Linda competed as a professional trainer and instructor for over 25 years. She specialized in jumpers and eventing while training in multiple disciplines throughout the equine industry..

Some people in the horse industry consistently make claims that double-deck cattle trailers (the kind seen loaded with cattle, pigs, or sheep) are safe for horses to travel in. These trailers are notorious for their low ceilings, slippery floors, steep loading ramps, narrow doors, and open sides (thereby allowing bitter weather to pass through). They are also known for flipping over.

In 1998, professional horsemen across the country started taking on the agriculture system that promotes shipping horses in these dangerous rigs. By 2001, Pennsylvania passed the strongest law in the nation to ban them. This law falls under animal cruelty statutes.

However, a rodeo contractor was caught with 2 of these rigs only weeks ago, with 36 horses on board, near the Plymouth Meeting Mall (Whitemarsh, PA). The first fines were only $750 dollars per truck, as a summary offense. That was worth the profit the trucker had made.

Then the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office took note, stepping in for the Commonwealth. Now the fines stand at the more appropriate level of $18,000. The trucker will appear in court this January to fight the charges. There is much at stake. Should he win, other truckers across the United States will take notice. So will all other rodeo contractors, who already promote a brutal “sport.”