Standing Up for Horses : City Agency Looks Into Alleged Abuses of Walker Breed

Abusive methods of training Tennessee walking horses, such as driving nails into their feet or applying blistering chemicals to their legs to enhance their distinctive gait, were the subject of a hearing at Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday.

Commissioners of the city Department of Animal Regulation took testimony on what role, if any, the city should take in curbing alleged abuses of the breed.

There actually aren’t that many Tennessee walking horses stabled in the city, according to the owners, trainers and breeders who came to the hearing from areas such as Ontario, Riverside, Chino and even as far away as Tennessee and Vermont. But five or six major horse shows in which these horses compete are held within the city limits each year.

“If there’s evidence a horse has been ‘sored,’ ” Dr. William Putney, a retired Canoga Park veterinarian and commission member said, local laws should insure “that horse shouldn’t be shown in the city of Los Angeles.”

Assessing the Need

Robert I. Rush, general manager of the department, said the hearing was held to determine “the need of the department to seek and secure legislation to ensure humane care and treatment of the equines.”

The Tennessee walking horse is famous for its flashy, high-stepping movements. Testimony by more than two dozen people split on whether the training methods used to achieve the animal’s exaggerated step are harmful.

Methods include hanging chains around the horse’s ankles, and placing pads, or “stacks,” up to 4 inches high under the front feet, like high heels.

Also at issue is the practice of “soring,” in which trainers or owners allegedly apply stinging chemicals or blistering agents, such as diesel fuel or mustard oil, to the front legs to make the horse step higher.

Veterinarian Larry Connolly, who practices in the northern areas of Los Angeles County, told the commissioners that another form of soring now “common underneath the stacks” is to “trim the hoof wall down to the blood and insert nails into the sensitive lamina of the hoof wall.”

Soring is illegal under the 1970 Horse Protection Act, which was designed to correct cruel methods of training horses and is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Under the law, inspectors at show competitions must check all Tennessee walking horses for evidence of soring.

The commission decided to hold the hearing because of persistent criticism that soring still takes place, Rush said, and out of concern that the USDA’s inspection and enforcement system is not strong enough.

The 150 people who attended the hearing were divided on whether abuses were widespread.

Horse trainer Russ Thompson of Chino said he believes abuses have “been regulated out” by the industry’s own policing system. He also has maintained that pads and chains are not painful or stressful, but “gimmicks” to “enhance the natural gait.”

Trainer Donna Benefield of Acton, who espouses the flat-shod plantation walking horses and uses neither stacks nor chains, said, “Without pain the horse will not react to those devices.”

She is a leader of a breakaway walker group that started in Southern California seven years ago, and boycotts shows where pads and chains are used.

Stephanie Greene of Marina del Rey, who heads the Tennessee Walking Horse Protection League, said, “The industry’s self-policing is a farce, the fox guarding the chicken coop.”

Last month, however, a federal court in Washington, D.C. ruling in a suit brought by the American Horse Protection Assn. over USDA enforcement of the law, ordered the department to strengthen its regulations. The department immediately issued new, preliminary rules prohibiting the use of stacks and lowering the weight of chains.

The commission, Putney said, still may recommend that the City Council pass an ordinance to have city officials do their own inspections of walking horses at shows in the city. The recommendations are expected in mid-May.