DOSWELL, VIRGINIA – The “Virginia Horse Festival” has banned the sore “Big Lick” Tennessee Walking Horse from appearing at “The Meadow Event Park” on March 27-29, 2015.   The Park is  located 25 miles North of Richmond (State Capitol).    It also hosts the State Fair of Virginia.

On Facebook, the Virginia Horse Festival states its purpose: “To promote the horse industry and its associated businesses, farms, disciplines and related activities throughout the region.”

In not  allowing the sore “Big Lick” Tennessee Walking Horses to appear at “The Meadow Event Park”,  the Virginia Horse Festival continues a trend set in October 2014, when a North Carolina protest and demonstration to ban the sore “Big Lick” Tennessee Walking Horse took place at the N.C. State Fair.

It started with North Carolinian Michelle Disney’s Change.org Petition asking the State of North Carolina to  ‘Cancel Tennessee Walking Horse Performance Classes at the NC State Fair”.   Over 19,000  persons from around the world supported the request.

Responding to a representative of the All American Walking Horse Alliance,   the North Carolina Chief Deputy Commissioner of Agriculture N. David Smith said,  “We will review the matter of (Big Lick) Performance Tennessee Walking Horses appearing at the 2015 N.C. State Fair.”     Mr. Smith indicated a possible change in policy, and reiterated that the question of allowing (Big Lick) Performance Horses  will  “be revisited  before  the 2015 Fair”.

Virginia now joins other State Fair locations which ban Big Lick (Performance) Tennessee Walking Horses from coming on the property due to the soring and animal cruelty necessary to produce the animated sore “Big Lick” gait.    These include  Missouri, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania  and  Oregon.    Other prominent venues barring Big Lick Tennessee Walking Horses are the  Kentucky Horse Park  (Lexington, Kentucky) and the  Germantown Charity Horse Show  (Memphis, Tennessee).

The action of the Virginia Horse Festival to ban the “Big Lick” horses from                “The Meadow Event Park” is a direct rebuke to two Virginia TWHBEA Directors, Ms. Pam McKinney and Ms. Sharon Rice who are both “Big Lick” supporters. Ms. McKinney attempted to disrupt the historic “WALK ON WASHINGTON” and was escorted from the event by the U. S. Capitol Police.

VIRGINIA TWHBEA DIRECTOR MS PAM MCKINNEY

VIRGINIA TWHBEA DIRECTOR MS SHARON RICE

Meanwhile back at the mothership in Lewisburg, Tennessee,   the last redoubt of the sore Big Lick Tennessee Walking Horse,  it was announced this week that a portrait of the 2012 sore “Big Lick” World Grand Champion “Walk Time Charlie”  was placed at the Tennessee Welcome Center on Interstate 65 near the Kentucky state line.

Big Licker interim Executive Director Walt “Joe Willie Namath” Chism, and Horse Protection Act alleged violator President Steve Smith were careful to put a “Sanitized Photo” of “Walk Time Charlie” up for public viewing, rather than a “BIG LICK” action shot.

“SANITIZED” WELCOME CENTER PHOTO –  2012 WGC “WALK TIME CHARLIE”

CLOSE UP OF “WALK TIME CHARLIE” BIG LICK PADS/STACKS (10-15 LB EACH)

CHAD BAUCOM OF THE “HORSE PROTECTION ACT VIOLATION CITATIONS”  BAUCOM FAMILY OF NORTH CAROLINA UP ON “WALK TIME CHARLIE”

THE PADS/STACKS (10-15 LB)  – THE CHAINS  –  THE GROTESQUE BIT SHANKS

2012 WORLD GRAND CHAMPION “WALK TIME CHARLIE” – CHAD BAUCOM UP

One of the owners of “Walk Time Charlie”,  Mr. John Callicutt of Seagrove, North Carolina,    is also one of 11 members of the  N.C. Fair Walking Horse/Spotted Saddle Horse Show Advisory Committee.  Nine members of the Committee  have received Horse Protection Act Violation Citations for violating the Horse Protect Act.   Collectively, the 9 persons have accumulated  37 Horse Protection Act Violations.

