Horse show abuse updates

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2006:
The Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders & Exhibitors Association
on October 16, 2006 cancelled the alternate “grand champion”
competition it had announced on September 21.
To have been held in Mur-freesboro, Tennessee, the
alternate competition was to have replaced the final judging at the
Tennessee Walking Horse National Celeb-ration in Shelbyville on
August 21, which never took place. Of the 10 horses selected for
the final judging, seven were disqualified after USDA inspectors
detected scarring that may have shown the horses’ hooves were sored
to train them to use the high-stepping walking horse gait.
“The decision [to cancel the alternate competition] came
after weeks of criticism by horse trainers, many of whom threatened
to boycott the show,” reported Nashville Tenn-essean staff writer
Brad Schrade.

British Show Jumping Association chair Penny Crutwell
confirmed on September 27 that blood tests had confirmed that four
ponies ridden by contenders at the association’s junior championships
in Jersey on September 9 were covertly sedated.
“Police were called to investigate an allegation that Kim
Baudains, 36, fed a sedative to ponies in an attempt to help her
12-year-old son Josh win the under-16 Young Show Jumper of the Year
final,” summarized Richard Savill of the Daily Telegraph.
“A tablet of ACP (acetylpromazine), a veterinary sedative,
was allegedly found on the ground,” Savill continued. “Police later
called off their investigation, and said no one would be charged
because no Jersey laws had been broken.”