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Stearns Outfitters Outfitter license Wy BG#9 , Wyoming Hunting Trips, Guided Elk and Deer Hunts ,buckrail.com/local-outfitter-caught-on-video-abusing-horse-investigation-underway/ Wilson Nationwide, WY Wyoming
JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Social media sites are abuzz with a short video many are finding disturbing. It involves a local outfitter and horseman confirmed to be Forest Stearns employing a questionable training method on a packhorse.
In the minute-long video, which has been shared by hundreds of Facebook users since it posted yesterday, Stearns can be seen securing one of the ropes that has a horse stretched out on the ground by its two hind legs at one end and its head at the other.
As Stearns walks around the horse it struggles violently. From the disturbance of the dirt underneath the horse, and the blood on the horse’s rear pasterns, the animal appears to have struggled for some time before the video was shot. Reports from eyewitnesses say the horse was tied that way for some five to six hours before it reportedly died of heart failure.
Teton County Sheriff’s Office investigators are looking into the incident as a possible animal cruelty case. Deputy Doug Raffelson, the department’s animal care and control officer, is leading the investigation. He has interviewed several witnesses and reached out to area professionals in the industry.
Dr. Theo Schuff of Fish Creek Veterinary Clinic is conducting a necropsy on the dead horse in cooperation with the investigation. The Wyoming State Board of Outfitters and Wyoming Livestock Board have been contacted as well.
Heavy-handed training technique or animal cruelty?
Different horsemen use various methods of training. On occasion, horses are “thrown” to the ground in a process involving hobbling a hind leg to the animal’s belly by rope in order to tip it over and get it on the ground. The method is sometimes used to shoe a problem horse. Old school trainers also employed the technique to establish domination over a horse to gentle it to human touch.
Photographs or video snippets often do not tell a complete story. Also, to the untrained eye, some training methods can appear unnecessarily harsh. Certainly, the horse-training world has undergone a transformation in recent decades. The use of force, fear, intimidation, and restraint are more and more considered antiquated practices with little place in today’s modern culture. Gentler horse breaking approaches are now the norm.