By Scott Pearson

Staff Writer

Another battle is looming in the ongoing fight over the Tennessee Walking Horse.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has proposed additional rules to the Horse Protection Act that some insiders say could end the Walking Horse as it is currently known.

The new rules ban what are known as action devices, meaning ankle chains, stacked shoes or pads, anything essentially that is not a regular horse shoe.

Action devices are used in training and showing to help produce the exaggerated front leg motion of the horse as it walks, known as the "big lick."

The rule is aimed at the issue of soring, the practice of using mechanical or chemical means that cause the horse pain in order to increase the leg motion.

Even industry insiders admit that soring was a problem in the 1960s and 1970s, but that the industry has come a long way in cleaning up any abuse.

"These regulations cover equipment that has nothing to do with hurting a horse," said Mike Inman, CEO of the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration in Shelbyville, the industry's premier event.

Animal protection advocates like the Humane Society of the United States disagree.

The HSUS has been a vocal supporter of the USDA's efforts to strengthen rules on the walking horse industry.

Their press release responding to the new rule describes the big lick as a "pain-based gait," meaning, in their eyes, that any horse that demonstrates it is in or has been subject to pain.

"Medieval," "cruel," and "corrupt" are the type of words used to describe current practices in the walking horse industry, and those are just from one sentence.

HSUS President Wayne Pacelle compares training horses to produce the high stepping motion to cockfighting or dogfighting.

Advocates and enthusiasts of the Tennessee Walker see themselves as singled out among horse breeders by USDA based on exaggeration and untruths from the other side.

"This was designed to damage the Tennessee walking show horse industry," Inman said.

The Tennessee Walking Horse has a long and important place in Marshall County.

Lewisburg is home to the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders and Exhibitors Association (TWHBEA), founded in 1935. The county is home to some 2,000 registered walking horses, and Lewisburg, Belfast, and Cornersville still host stops on the annual show circuit.

The TWHBEA issued an official statement on the proposed new rules, but had no further official content.

Their statement does note one of the main issues that the industry has with current USDA enforcement of the anti-soring rules, however.

The industry maintains that current testing for sored horses is subjective, depending on inspector interpretation instead of a repeatable scientifically based result.

The Celebration in Shelbyville, the world championship show, or "Super Bowl," Inman said, for the industry, presented to the USDA a 10-page legal opinion prior to last year's Celebration that outlined some of the concerns.

The document describes the current testing as "highly unreliable" and cites several studies showing large error rates and inconsistent rule interpretations in the current inspection protocol.

The industry has pushed for several years, and is working to develop, scientific test methods that are objective, clear, and accurate.

One industry insider, not able to comment publicly, said that he thought the uncertainty and arbitrariness of the testing protocols did more damage to the walking horse competition circuit and industry overall that any other factor.

A second part of the rule moves responsibility for disqualifying horses, judged to be sored, from the inspectors to the horse show organizers.

The third major component scraps the current industry-based inspection model and instead mandates trained veterinarians to serve as Horse Protection Investigators.

One active Marshall County owner who did not wish to be named expressed concerns over the impact of this rule on smaller horse shows.

Many shows, like Cornersville and Belfast, are sponsored by groups like the Lions Club as fund raisers. Hiring veterinarians for six hours to do inspections could erase any money raised.

She cited many area towns that used to have shows which no longer did: Chapel Hill, Hohenwald, Dickson, Lawrenceburg, and Mount Pleasant, and wondered how many more could disappear with the added expense and the added liability that the responsibility for disqualifying horses could bring.

"We have done an amazing job of cleaning up our industry and trying to keep it clean," she said, expressing frustration that any progress was discounted by the USDA.

The parties still have to see if the rule will go into effect.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack signed the rule on January 13, which marked the start of the 30-day period before the rule would go into effect. However, during the transitions prior to both the George Bush and Barack Obama administrations, rules in the process of enactment were suspended for 60 days for review before completing the process or being cancelled.

If the new rules get through the process, members of the industry will not stand still.

"We are prepared to fight the rule in the court," Inman said, "like the last illegal rule making they did four years ago."

Whatever happens both parties agree on one idea.

"The welfare of the horse is number one in all instances," Inman colcluded.