TIMESFREEPRESS.COM — SEPT. 18, 2012 — A federal judge today sentenced a former hall of fame Tennessee walking horse trainer to three years probation and fined him $75.000 for soring horses.

Jackie McConnell, 60, said, “I take responsibility for what I’ve done.”

McConnell pleaded guilty in May to a charge of conspiring to violate the Horse Protection Act.

He had been charged in a 52-count indictment after hidden-camera video captured images of him abusing horses to make them lift their hooves in the exaggerated “big lick” of walking horses.

McConnell had started to cry during the statement, though he showed no physical reaction to the sentence.