A video depicting animal abuse has put Tennessee Walking Horse competitions under the microscope and the media backlash from it is causing a lot of problems for Midstate trainers and organizers of one of the biggest competitions in the country.

"I was appalled by the videos," said Herbert Derickson, horse trainer who owns Shelbyville's 4 the Glory Farm.  "No one could ever condone mistreating animals or animal abuse in any respect."

The video, released by the Humane Society of the United States in May, shows trainers soring, or injuring the horses legs, causing the high-stepping gait that's coveted in walking horse competitions.

But Derickson says the video and the media firestorm it created have cast an undeserved shadow over his profession.

"Bad news tends to be a headliner," Derickson said.  "To paint us all with one brush is something that I don t feel is fair."

He says even though soring is a very serious problem, it's also extremely rare.

And opened the doors of the facility  where he keeps and trains more than sixty horses to Fox 17.  Some of them will participate in next week's 74th-Annual Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, an event organizers say brings in some 200,000 people from across the country and is vital to the local economy.

"It's a tremendous boost," said Mike Inman, CEO of the celebration.  "Annually, it'll have about a $50 Million positive impact for Bedford County."

Inman says this year's event will come under national scrutiny, which wasn't helped by a Humane Society billboard posted just up the street from the site of the celebration, which offers a reward for information leading to the arrest of horse abusers.

Inman says it's nothing more than a well-timed publicity grab and says the safety of horses has been the event's top priority for decades.

"Actually, the industry has a hotline 365 days a year, every year," Inman said.  "We don't put it up and take it down whenever it's convenient."

In response to these comments, Stephanie Twining, a Humane Society representative said the claim that soring is rare is simply not true.  And the billboard was timed to coincide with the celebration because they are certain sored horses will be brought to the Midstate next week for the celebration, which runs from August 22nd to September 1st.
Midstate Horse Trainers Condemn Soring - Eric Alvarez