Vent

I just have to vent! I just read the blog about Tennessee Walking Horses over at the Fugly Horse of the Day Blog and I watched the videos. The showing TWH's look hideous! There is absolutely NOTHING attractive about the way they move. Somebody please explain to me why people want them to look like that? Why would you put those giant horse shoes and pads on a horse's feet? It makes no sense to me. I consider myself a middle of the road person when it comes to training techniques, so I'm not into gimmicks and I'm not into all natural. I think it's ok to shoe a horse and I also think that there are certain times where it is perfectly appropriate to leave a horse unshod. However I do not think it's right the way they shoe those horses. I don't know a lot about gaited horses, but from what I've seen, TWH aren't the only ones shod extremely(in my opinion.) I've seen some Saddlebreds that had some big honkin' shoes on them. I want a horse to move the best it can in a natural way to perform the job it's bred to do. A TWH can most definitely gait in regular or even no shoes, so why those giant shoes. That's not even mentioning the cruel soring that's going on. Heck, if my choice is to exercise in my husband's work boots, or to put diesel fuel on my feet, then wrap them in plastic and then work out in my own tennis shoes, I choose my husband's boots! But really, I'd rather just wear appropriate fitting, not super heavy tennis shoes over either option. Ok...I could go on and on and just repeat myself over and over because this makes me sooooo MAD! So, I'm going to stop and actually work on my book for the first time in several days. Bye now!