Rose Miller has written an interesting book about her life and Tennessee Walker horse. She’s been a Tennessee Walking Horse breeder, trainer, show competitor, and judge but is now retired and writing about her experiences. She lives in northern Indiana close to Notre Dame on a 75 acre horse farm.
Her newest book The Horse That Wouldn’t Trot tells of her 30 year long journey to become a horsewoman: the joys, disappointments, disillusionments, and accomplishments of owning and loving horses. “I also trace some of the history of the Tennessee Walking Horse, and expose an ugly secret used by some trainers of show horses to get their horses to gait in an extreme style, called “soring.” My hope is that as more horse and animal lovers hear about this abuse, they will complain to their congressmen for more USDA horse show inspections. A portion of all my sales is donated to NWHA and FOSH two active organizations that fight soring.”
Soring is “The application of any chemical or mechanical agent applied to the lower leg or hoof of any horse that causes pain, or, can be expected to cause pain, for the purpose of “enhancing” the horse’s gait for show purposes. As a sore horse tries to escape the pain in his front feet and lower legs, he snatches them up quickly, which gives the “desired effect” of tremendous lift in the front. Meanwhile, he tries to take as much weight as possible off his front feet by shifting his weight to his back feet, squatting down in the rear as he reaches beneath himself with his hind legs. The resulting gait has been described as “the praying mantis crawl.”
Rose recently shared with me that “It has been a deep rooted and long lived method that is actually animal abuse. Soring is so cruel that in 1970, the US Congress passed the Horse Protection Act, giving the USDA authority to inspect horses in transport to and at Tennessee Walking Horse shows, sales and exhibitions for signs of soring, and prosecute individuals found in violation of the Act. However, enforcement of state and federal anti-soring laws has proven difficult, allowing the practice to persist on a widespread basis.”
Determined to not use such practices, she had to compete against those who did. She found her own training “secret” for a winning gait in the ring and shares it with her readers.
The Horse That Wouldn’t Trot is suited for horse lovers of all ages, 12 to 100, and is full of charming anecdotes of the author’s horses and their personalities. It is a well-written story both revealing and inspirational, reflecting one woman’s world of horses from the parades and shows to commercial photo shoots and the breeding shed. The author’s message is this: follow where you are led, go through doors that open, and trust that even in adversity you can be blessed.
You can order the book by clicking HERE and you can ask her to autograph it for you.
And you can get to her website by clicking HERE.