NHSC Issues Statement
Saturday, August 26, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- August 26, 2006
For more information contact: Lonnie Messick, executive vice-president, 931-684-9506
NHSC Statement
SHELBYVILLE, TENN. -- The National Horse Show Commission (NHSC) is disappointed with the events that led to the postponement of the Celebration’s Friday night and Saturday morning performances. “Our DQPs are doing a great job inspecting horses and enforcing our rules and the Horse Protection Act,” says David Pruett, NHSC chairman. “DQPs from the NHSC have inspected over 35,000 horses this year across the country. They are using the same inspection procedures at the Celebration that they have used at every other horse show. I applaud our DQPs’ knowledge, fairness and consistency as they work to ensure that every horse shown is compliant.”
According to Lonnie Messick, NHSC executive vice president, the DQPs assigned to work the Celebration are some of the most experienced in the industry. “Some of these guys have inspected over 100,000 horses in their career.” Messick goes on to say that the DQPs who were inspecting horses at Friday night’s Celebration were the same ones working on Thursday night, when the USDA was also in attendance. “We have turned down several horses at each performance, and prior to Friday night there were no disagreements between our DQPs and the USDA.”
NHSC officials are meeting with representatives from the USDA this afternoon to hopefully resolve this issue.
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The National Horse Show Commission (NHSC) is the unified effort of the Walking Horse Trainers’ Association and the Walking Horse Owners’ Association. The NHSC’s mission is to actively protect and promote the welfare of the Tennessee Walking Horse. The NHSC governs the judging, exhibition and inspection of Tennessee Walking Horses at horse shows across the nation.