The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has restored funding for the Tennessee walking horse breed — but with an important stipulation that could provide an incentive to reduce the widespread cheating that has given walking horse competitions a black eye in recent years.
Starting in 2010, owners and breeders of walking horses will be eligible to receive money from the Kentucky Walking Horse-Breeders Incentive Fund if — and this is a big IF — the shows their horses participate in pass inspection from one of three agencies: The Natural Walking Horse Association, the Friends of Sound Horses or the Horse Protection Commission.
“We wanted to speak for the horses,” said racing commission member Ned Bonnie, who led the panel’s investigation into illegal practices within the walking horse industry. “We hope this sends a message.”
The racing commission had suspended funding amid allegations some horses were intentionally harmed to change the way they walk. At issue is the illegal practice of soring, which involves irritating the horse’s foreleg and hoof to force the trademark high-stepping gait of Tennessee walking horses.
The cheating led to the postponement of the World Walking Horse Championship in Tennessee two years, and many walking horse shows were canceled when most of the horses were withdrawn as soon as federal inspectors showed up to look for signs of soring. The message was clear: The horses were withdrawn because they had been cruelly treated to make them look better in the show ring.
In its report, the racing commission determined that the Kentucky Walking Horse Association has “not been consistent with the best interests of the walking horse industry or the KHRC.”
By requiring owners and breeders to use one of the three approved organizations, Bonnie said the racing commission wants to assure better treatment of the horses. Sadly, Bonnie said the reaction for the walking horse community to his report has been mixed.
“I think there’s some people that want to murder me, but there’s others that think I should be an icon,” Bonnie said. “It was important for us to make a statement that the welfare of the horse is paramount.”
Donna Benefield, administrative director for the Horse Protection Commission, said the move by the racing commission is designed to reward owners for positive behavior. “Hopefully this will help improve the image of the walking horse,” she said.
If it doesn’t, the days are numbered when spectators are thrilled by the sight of beautiful, high-stepping horses proudly prancing the ring. Surely those who love their horses and treat them humanely recognize that the cheaters — not government regulations or inspections — pose the biggest threat to the future of the Tennessee walking horse.
Editorials
Funding restored — 09/14/09
Racing commission’s action could help reduce cheating
- Editorials
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Charles Chattin
Before it merged with Ashland Community College to form Ashland Community and Technical College as a result of the 1997 Higher Education Reform Act, the Ashland Area Vocational-Technical School compiled an impressive record for teaching job skills to young adults and placing more than 85 percent in jobs for which they were trained.
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Try again
It is time for Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, to cease playing political games and redraw district lines that are compact and are based far more on population changes during the first decade of this century than on partisan politics.
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'Asset poor'
More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.
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Safer mines
The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.
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Not far enough
For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
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Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.
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Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.
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Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.
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Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.
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Obese children
Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.
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Charles Chattin
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