Reining Trainer Sued for Tearing Horses Tongue

There were full-thickness skin wounds from spurs; they still hadn’t completely healed two-and-a-half months later,” says Amy Rucker, DVM, a podiatry-focused veterinarian at MidWest Equine in Columbia, Missouri. Reining trainer sued for the Tongue Split in Half

When Things Go Too Far

Veterinarians know trainer abuse as soon as they see it, says Amy Rucker, DVM, a podiatry-focused veterinarian at MidWest Equine, in Columbia, Missouri. She recalls a case where she came alongside a treating veterinary team to examine a laminitic horse—an exam that revealed an even more tragic tale.

The horse had cuts in the corners of his mouth as well as a large wound on each side, consistent with spur marks. “I had never seen anything like it­—they were full-thickness skin wounds, and when I put the horse down two-and-a-half months later (from laminitis secondary to conditions resulting from the abuse), they still hadn’t completely healed,” says Rucker. “In my experience the abuser doesn’t directly kill the horse. The horse dies after falling while its head is ‘tied around’ or from stress-related secondary problems such as colic.” 

Meanwhile, owners might be unaware of what’s transpired. “This owner was devastated by the ordeal her horse endured, not only at the trainer’s but also the prolonged medical battle,” Rucker adds. “They were heartbroken that their … horse could be a victim. Horses are nonverbal and completely dependent upon their person—a relationship similar to that between a parent and small child.”

What’s more, Rucker notes, there’s high pressure in training barns to prepare a large number of horses for shows with a limited amount of time and staff. “It’s not just a trainer problem,” she says. “It’s also an owner expectation problem. Some owners will not accept that their horse is not competing at a winning level. The trainer is pressured by the possibility of the owner moving the horse, which may have profound financial consequences after the loss of training, transport, and show fees. The horse may simply need more time to develop, or the lack of winning may be due to the owner/rider. At any rate, trainers are often pushed to come up with an immediate, low-cost solution if a horse isn’t winning.”

A complex case of conflict of interest reinforces those expectations, says Rucker. “There are too many incestuous relationships between trainers, veterinarians, owners, and judges,” she says, with roles overlapping to the extent it negatively impacts what’s considered acceptable in competition and what isn’t.

As a result, you get training tricks that might be effective, but cross the line into abuse, she says. Excessive spurring, wearing a horse out, depriving him of food and water, tying his head up, tying his head down, tying his head sideways, tying up one leg, tightening his noseband, tightening his leg boots, placing tacks or chemicals under boots, locking him in rollkur, poling with rails … the list goes on.

“A lot of people just prefer to take winning over ethical equitation,” Booth says.

Modern Abuse

Fortunately, training has evolved, say our sources, and primarily for the better. “When I first started as a vet 25 years ago, many of my clients were real horsemen, but they weren’t able to benefit from shared knowledge like they can today—mainly thanks to the internet,” Rucker says. “That’s led to a revolution in training and welfare. But not everyone’s there yet.”

Lack of education is an issue, as is a lack of understanding that people need to change what they’re doing, says Busby. “We see a lot of unconscious ­incompetence—meaning people don’t know that they don’t know something,” she says.

There’s also the blind faith many owners have in professionals. “People want to achieve a training result and don’t know how else to achieve it other than to hand things over to an expert, even if they have reservations about the trainer,” Busby says. “That trainer might tell the rider to beat her horse with a plumbing pole. And because the expert told her to do it, she feels like she doesn’t have the power to disagree with him, and/or she doesn’t know better.”

Uldahl agrees. “Unfortunately, there are still many examples of horses being ‘educated’ by riders (professionals and amateurs) using various types of equipment but with poor knowledge, or even people deliberately making shortcuts and thereby sacrificing horse welfare,” she says.

Reprint from TheHorse.Com

https://thehorse.com/176132/traumatic-horse-training-can-you-spot-abuse/