SHELBYVILLE, TENN. — The fight for the future of the Tennessee Walking Horse took an ugly turn after a bill that would end the breed's most prestigious show classes got a congressional subcommittee hearing earlier this month.
Former breeders association President Marty Irby checked his mobile phone soon after testifying in favor of the bill and found a curse-laden private Facebook message from a horse trainer threatening to knock him out. Horse industry promoters are calling Irby and another former industry leader who testified in favor of the bill turncoats bought by the Humane Society of the United States.
Bill proponents are on the attack, saying Tennessee lawmakers who don't support the bill are caving to donors. They're dubbing the sport's premier event, the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, the "Soreabration" — a reference to the illegal practice of making a walking horse's legs sore to emphasize its unusual gait.
Middle ground is tough to find in Shelbyville, the capital of the walking horse world. One look at its miles of walking horse pastures and stables, and it's apparent why the fight is brutal.
The Shelbyville-Bedford County Chamber of Commerce hasn't totaled the economic impact of horse operations and the secondary businesses they support, chamber CEO Allen Pitner said. But some monied performance horse owners estimate they spend a quarter-million to a half-million dollars a year on horse training, care and facilities alone.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., would — among other things — end the tall horseshoes and pastern chains that mark the breed's performance divisions, which draw the most fans to the Celebration.
While the sides argue about whether that equipment is harmful in itself, the use of pads to hide foot irritants is well documented. Unscrupulous trainers also burn horses' pasterns to get them to step higher, and chains can irritate those spots or remind the horses of past irritation.
At issue is whether the industry should be given another opportunity to clean itself up, a promise industry leaders make after each new expose on soring. That has gone on for decades, the latest incident being this year's well-publicized arrest of Maryville trainer Larry Wheelon for soring, although the charges were dismissed because of a mistake prosecutors made at his August preliminary hearing.
Even the arguing is slowing down business, Shelbyville owners and trainers say. That slowdown is a topic of conversation in the city's churches, salons and restaurants, and even in businesses that seem far removed from the walking horse industry.
"We're heartbroken, devastated, because civic groups are dependent on the horse shows," said Doris McNamee, who's owned the health-food and supplements shop Nature's Health for 20 years. "The town is dependent on the walking horse business."
A Nature's Health customer, recently retired hair stylist Clara Boyce, said her clients included horse trainers and their families, both local and those who just came to Shelbyville for shows or sales. If folks who sat in her chair didn't understand why eliminating performance horses would hurt Shelbyville, she said, she was quick to tell them.
"Some don't know what it does for this town," she said.
House has hearing
The House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade had a hearing Nov. 13 on Whitfield's HR 1518, the Prevent All Soring Tactics Act. Its Senate companion is S. 1406.
While the act has garnered about 250 co-sponsors in the House, it hasn't found a warm reception among most of Tennessee's delegation. Rep. Jim Cooper, a Nashville Democrat, said he supports letting the industry stop the scandals before enacting tougher legislation. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Brentwood Republican, spoke against it, pointing to high compliance with the Horse Protection Act — and citing statistics showing abuse problems with Kentucky's thoroughbred industry.
Critics said her testimony was purchased with a Celebration fundraiser. They leveled similar accusations at Sen. Lamar Alexander, whose campaign finance chairman, Steve Smith, is running for president of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' and Exhibitors' Association. They're circulating a 1987 horse show ticket citing Smith's horse for a "sensitive left foot."
Smith said he may have gotten that ticket — it has been 26 years, and he doesn't remember — but he was never charged with any Horse Protection Act violations. He dismissed the idea that Alexander is caving to his wishes.
"I don't know why Lamar doesn't support it, but if you listen to the hearing that was had on the Whitfield bill, it would wreck the industry as we have it today," Smith said. "We're 98.5 percent in full compliance at our largest show, where every horse is checked by the federal government, so (lawmakers) probably need to worry about something else more than that."
Alexander's spokesman issued a statement Wednesday that sidestepped the issue of Smith and said the senator is reviewing the committee testimony.
As for the compliance percentages, many get cited by different sources for different events and time periods. The USDA's own figure for this year's Celebration is 94 percent, still better than 2012's 91 percent.
Owners wait, watch
Donna Benefield, a horse inspection expert and former Celebration consultant who testified before the subcommittee, pointed out that the compliance figure doesn't include horses that failed chemical swabs to test for foreign chemicals on their pasterns. Of 128 sampled at this year's Celebration, 86 came back positive, USDA figures show. Some of the chemicals listed are caustic or numbing agents — likely to keep the horse from flinching during the inspection — but some are antioxidants or dyes. Even cholesterol makes the list.
"Once I got into the inside and saw how truly corrupt it was, I said, 'No, I'm not having any part of this,' " Benefield said. "The way they manage to keep these percentages looking compliant is because of all the things they do to the horse to pass inspection, which were reflected in my written statement. Now that USDA is swabbing pasterns, they're injecting legs, like a nerve block. They use hair dyes and sprays, tattoo ink, to put the horse into appearing to be in compliance."
Neither she nor Irby have taken money from the Humane Society, both said. Irby said he's staying with friends in Washington, D.C., and asking friends back in Tennessee to sell his furniture to pay other expenses. He doesn't feel safe here anymore, he said.
Meanwhile, Shelbyville's performance horse owners are waiting to see what happens to the bill and, by extension, their investments.
Corporate attorney Frank Eichler said it would be impossible to sell his 74 horses no matter what because his wife, Debbie, falls in love with them. The argument that people either support Whitfield's amendment or support soring is inconceivable, he said. What he and others in the industry want, he said, is a chance to use state-of-the-art equipment to find the handful of horse abusers and make sure they're not allowed to participate.
"Let's assume that half of us are halfway intelligent," Eichler said. "If we've got this money invested in the business, and we want the business to do well, how do you do that? Bring in more people. The way to bring in more people is not by soring horses. It's by proving you're not soring horses."
