CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- A federal judge in Chattanooga has sentenced a Tennessee walking horse trainer who was caught abusing horses in an undercover video to three years' probation and fined him $75,000.
The video shows Jackie McConnell and others applying caustic substances to horses' legs and hooves and beating the horses to make them stand.
The process is called soring and is used to enhance the horses' high-stepping gait.
Stable hands Jeff Dockery and Joseph Abernathy were sentenced to one year probation and ordered to write an article about soring at the hearing Tuesday.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that McConnell cried as he read a statement saying that he takes responsibility for what he did.
The three pleaded guilty in May to conspiring to violate the Horse Protection Act.
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2012 By The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
