[Guilherme]

Something new shows up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...17130167_n.jpg

This is purported to be a photo of a Walker taken at a show. The bit is certainly common in the Walker world. The brow band is also of a type commonly seen on Walkers.

"Stewarding," the training of the horse to ignore pain during palpation of the feet, is certainly common. But this is a new wrinkle, for sure.

I can't vouch for the provenance of the photo. The poster who put it up on another site has not disclosed its origin.

Readers can judge it for themselves.

G.

[Crackerdog]

What is it and what is it supposed to do?

[ReSomething]

I think I'm seeing a zip tie, and I think it's placed where you'd put a chain, and I'd guess, well I don't want to guess.

A chain goes there to give us control and keep a horse's mind focussed on what we want.

Why there is anyone out there that would do something like this for the sake of a useless show gait, I just can't figure it out.

[Old Mac Donald]

I'm assuming that it is a type of twitch. Alternatively (given that it isn't located on the lip, but on the gum) that the horse has been "trained" not to flinch when the device is on it's gum

Poor bloody beast.

[hurleycane]

It the thing on the gum attached to the shank? It seems to be.

Was it allowed to show?

[apprider]

The depths people can sink to are astounding. There is no bottom. That certainly looks like a zip tie to me and what a disgusting, horrible, pathetic and horribly unfair thing to do to an animal.

[goneriding24]

TWH are shown with elevator bits?? As for the zip tie, why in the blue blazes h*ll... As someone above said, all for a gait. I don't get it, which is why I'll never be in the big ribbons, I can't do stuff like this to any animal....

[ThisTooShallPass]

Poor horse.

A very special place in hell for some folks indeed.

[Long Spot]

I think I'm seeing a zip tie, and I think it's placed where you'd put a chain, and I'd guess, well I don't want to guess.

While I have NO experience in this discipline, that's sort of what I thought I saw in the many minutes of staring at it, making it bigger, zooming in, etc.

A zip/cable tie. I just want to know why. I'd also like to know if that was something they thought wouldn't be found out?

Wow.

[fourmares]

And just how do you get that zip tie off once you get it on?

[Daydream Believer]

That's disgusting.

[Bluey]

Can't make sense of a purpose for that?
Some kid of strange way to tie the tongue back, to keep it from sticking out?
How did they keep the horse from slinging it's head, making faces and acting like there was something strange there?
Maybe that is why they checked it and found that?

I hope the stewards did look into that.

[Laurierace]

Have you guys never used a lip chain which would be more appropriately called a gum chain to get a horse to stand for a medical procedure or the like? This would work the same without necessitating someone holding the shank. It's purpose is obvious. It's ethics in this case is non existent.

[oldernewbie]

Yep, a quick google search on "zip ties horse's mouth" produced this:

http://www.justice.gov/usao/tnm/pres...1/12-9-11.html

See last sentence of 4th paragraph. It's called a "nerve cord" and sure enough, it's designed to distract the horse from pain. Google that and you find more.

[Bluey]

Yep, a quick google search on "zip ties horse's mouth" produced this:

http://www.justice.gov/usao/tnm/pres...1/12-9-11.html

See last sentence of 4th paragraph. It's called a "nerve cord" and sure enough, it's designed to distract the horse from pain. Google that and you find more.

Yes, but studies were also showing it only works for a few minutes, then the horse's nerves go numb, that is why it is not recommended for any but in a pinch as a tool to quiet a fractious horse.

For any longer, as there, that doesn't seem to make much sense.
By the time a steward was examining a horse, it would have become numb to the pain in the face?

[Alagirl]

Yes, but studies were also showing it only works for a few minutes, then the horse's nerves go numb, that is why it is not recommended for any but in a pinch as a tool to quiet a fractious horse.

For any longer, as there, that doesn't seem to make much sense.
By the time a steward was examining a horse, it would have become numb to the pain in the face?

soring does not make sense either....

another testament to the wonderful creaturers those horses are!

[Bluey]

soring does not make sense either....

another testament to the wonderful creaturers those horses are!

From all the strange legal things we do with horses, some extreme gaited horses and that big lick stuff is to me hard to understand, even before we get into all the illegal stuff done to them.

[Crackerdog]

Have you guys never used a lip chain which would be more appropriately called a gum chain to get a horse to stand for a medical procedure or the like? This would work the same without necessitating someone holding the shank. It's purpose is obvious. It's ethics in this case is non existent.

No, I have never used or seen used what you are talking about. So the purpose of the black band/zip tie is to get the horse to stand still? I know absolutely nothing about this particular riding discipline.

[Laurierace]

Every horse person should know how to properly use and apply a lip chain. It can literally save your horse's life. What is shown above has no place anywhere but works the same way.

[Guilherme]

You search better than I do!!!

Thank you for finding the linked article. This is a new one on me.

There's a LONG thread going on the subject of soring but this kind of stood out for me and I wanted to get some input from folks as to what it was and, perhaps, if there was a legitimate reason for using it. I've seen lip/gum chains used. I've used a twitch (but this didn't really seem much like a twitch to me). I'm not familiar enough with the nerve anatomy of the horse's head to know just what this might do. Thank you to those who filled in some of those "blanks."

It's my hope that the whole Big Lick thing goes the way of the DoDo bird, but I kind of doubt that it will. Cheaters exist in all equine disciplines. We might not get them all, be ought to get those that we can.

G.