# Padded horses :(



## DamnearaFarm (Sep 27, 2007)

If this isn't allowed, please feel free to delete or whatever needs to be done, mods :baby04:

Here in TN, we are inundated with padded TWH. People either don't know the damage they do or else they don't care and they sore the horses as well. My husband is a real, um, cautious guy when it comes to public speech (meaning that he looks for a rock to hide under when I er, comment, about padded horses and abuse while in earshot of their riders/owners) so I devised a way to get my point across and not cause him to have a conniption fit. 



http://www.cafepress.com/DirtyCowgirlProductions



A percentage of profits goes to HHT as well.

http://www.horsehavenoftn.com/


I'll have some other designs, all horse related, later on. I'm gonna treat myself to a tank top, I do believe. :bouncy:


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

The abuse people do in the name of winning a show. Stupid and cruel but try to telling them that.


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## RideBarefoot (Jun 29, 2008)

love it! can you do Saddlebreds? My ASB came to me as a dumped horse out of a show barn- a $200,000 horse a friend got for $2000 as he was lame. Pulled off the BIG built-ups, we got him sound and friend gave him to me. He's been sound barefoot for 5 years now, one of the best horses I've ever ridden.


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## fetch33 (Jan 15, 2010)

I learned to ride at a Saddlebred stable eons ago. I even owned a 5-gaited show horse back in the 80's. He wore one leather pad. There used to be a saying in the saddlebred world... the good ones go light. Now, they don't breed for motion (high stepping) anymore but for extreme length of necks and looks. I cringe when I go to a saddlebred show now... the horses are padded up like walking horses (and don't get me wrong, I love a nice plantation horse, but I don't get the high steppers... you can't breed that into them like saddlebreds). I still have a gaited saddlebred, but he goes barefoot most of the year and only gets shoes for fair season.


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## snowshoehair (Jul 3, 2008)

Soring of TWH and other gaited horses is an atrocity... padding is just as horrific and is also abusive. All this in the name of achieving an exaggerated gait done by those that do not know how to get what they want by training. Personally, I think the big lick horses and riders parading around the arena look like a train wreck in the process of happening. I see nothing attractive about a beautiful, trusting horse that is obviously in pain and looks like he is terrified of what's happening to his own front feet. 

My group has been circulating this petition, for anyone that is interested in signing: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/533003783


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## DamnearaFarm (Sep 27, 2007)

Snowshoe- I also laugh uproariously when something bad happens to the pad people as well. Wishin' I could strap stillettos to their feet and inject their knees with battery acid as well, but I guess I can't have everything.

I agree with ya fetch- they're starting to get freaky looking. I remember a few years ago, someone had a pali ASB for sale... young horse and he looked like a freakin' GIRAFFE! They were pleased with his conformation. Ick.

Barefoot- I've looked for a GIF/JPEG of a padded saddlebred but can't find one out there- only photographs and not many of those. I'll keep looking for you, though. 

Bergere- it's SUCH a big deal here that it's oft referred to as the Walking Horse Mafia. When they made the announcement a few years ago that FDA inspectors would be checking horses for signs of soring @ the Celebration, the inspectors had to have body guards as they were getting death threats.


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## chewie (Jun 9, 2008)

death threats for keeping horses safe? wow. and good for you guys, i kinda was thinkin only us dumb cowboy types seen it was weird. i hope they get blasted away (figuritively) for doing that to those poor horses.


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## DamnearaFarm (Sep 27, 2007)

Lol, i'm a dumb cowboy type- just misplaced :0) I sorta hope they get blasted literally......having owned horses that were padded at one time...

One of the best horses we've ever owned, now on lifetime free lease to a eight year old that makes him toe the line and rides DAILY was padded. When we bought him, he didn't have a CLUE how to move like a gaited beastie. His headset was so low, he looked like a draft horse pulling a heavy load-with his nose toward the ground and all. We had to have him shod with the heaviest shoe we could find at the first shoeing and then lighten with each shoe job, whilst riding him to help him figure out the natural movement he should have had. He's a gaitin' fool now, but still retains the cribbing/windsucking he picked up from being stalled so much. He also bears the scars from soring and would rather ride on the rail than on the trail. Lookin' back on those first pics of him at home... it HAD to be love 'cause it sure wasn't looks, lol!


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