Girl Scouts’ DVD Stirs Many

GAINESVILLE,FL-- April Zendarski, of Senior Troop 44 in Franklinville was a panelist at the recent Sound Horse Conference in Gainesville, Florida March 20 & 21st stirring the emotions of the attendees. The subject of April’s speech was the making of the troop’s educational DVD, “See it Through My Eyes”- about the problem of soring of gaited horses. She told of the work involved, the many obstacles they faced and the comments from others on the DVDs’ youtube.com version. April told the conference attendees, “even if our project was not approved, we were still going to make the DVD, it is just that important!” The DVD has been sent to Girl Scout councils around the country and requests for the DVD are many. They have received close to 12,000 hits on the Youtube site since October.

The practice of soring, or applying caustic chemicals or using mechanical appliances on the horse’s legs with the sole purpose of causing injury to the horse making him have an animated or exaggerated gait is illegal. Yet, many horse owners, particularly in some southern states still use the inhumane practice.

The 2nd Annual Sound Horse Conference brought together a variety of people from all over the country, including the director of Equine Protection of the Human Society of the United States, veterinarians, researchers, and journalists. Radiography and thermography specialists were on hand to explain how their techniques can help in detecting soring. A holistic veterinarian also spoke. Two panelists told about their involvement in soring of their horses and how they have now “seen the light” and are actively involved in stopping the practice.

Friday evening, attendees were treated to a picnic dinner and a horse show of gaited horses at the University of Florida’s equine arena as well as short presentation by Pat Parelli, the ‘guru’ of natural horsemanship.

Although soring is not prevalent in our area of the country, other states are the hotbeds of this inhumane practice with Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia having the highest number of offenders.

The Girl Scout DVD was shown in its entirety to the over 100 attendees. The girls were honored by the National Walking Horse Association by giving them honorary memberships to their organization, tote bags and full scholarships to attend the 2009 Youth Leadership Conference in Lexington, Kentucky in July.