Hi all,
The other day I was looking up horse breeds and I suddenly remembered a crumb of information that I had picked up form somewhere about this weird gait that "trainers" get the horse to do. I say trainers but the video I watched did not show me the image of a trainer training horses. It showed me a monster driven to physical violence and cruelty to get blue ribbons. This man painted chemicals including diesel onto the pasterns of his horses and this, coupled with the 6 inch high blocks chained to the horses front feet and the saddle placed on the weakest part of the horses back caused the horse to be in so much pain (the chemicals) and to be so debilitated from moving naturally that they produce this disgustingly strange and unnatural way of moving known as the 'big lick'. This man was also featured via an undercover grooms pinhole camera to be hitting the horses (while they were in cross ties) across the face and shocking them in the face with an electric cattle prod. The large blocks chained to the horses front feet and the chemicals burning the horses skin under bandages (to disable the horses from rubbing them off) meant that the horses were unable to get up after lying down in their stables. The men who had caused them to be unable to get up them beat them with sticks and pulled viciously on the horses head in an attempt to force the poor horse to stand. All of this was in aid of getting a blue ribbon at the shows by the horses moving in such a awful way. You will probably all be glad to know that this particular trainer was persecuted and is not allowed to own or train horses for 20 years among other punishments.

However I write all of this to urge people to let others know about the awful training methods sometimes used to get this strange result. Many 'big lick' fans don't realise the pain these horses go through and the more people know, the less popular it will become and I hope one day for it to be banned or not practiced anymore due to unpopularity. And I look forward to that.

Thanks,
Abi :)