SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. -- There have been new concerns surrounding the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration in Shelbyville, and this time they have to do with the federal inspectors that give horses the go-ahead for competition.
The man in charge of the Celebration, Mike Inman, said he thinks the horses at his competition have been unfairly disqualified by the USDA, the federal agency in charge of policing the competitions.
Animal rights activists argued that the illegal practice of soring horses -- hurting them in training to get them to perform the exaggerated gait characteristic of the Tennessee walking horse -- has still been widespread.
Walking horse industry supporters said it's a practice that's properly policed and under control.
But as horses continued to warm up for the evening competitions in Shelbyville on Sunday, Inman said he's concerned with how many horses the USDA inspectors have been violating for competition.
“It's a statistical impossibility, if they're being consistent in their way of inspection,” Inman said.
Inman said over the entire walking horse season this year, the USDA inspected over 4,000 horses, violating about one percent of them, but in the two days since the Celebration started and 255 horses were shown, the USDA has violated nearly 10 percent of horses.
“We’re talking about the same horses, the same inspectors, the same trainers, so we're not talking about a different grouping of horse,” Inman said.
While in-house inspections were going on Sunday, Celebration officials allowed NewsChannel 5 to shoot video of the process, but when NewsChannel 5 tried to get USDA's response to the Celebration's concerns during the USDA inspections held just moments later, a USDA representative asked NewsChannel 5 to leave.
The USDA official said it was against the Horse Protection Act for anyone not associated with a horse to be in the barn area during an inspection, but the USDA official then spoke with Inman. After that meeting, the USDA official agreed to let NewsChannel 5 observe their inspections, but without video cameras.
NewsChannel 5 contacted the public information officer at the USDA Sunday to respond to the Celebration's concerns about the number of violations issued, but they did not immediately respond to the request.
Last week, the Humane Society of the United States released an investigation performed by one of its undercover investigators, claiming that Murfreesboro-based ThorSport Farms engaged in soring practices on some of the horses scheduled to participate in this year's Celebration.
A representative for ThorSport later issued a statement refuting those claims, saying the Humane Society of the United States was deliberately trying to mislead the public just prior to the start of the walking horse industry's marquee event.
