You might have heard us say the phrase: “Big Lick Is Abuse!” Well, you might or might not know what the "Big Lick" actually is.

The "Big Lick" is a high stepping gait that is physically impossible for a horse to do naturally. It is a pain response achieved through a disgusting and immoral process called soring. Trainers create this "performance" by slathering a horse's legs in caustic chemicals like mustard oil, diesel fuel, and kerosene to create deep, agonizing chemical burns. They then wrap the legs in plastic to "cook" these chemicals into the flesh. To make it worse, they wrap heavy metal chains around those raw, burned pasterns (ankles) so that every step the horse takes strikes the metal against the sores, forcing the horse to snatch its feet up in a desperate attempt to escape the sting.

The industry hides its dirty secrets through a cycle of deception. They use "stewarding," which is a method of beating a horse until it is too terrified to flinch when an inspector touches its sore legs. They also use "pressure shoeing," hiding bolts and screws inside heavy platform pads to put constant, sharp pressure on the sensitive parts of the hoof. They even use numbing agents to freeze the nerves during official checks, only for the agony to return the second the horse enters the ring.

When you see a Big Lick horse, you aren't seeing talent, you are seeing a horse walking on fire. Big Lick is not a tradition, it is torture.

Do not be fooled into thinking this is from the past and no one is doing it anymore. This is happening right now, in barns and show rings across the country today in 2026. Despite decades of activists fighting for change and new laws being passed, the industry continues to hide behind loopholes and legal battles to keep these abusive practices alive. They aren't stopping because they know that without the torture, the "Big Lick" would disappear forever. This isn't a problem of the past, it is an ongoing, active cruelty that these horses are forced to endure every single day.

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Help Stop Big Lick Animal Abuse

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