“All identified” in Big Lickers attack on members of Horse Plus Humane Society

Three members of Preisner family injured for videotaping Big Lick horses & riders

COLUMBIA,  Tennessee––“Update:  Thank you.  All attackers identified!”  the Horse Plus Humane Society of Hohenwald,  Tennessee posted to Facebook late on June 1,  2025.

The identification may facilitate either criminal prosecution or a civil lawsuit seeking extensive damages.

Identification of the suspects,  whom the Horse Plus Humane Society did not name in advance of possible legal action,  came two days after Big Lick walking horse enthusiasts charged,  pummeled,  and tackled Horse Plus cofounder Jason Preisner,  45,  and their son Justin,  16,   during a Spring Jubilee walking horse exhibition hosted by the Maury County Horseman’s Association.

“Two members transported by ambulance”

“Two members of the organization were transported to Maury Regional Hospital via ambulance,  and another member checked herself into the emergency room after the attack,”  Horse Plus spokesperson Angela Archibald recounted in a media release.

“The group sustained many injuries,  including a life-altering injury that requires surgery,”  Archibald said,  adding that “Horse Plus Humane Society has been peacefully protesting at this event for 10 years without prior physical altercations.”

Citizens Campaign Against Big Lick Animal Cruelty founder Clant Seay (1947-2023),  did however report violence against himself and other protesters at multiple Big Lick horse shows held at the same venue.

Goose-stepping

The Horse Plus Humane Society “was protesting against the soring of Tennessee Walking Horses,  which is the act of putting caustic chemicals on the horse’s pastern,  wrapping the leg to ‘cook’ the chemicals into the leg,  and using chains and tall pads to achieve the artificial gait known as the Big Lick,”  Archibald explained.

The idea,  essentially,  is to make the horse goose-step like a Nazi soldier.

“The Columbia Spring Jubilee is held at Maury County Park,”  a public facility,  detailed an earlier Horse Plus Humane Society account accompanying two videos of what happened.

One of the videos showed everything from beginning to end,  exactly as the Horse Plus Humane Society described it.  The other confirmed several key points,  including who the belligerent parties were and who threw the first blows.

“For a decade we have protested”

“For a decade,”  the earlier account began,  “we have protested beside the road as trucks and trailers bring Big Lick horses to the show.  Once the show starts,  we go into the park,  taking photos and filming the horses to raise awareness about the Big Lick and the cruel practices around it.

“Law enforcement told us that they wanted us to stay in a certain area,  and after observing the situation and talking with them for a while,  we went to the area that law enforcement encouraged us to go to,  as it was the best area for us they said.

“Note:  This is at a public park and there are no restricted areas.’

Filming horses in slow motion

The other Horse Plus Humane Society cofounder,  Tawnee Preisner,  41,  wife of Jason Preisner and mother of Justin Preisner,  “was along the rail filming the Big Lick horses in slow motion,”  the Horse Plus Humane Society account continued.

“Usually,  horses are beautiful when filmed in slow motion,”  the account noted,  “but when Big Lick horses are filmed in slow motion,  it’s horrifying.  In slow motion,  you see the true torture these horses are going through with every step.

“While Tawnee was filming the horses in slow motion as they went by with their stacks and chains,  Jason was doing a live stream on YouTube.

“The Big Lickers hate it when horses are filmed in slow motion,”  the Horse Plus Humane Society account noted,  “because they know that it brings public awareness to the cruel practices of soring and the Big Lick.

“A guy came over”

“A guy came over to the [bleachers behind the] area where Jason, Tawnee,  Justin and our other staff were watching the show.  He started making demands and threats.  He tried to knock the phone out of Jason’s hand, and when Jason said we needed the sheriff there,  he came around,”  out of the bleachers,  charging Jason,  yelling for him to get the camera out of his face,  which had not been pointed his way prior to the harassment.

“Of course,  all the Big Lickers claimed that Jason attacked him,”   the Horse Plus Humane Society said,  “but you can clearly see in the video that the guy came over and attacked Jason.  During the attack, their son Justin was trying to protect his dad and ended up getting attacked by two other individuals:  a woman who stole Jason’s phone that he used doing the YouTube live stream,  and another guy who threw Justin against a concrete wall and then body-slammed him to the ground.”

“I was trying to get the attacker off my dad”

Posted Justin Preisner to his own Facebook account,  “I was trying to get the attacker off of my dad,  when a woman attacked me,  and then I was attacked by another person who slammed me into a wall, and then body slammed me on the ground.  The woman who attacked me also stole my dad‘s phone. You can see it in her back pocket,”  in the Horse Plus Humane Society video,  “when she was attacking me.  I have multiple injuries from this,”  Justin Preisner confirmed.

