horrible travesties are tackled, the trickle down effect will bring attention to the smaller, yet still deplorable actions, that are accepted all around us.

There is an old rope horse at my barn. He is past his mid-twenties. This old guy is in obvious, continual pain. He stands with his forefeet and back feet spread like a Morgan halter horse all of the time. He is so crippled he can barely move. Yet his owner still ropes off him, day, after day, after day. the horse accepts his painful life with grace, kindness and dignity. It freaks me out.

One day I asked his owner, "When are you going to retire your good gelding?"

"When he dies. I figure he'd rather work than go to the sale."

So there you are. The horse has no protection. He has no help. He will work, in pain, until he falls over dead.

The trickle down can't drip on his poor head fast enough, but maybe, eventually, it will become socially unacceptable to treat a horse this way. Once The Big Lick is gone. Once the puppy mills are illegal. Once HSUS and Peta have made their point.

Would I like the pendulum to swing under somebody else's flag? You bet I would. I've been thinking about a better way to draw attention to atrocities like these, about the extreme failings of humanity when it comes to the animals in our care.

Today I came up with this one. What if there was a documentary made about Big Lick trainers, owners, and the shows that promote it? One good enough to hit major theaters? It's got all the nasty rich people, horror, politics and drama needed to make the big time.

I decided to write documentary/activist extraordinaire Michael Moore.

His website states he prefers real mail, as in an actual letter, over email. So I wrote him one and am including a copy of this post.

Maybe a fictionalized movie version would work better, with a clear statement that this is a real situation, going on today. A story of a young, beautiful, champion bred foal and the little girl who raised and loved him.

Then turned him over to a Big Lick trainer to become a World Champion...and brought her family and friends to watch him win at the shows...and never looked at him laying in the his tiny, dark stall, beaten, burned and destroyed...and ate fried baby while they discussed which horse lifted his tortured feet the highest and held his broken tail the straightest.  

Guess I'll write Robert Redford too, I mean, look what he did for Horse Whisperers.

Write Michael Moore at his own production company:

Dog Eat Dog Films, Inc.

430 West 14th Street

Suite 401

New York , NY 10011

Write Robert Redford Sundance Productions:

Sundance Channel

10880 Wilshire Boulevard

Suite 1500

Los Angeles, CA 90024