Ruth Archer - I accept what you say regarding who you know and who you believe. All I can say to that is that I feel I am qualified to speak about horse welfare. My family come originally from southern Ireland. We have been involved in horses, breeding, competing, riding etc for almost 150 years (I havnt researched any further back yet). Personally, I have been involved with horses all my life, over 50 years). Including riding, breeding, competing. I still compete in eventing and showing as does my son. We own a medium sized livery/competition yard and also accept abused horses, including crualty cases, for a national charity. We have two at the moment. One pony had the crap beaten out of her for fun by 'travellers' in the East Anglia area. They only handed her over to the charity because she was quite literally on her last legs. My yard is inspected regularly especially, every 3 to 6 months for the rescue horses. Last week we were give a 5 star rating for the care of the horses. Tethering horses by the side of the road with chains, running horses up on roads, and dunking them in rivers is simply not acceptable - it doesnt matter who you are.