“Jason and Justin were taken to the hospital by ambulance,”  the Horse Plus Humane Society resumed.  “Tawnee was able to drive herself and got treatment for the injuries she sustained during the attack.  Shockingly,  law enforcement did not arrest anyone who attacked Jason,  Tawnee,  or Justin.”

“Welcome to Tennessee!”

Instead,  another social media account said,  “They were dog-piled and attacked by multiple grown men,  women,  and young men.  In the end?  The sheriff,”  Bucky Rowland,  “no-trespassed all of our people,  and did not arrest the people who attacked us.  Welcome to Tennessee!”

The woman who took Jason Preisner’s cell phone apparently abandoned it in a restroom,  where it was recovered.

Tawnee Preisner,  before moving to Tennessee,  in 2009 cofounded NorCal Equine Rescue in Oroville,  California.  She recently purchased a sored former walking horse champion,  Tarheel,  at a slaughter auction.

Gen’s Ice Glimmer

But her most memorable discovery of a sored former walking horse champion being sold to slaughter came on July 28,  2015,  when she spotted a sored,  registered Tennessee walking horse named Gen’s Ice Glimmer at an auction in Cookeville,  Tennessee.

Preisner in 2015 asked Clant Seay to help her buy Gen’s Ice Glimmer  Seay did.

“Seay had two veterinarians examine Gen’s Ice Glimmer,  including Dr. J.T. James, a retired but licensed veterinarian who used to inspect walking horses for the USDA,”  reported Holly Meyer for the Nashville Tennessean on August 26,  2015.

“James said he found moderate scarring just above the horse’s hooves,  which puts Gen’s Ice Glimmer in violation of the Horse Protection Act’s scar rule.

“In 2013, Gen’s Ice Glimmer was found to be sore at the Walking for Education show in Murfreesboro,  according to a 2013 report by the USDA,”  Meyer learned.

“Killer buyers were waiting”

“Killer buyers were waiting to bid on him and load him on a waiting trailer to head to a slaughter plant in Mexico,”  Clant Seay remembered.

Instead,  with Seay,  Gen’s Ice Glimmer became the “poster child” for the Citizens Campaign Against “Big Lick” Animal Cruelty.

After Seay died,  Tawnee Preisner kept  Gen’s Ice Glimmer until his death at approximately age 20.

Participating in the Gen’s Ice Glimmer rescue turned Seay into a full-time protester against the Big Lick for the last eight years of his life.

In that capacity,  Seay on June 3,  2016 ran afoul of Maury County sheriff Bucky Rowland,  the same sheriff who failed to charge the May 29,  2025 assailants of the Preisner family.

Seay sued Rowland

Seay,  however,  was an accomplished civil rights attorney.  When Rowland ordered Seay and fellow members of the Citizens Campaign Against Big Lick Animal Cruelty to turn off their cameras and stop videotaping a Big Lick show at Maury County Park,  Seay sued Rowland in U.S. District Court––a federal jurisdiction––for allegedly violating his First and 14th Amendment rights.

Rowland in May and August 2017 agreed to federal court orders to not interfere with Seay’s First Amendment rights at horse shows,  including the Columbia Spring Jubilee Horse Show,  but balked in May 2018,  Seay reported,  after Seay publicized the court orders.

On June 2,  2018,  Seay complained to Rowland,  “Five Below, Inc. district manager Kent McGary allegedly intentionally and maliciously drove his 2017 Ford Escape SUV,  owned by Five Below,  Inc.,  on the wrong side of the road at eleven persons” who were protesting against the “Big Lick” exhibition at the Columbia Spring Jubilee Horse Show.”

Rowland apparently took no action.

“Like they came out of Mississippi Burning“

Similar incidents continued.  Seay successfully sued several of the perpetrators.

“Based on what I have seen during the last seven years doing this,”  Clant Seay told ANIMALS 24-7 in 2021,  “I see all the same signs of resistance from the perps that there were in the civil rights days of the 1960s.  Some of the Lickers look like they came out of Mississippi Burning.”

Seay,  incidentally,  from Oxford,  Mississippi,  was a lifelong friend and neighbor of civil rights leader James Meredith.

Besides violent responses to protesters at Big Lick shows in Maury County Park,  Columbia,  Tennessee is known in horse advocacy for the January 2010 convictions of James Michael Tait,  58,  and Kenny E. Thomason, 44,  for allegedly having sex with horses and dogs.

Recalled Skyler Swisher for the Columbia Daily Herald,  “In 2005, Tait photographed Kenneth Pinyan,  a 45-year-old Boeing engineer who died from internal injuries he suffered while engaging in sex acts with a horse at a farm in Washington state.”

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