The Horse Abuse Guidelines reads like a normal day at the training barn for the reining horse!
According to the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) Horse Abuse Guidelines – Animal physical abuse is the infliction of injuries or causing unnecessary pain and/or suffering. Abuse may be caused by hitting, kicking, throwing, beating, whipping, spurring, shaking, poisoning, burning, scalding, suffocation, etc.
There are many other less obvious horse abuses listed in the Horse Abuse Guidelines include:
- Whipping
- Jerking on the bridle reins
- Forcing horses to do things they do not understand or cannot do
- Dismounting from a horse that is very warm or wet with sweat and allowing him to stand still, until the muscles chill and cramp.
One the most common ways people abuse horses is Tail blocking, injecting rubbing alcohol in the tail, or surgically altering the tail, to keep the horse’s tail down.
The sport of reining is synonymous with the training tactics that many horsemen and members of the public do not accept. These Horse Abuse Guidelines raise questions of the sport’s relevance to modern society, its continued alienation of members and media and public relations designed to deflect from what NRHA Members are reporting in forums as horse abuse.
A sport that is now sensationalized by Hollywood and Million Dollar Prize Money, Multi-Million Dollar Riders giving rise to less compassionate training methods in the pursuit of prize money.
Training methods that are overseen by a small group of people that not only compete but publicly train horses, lacking any objectivity or public consciousness to the demise of the horses.
Vote here for your thoughts on the NRHA Welfare Statement – now closed
Reference Sources:
FAQ – Equine Cruelty Abuse and Neglect
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The old boys club in full Swing. DR James Morgan DVM ex board member, futurity winner…….. Sees the shit happening all around him and what has done? Zip, Zero, from I can see. The old boys must love him.
I think he was on the welfare committee at some point – maybe he didn’t want to get kicked to the curb so he just put on his Steve Wonder glasses
Good Old Clinton – harrasses horses, bullies them and the little girls go WOW you are so wonderful. Did not realize how many girls had dadddy issues
I dont get it why sports don’t clean up. How many warnings do they need? If they care horses it should be a pretty easy ask and not something to play ostrich with. My husband socked (fisty) a trainer that cut our horse in makeup pen- NRHA did nothing but file the complain in the bin. Horse came back with us and never returned to reining.
We hear you, Gillian!! We arrived at a show to see our horse – found him cut up pretty bad from racking with spurs. I mean shredded with blood. I could not believe what I was seeing. My partner bred him and she loved him. All the rats were looking elsewhere, my partner was balling and distressed and the horse was just shivering. No show official would come near me and they bolted as I approached them. I was raging on so many levels. The office refused to help as the sleazy trainer said it happened in the trailer – just a piece of shit. All the people are out there signing his praises makes my blood boil. We called a local vet and treated the horse and set to ship him immediately – no-one offered help. Filed complaint with NRHA and silence. Call and after call amd some less than helpful person Megan said that the complaint should have been filed at the show and kept turning things back on me. 3 cheers for this website busting their backsides publicly – hopefully the changes happen but I think the NRHA believe they can dodge any bullet.