Mr. Callicutt’s trainer Mr. Chad Baucom,  along with family members, Eddie and Jeannette,  have all been cited with soring horses under the terms of the Horse Protection Act.

Eddie and Jeannette Baucom are presently serving 4 – 5 year suspensions from showing.

CHAD BAUCOM HORSE PROTECTION ACT VIOLATION CITATIONS

Here is information from USDA HORSE PROTECTION ACT FEDERAL DISQUALIFICATION AND CIVIL PENALTY LIST as of March 27, 2014:

EDDIE & JEANETTE BAUCOM –  HORSE PROTECTION ACT SUSPENSIONS –

Here is the TWHBEA Press Statement dated Feb. 10, 2015:

“The Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders’ And Exhibitors’ Association (TWHBEA) is pleased to announce that a portrait of 2012 World Grand Champion Walk Time Charlie is now featured at the 1-65 Robertson County Mitchellville Welcome Center at Portland, Tennessee. The display of this striking portrait is a joint venture between TWHBEA and the Tennessee Walking Horse National Museum (TWHNC). The presentation of the portrait was made by TWHBEA staff member Michael Gray along with TWHBEA member and TWHNC board member Francis Bates. TWH National Museum President Phillip Gentry and Mitchellville Welcome Center Manager Sherry Hutchinson both deserve special thanks for their support of this project.”

With the hanging of this portrait, the Tennessee Walking Horse is now prominently featured at welcome centers along each of Tennessee’s borders. Visitors to the great state of Tennessee can now view beautiful, larger-than-life portraits of our World Grand Champions as soon as they enter the state. Whether they are traveling from the north, south, east, or west, there is simply no better way to say “Welcome to Tennessee!” than with a portrait of one of its most beautiful namesakes.”

“Prominently Featured”?

Not so fast.

It seems rather obvious that TWHBEA no longer wants the public to see the “Accessories” necessary to create the artificial pain induced exaggerated gait of the sore  “Big Lick”.

THE PADS/STACKS (10-15 LB)  – THE CHAINS  –  THE GROTESQUE BIT SHANKS

There is no TWHBEA Director named “Francis Bates”.  According to the twhbea.com website, there is an Alternate TWHBEA Director (from Tennessee) named “Frances Bates”.   There is a  “Frances Bates”  who appears to have owned a Horse,  “A Risky First Touch” trained and shown by Clint Bryant in 2005.   This particular horse does not have a Horse Protection Act Violation record, but Trainer Mr. Clint Bryant certainly does.

HORSE PROTECTION ACT VIOLATION CITATION RECORD – CLINT BRYANT

Horse or Person on Suspension

First Name

Middle Initial

Last Name

Title

City

State

Zip Code

Horse Name

Horse Registry

Type of Finding

Second Finding

Detail Other Type of Finding

Suspension Start Date

Suspension End Date

Fine Amount

HIO

USDA Present?

