![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.animals24-7.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picsart_25-03-21_21-30-19-794-e1742617858298.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 WASHINGTON D.C.\u2013\u2013<\/strong>The politics of trying to reform the \u201cBig Lick\u201d show horse industry much resemble \u201cBig Lick\u201d horse shows themselves.<\/p>\n First the horses,\u00a0 whose legs have often been sored to induce the \u201cBig Lick\u201d goosestep,\u00a0 march in one direction to merry-go-round music.<\/p>\n Then the music pauses,\u00a0 signaling the riders to turn the horses to march back the way they came.<\/p>\n In the 55 years since the 1970 passage of the Horse Protection Act,\u00a0 horse advocates have gotten little farther in efforts to stop \u201cBig Lick\u201d soring than the horses themselves,\u00a0 going in endless circles to tunes that were cliched before the Horse Protection Act was written.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Occasionally comes hope that the equine circles of hell will finally end.<\/p>\n The USDA in 2016,\u00a0 toward the end of the Barack Obama presidential administration, introduced new Horse Protection Act enforcement rules meant to stop soring,\u00a0 but the first Donald Trump administration immediately stopped the rules from taking effect.<\/p>\n Originally introduced in Congress in 2013,\u00a0 the Prevent All Soring Tactics would do most of the same things to protect horses as the withdrawn USDA rule.\u00a0 The PAST Act cleared the House of Representatives in 2019 and 2022 by margins of 333-96 and 304-111,\u00a0 but was blocked both times by opposition from Senate Republicans representing the Southern and Appalachian states,\u00a0 where \u201cBig Lick\u201d horse shows have historically been big business\u2013\u2013albeit a business in steep decline in recent years.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The USDA then,\u00a0 in May 2024,\u00a0 toward the end of the Joe Biden administration,\u00a0 introduced almost the same new Horse Protection Act enforcement rules as were introduced in 2016.<\/p>\n Humane World for Animals show horse consultant Keith Dane,\u00a0 working in opposition to \u201cBig Lick\u201d soring for decades, \u00a0was hopeful on September 3,\u00a0 2024,\u00a0 after the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, \u00a0annually the biggest of the \u201cBig Lick\u201d shows.<\/p>\n \u201cIf all goes according to plan,\u201d\u00a0 Dane blogged,\u00a0 \u201cstarting in February 2025, \u00a0the rule will upgrade USDA regulations to prohibit the use\u202fon Tennessee walking and racking horses at horse shows of action devices,\u00a0 including chains and stacks,\u201d\u00a0 meaning \u201cheavy high-heeled horseshoes,\u201d\u00a0 Dane explained, \u00a0\u201cboth of which are integral to the process of soring.<\/p>\n Gen\u2019s Ice Glimmer\u2019s ankles and hooves show the scars from years of soring.\u00a0 \u201cBig Lick\u201d foe Clant Seay adopted Gen\u2019s Ice Glimmer after his show days ended and got him off of those stacked shoes.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThese devices torment the horses,\u201d\u00a0 Dane continued,\u00a0 \u201ccausing the animals pain to force them to perform the high-stepping \u2018Big Lick\u2019 gait.\u202f The rule will also end the failed,\u00a0 conflict-ridden system of industry self-policing that has allowed soring to persist.<\/p>\n \u201cBuoyed by the seemingly strong enforcement of the Horse Protection Act by USDA officials,\u201d\u00a0 Dane said, \u00a0\u201cwe left this spectacle with the overriding hope that this will be the last Celebration with abused walking horses on display.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever,\u201d\u00a0 Dane warned, \u00a0\u201crelief for these horses is not certain.\u00a0 The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration Association has filed\u202fa lawsuit asking a Texas judge to set aside the rule and bar the USDA from implementing it.<\/p>\n \u201cTo make matters worse,\u201d\u00a0 Dane added, \u00a0\u201cwe\u2019ve seen some congressional interference by a small handful of elected representatives doing the bidding of those who want to keep the \u2018Big Lick\u2019\u2013\u2013and soring\u2013\u2013alive.\u201d<\/p>\n Donald Trump demonstrates the Big Lick.<\/strong><\/em> Donald Trump owes the same political debt in 2025 to Republican members of Congress from Southern and Appalachian states that he owed during his first term in the White House.\u00a0 His agriculture secretary,\u00a0 Brooke Rollins,\u00a0 lost no time after Trump appointed her in ensuring that the soring-induced equine goose step will continue.<\/p>\n \u201cLast month, \u00a0crucial regulations to protect horses from abuse \u2014 a decade in the making \u2014 were slated to go into effect,\u201d\u00a0 wrote Animal Welfare Institute equine program director Joanna Grossman for the Amarillo Globe-News<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is, \u00a0until on January 24, \u00a02025 the USDA announced that it would postpone full implementation of the Horse Protection Act rule until April 2, \u00a02025,\u00a0 citing\u201d the case against the rule filed in Texas by the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration Association.<\/p>\n Walking horse goose-steps.<\/strong><\/em> \u201cOne week later, \u00a0Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas sided in part with the walking horse industry, \u00a0concluding that certain aspects of the regulations exceeded the USDA\u2019s statutory authority.<\/p>\n \u201cImportantly, though,\u201d\u00a0 Grossman wrote, \u00a0\u201cKacsmaryk determined that reliance on independent, \u00a0trained, \u00a0and qualified inspectors with veterinary expertise \u2014 arguably the most essential part of the regulations \u2014 is lawful and may continue.\u201d<\/p>\n This is now under Congressional attack,\u00a0 as Keith Dane feared it would be.<\/p>\n Soring show horses \u201cpersists because the government outsources inspections to the shows and competitions being regulated,\u201d\u00a0 Grossman explained.