What is Soring?

Soring involves the intentional infliction of pain to a horse's legs or hooves in order to force the horse to perform an artificial, exaggerated gait. Caustic chemicals—blistering agents like mustard oil, diesel fuel, and kerosene—are applied to the horse's limbs, causing extreme pain and suffering.

A particularly egregious form of soring, known as pressure shoeing, involves cutting a horse's hoof almost to the quick and tightly nailing on a shoe, or standing a horse for hours with the sensitive part of his soles on a block or other raised object. This causes excruciating pressure and pain whenever the horse puts weight on the hoof.

Source: The Humane Society of the United States.               *     Additional information may be found at the

For more information please visit their web site page:            *               Sound Horse Outreach:

Also please follow the link below for a recent article & video on Soring Abuse:

 http://www.hsus.org/horses_equines/issues/walking_horses/the_cruelest_horse_show_on.html

Another website/blog on soring, compliments of Phoenix Silver ranch:

http://forthetnwalkinghorse.blogspot.com/