Notes

Incident Date

Date of Official Document

Foreign Substances Found

Case Number

Type

Date of Order

Show Name

Violation

Second Violation Type

Third Violation

Third Violation Type

Clint

Bryant

Rockvale

Tennessee

37153

Suspension Violation

Not Specified

12/21/03

06/20/04

NHSC

Clint

Bryant

Rockvale

Tennessee

37153

Bilateral Sore

Not Specified

04/21/03

12/20/03

NHSC

Clint

Bryant

Rockvale

Tennessee

37153

Scar Rule

Not Specified

08/06/06

08/19/06

NHSC

Clint

Bryant

Rockvale

Tennessee

Not Specified

Not Specified

04/22/98

04/21/99

USDA

Clint

Bryant

Rockvale

Tennessee

Unilateral Sore

Not Specified

08/21/01

09/03/01

NHSC

Clint

Bryant

Trainer

Rockvale

Tennessee

The Dangerous Nine

Not Specified

Not Specified

ticket #29565

06/04/13

06/03/14

SHOW

05/04/13

Clint

Bryant

Rockvale

Tennessee

Bilateral Sore

Pre-Show Violation

06/04/13

06/03/13

1000

SHOW

“A Risky First Touch” was out of an Ebony’s Bold Courier mare.  Ebony’s Bold Courier was  the 1983 TWHNC World Grand Champion.    There is a “Frances Bates” who on Walker’s West website regarding Ebony’s Bold Courier said ” …  was sold as a yearling in May, 1976, to Dr. and Mrs. Roger Bates of Waycross, Georgia, who continued to back him as Ebony’s Bold Courier for all of his seven years in the show ring. “We believed in him all the way,” Frances Bates said; “we never lost sight of the fact that he had all the credentials of a World Grand Champion.”

—————————-

THE “SORE BIG LICK” LOYALTY OATH REQUIRED OF TWHBEA DIRECTORS

Like the Southern racist segregationist governors of the last century – Alabama George C. Wallace and Mississippi Governor Ross R. Barnett  who used “Code Words”,  the 2015 TWHBEA leaders,  President Mr.  Steve Smith and Executive Director Mr.  Walt Chism,    have resorted to using a “Loyalty Oath” (complete with “Code Words”)  to try and intimidate TWHBEA Directors into  supporting and maintaining the sore Big Lick.

Just as “States Rights” was a Code Word for “Segregation”,  the word “Disciplines” is a “Loyalty Oath” Code Word for the “Sore Big Lick”.      Democratic governor  George Wallace, of  Alabama, who famously declared in his inaugural address in 1963, “Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!”””later remarked that he should have said, “States’ rights now! States’ rights tomorrow! States’ rights forever!”(wikipedia)

“I LOVE MISSISIPPI!  I LOVE HER PEOPLE!  I LOVE HER CUSTOMS!”

“I LUV THE BIG LICK!  –  I LUV HER PEOPLE!  –  I LUV HER CUSTOMS!”

“SEGREGATION NOW! SEGREGATION TOMORROW! SEGREGATION FOREVER!”

“SORE BIG LICK NOW! SORE BIG LICK TOMORROW!SORE BIG LICK FOREVER!”

TWHBEA INTERNATIONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS OATH OF OFFICE

As a member in good standing of the TWHBEA Board of Directors, I pledge:

“¢ TO abide by the bylaws, rules regulations, mission statement, and Code of Conduct Standards of TWHBEA.

“¢ TO conduct myself and deliberate in all equine business matters in a manner which preserves the integrity of the registry and pedigree of TWHBEA.

“¢ TO conduct myself and deliberate in all equine business matters of TWHBEA in such a manner as to acknowledge and support all disciplines of the versatile Tennessee Walking Horse, and to preserve the right of each TWHBEA member to enjoy any and all of those disciplines they so choose.

“¢ TO never intentionally bring dishonor, harm or disrespect upon TWHBEA, and its members of the Tennessee Walking Horse.

“¢ TO keep TWHBEA and the Tennessee Walking Horse, along with TWHBEA members of my state, region or country foremost in my tenure.

“¢ TO represent and serve, to the best of my abilities, the TWHBEA members from the state, region or country in which I was elected.

• AND TO deliberate openly, honestly, ethically and in good faith in all the proceedings of the TWHBEA International Board of Directors.

—————————————————————————–

The reality of 2015 is that the  “Soring Circle” is getting smaller and smaller.

A “GREEN”  United States of America has rejected the sore “Big Lick” Tennessee Walking Horse as unacceptable.

The “Big Lick” is a pain induced  “bastardized gait”  which has become abhorrent.

Americans are simply no longer going to support or tolerate it.

THE SHRINKING BIG LICK “SORING CIRCLE”

UPCOMING SORE “BIG LICK” SHOWS

Nephew Eugene says it’s going to be an interesting Spring.