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThis most often occurs at smaller shows, but also happens at the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2010, \u00a0the USDA\u2019s Office of the Inspector General,\u201d\u00a0 now dismantled by the Trump administration, \u00a0\u201cconcluded that these industry-run inspections pose an inherent conflict of interest and fail to protect horses from abuse. \u00a0Eleven years later,\u201d\u00a0 wrote Grossman,\u00a0 \u201cthe National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a comprehensive report affirming the Office of the Inspector General\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n \u201cThe USDA does send its own inspectors to a small portion of these events,\u201d\u00a0 Grossman continued, \u00a0\u201cand when it does, \u00a0the difference is stark.\u00a0 According to the department\u2019s own review of 2021 and 2022 data, \u00a0for example, \u00a0industry inspectors reported an overall noncompliance rate of only about 1%.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen USDA inspectors were on hand to inspect for evidence of soring, however, they found a 24% to 31% noncompliance rate.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick. (Facebook photo) <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Despite winning a partial victory from Judge Kacsmaryk,\u00a0 Grossman continued,\u00a0 \u201cIn recent weeks, 13 state agriculture departments urged the Trump administration to consider squashing the USDA\u2019s anti-cruelty measures entirely.\u00a0 Among the most vocal critics is Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, \u00a0a self-described \u2018horse shower\u2019 and \u2018rodeo guy,\u2019 \u00a0who called [USDA anti-soring regulations] \u2018government overreach at its worst.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Trying to end-run Trump,\u00a0 Rollins,\u00a0 and the likes of Miller,\u00a0 Pennsylvania Republican Member of Congress Brian Fitzpatrick,\u00a0 with fellow Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrats Steve Cohen and Jan Schakowsky,\u00a0 on March 14,\u00a0 2025 reintroduced the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act.<\/p>\n Now designated HR 1684,\u00a0 the PAST Act within a week attracted 191 cosponsors.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cHorse soring is a vile and inhumane practice that must be prohibited,\u201d said Fitzpatrick.<\/p>\n Agreed Buchanan,\u00a0 \u201cThe practice of horse \u2018soring\u2019 is nothing less than animal torture.\u201d<\/p>\n But Members of the House of Representatives Scott DesJarlais and John Rose,\u00a0 both Tennessee Republicans,\u00a0 had already tried to pre-empt HH 1684 with HR 1675,\u00a0 called the Horse Protection Amendments Act.<\/p>\n Explained Keith Dane to ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong>,\u00a0 \u201cHR1675 is likely the same legislation that DesJarlais has introduced in previous Congresses at the behest of his constituents in the \u2018Big Lick\u2019 faction of the walking horse industry.<\/p>\n \u201cPrevious versions would have codified elements of the current failed enforcement scheme that PAST is trying to remedy\u2013\u2013including the reliance on industry inspectors as the primary source of enforcement.<\/p>\n Keith Dane, Congressman Steve Cohen, Tennessee 9th District, and Mimi Brody, director of federal affairs at Humane World for Animals.<\/strong><\/em> \u201cHowever,\u201d\u00a0 Dane added,\u00a0 \u201cthe USDA has announced that they are going to delay implementation of the remaining portion of the [2024 soring rule ]and open a 60-day comment period,\u00a0 likely very soon,\u00a0 \u00a0to solicit input on whether to extend the postponement even longer.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile,\u00a0 either the USDA\u00a0or the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration could appeal Judge Kacsmaryk\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n \u201cThe deadline to do that is April 1,\u201d\u00a0 Dane noted.<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n What happens meanwhile?<\/p>\n Announced Sarah Helming,\u00a0 USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service deputy administrator for animal care,\u00a0 on March 14,\u00a0 2025,\u00a0 \u201cUSDA will exercise its enforcement discretion with regard to violations of the scar rule as it did for the 2017 to 2023 show seasons,\u201d\u00a0 in other words exactly as it was enforced before the announcement of the 2016 rule update that Donald Trump kept from taking effect.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think the USDA announcement indicates much of a change in enforcement from the past several years under the Biden administration,\u201d\u00a0 commented Keith Dane, \u00a0\u201cexcept that the agency does not anticipate using ultrasound or thermography this season,\u00a0 which I believe they were using in the recent past. \u00a0And the revised interpretation of the scar rule enforcement that was announced last year to the consternation of \u2018Big Lick\u2019 enthusiasts appears to have been removed, \u00a0with the previous interpretation restored.\u201d<\/p>\nA Donald Trump administration for the second time scraps a soring rule just before it was to take effect<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cAbandon hope ye who enter here\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nEight years later,\u00a0 Biden administration re-introduced the 2016 rules<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThese devices torment the horses\u201d<\/h2>\n
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(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nTrump pays back favors<\/h2>\n
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(Merritt Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nJudge partially sides with goose-steppers too<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nUSDA Office of the Inspector General dismantled<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nRepublican Congressmen try to end-run Trump<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cVile & inhumane\u201d<\/h2>\n
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(HWA photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nWhat happens meanwhile?<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nGoosestepping as usual<\/h2>\n