The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced Friday, Jan. 24, that the implementation date for changes to the Horse Protection Act has been pushed back from Feb. 1 to April 2. The decision comes after the U.S. Equestrian Federation, American Horse Council and other groups requested a delay due to concerns about the availability of enough trained inspectors to enforce the act, as well as widespread confusion about the scope and application of the changes.
Originally passed in 1970, the HPA is a federal law intended to outlaw the practice of soring—intentionally irritating the limbs of a horse (usually a Tennessee Walker or racking horse) in order to produce an exaggerated gait. The HPA prohibits sored horses from participating in shows, exhibitions, sales or auctions, and also prohibits the transportation of sored horses to or from any of these events.
Since its inception, the HPA has authorized APHIS to inspect horses for soring at any U.S. horse show, but in practice inspections occurred almost exclusively on the Tennessee Walking Horse circuit and have been limited to 50 or fewer competitions annually. Under the new revisions to HPA, competition and event managers of almost every form of equine event held in the U.S. would be required to register and report their competition or event to USDA/APHIS. This revised definition included nearly every form of equestrian competition except for those events in which speed is the predominant method of determining the winner (such as horse racing); it also specifically excluded rodeo events, parades and trail rides.
“Since release of the new amendments to the Act, USEF leaders have participated in Zoom meetings and webinars with the American Horse Council and with USDA/APHIS to voice our concerns and to gain a better understanding of the upcoming implementation of the HPA changes,” USEF President Tom O’Mara and CEO Bill Moroney said Jan. 16 in a joint statement that announced USEF was asking for a delay. “USEF fully supports the HPA’s intent to eliminate the soring of horses. However, there is lingering confusion regarding the changes, including but not limited to, what constitutes a covered event, the scope of the regulation, qualifications and training of inspectors, and clarity on the inspection process.”
Further, the recent revisions to the long-standing law seemed to expand the USDA’s definition of soring beyond the scope of its original intent. In applauding the decision to delay implementation of the expanded law, representatives from the American Horse Council shared that “the USDA APHIS needs to refocus its efforts to scale the final rule to what Congress intended, and not adopt interpretations that exceed the agency’s authority.”
For its part, the AHC said in a statement that it looked forward to working with the incoming Donald Trump administration to support reasonable regulations for the full and fair enforcement of the HPA’s prohibition against the soring of horses.
“We are pleased that USDA/APHIS is delaying the implementation date of the final rule. Earlier this month, the AHC made a formal request for a 60-day delay to provide additional time for the agency to answer and clarify several troubling provisions in the regulation as it applies to certain disciplines, inspector training, and reporting requirements,” stated the AHC release. “The equine community is particularly concerned about the agency’s evolving definition of soring, which seems to significantly expand the scope beyond the original intent. The USDA/APHIS needs to refocus its efforts to scale the Final Rule to what Congress intended and not adopt interpretations that exceed the agency’s authority.”
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The changes to the HPA include a new system for inspecting horses’ limbs for evidence of soring, designed to address uneven enforcement of the law. Previously, industry organizations were allowed to license and train their own inspectors, essentially self-policing. But a 2010 USDA Office of the Inspector General audit and a 2021 study by the National Academy of Sciences both found that those industry inspectors had conflicts of interest and also found far fewer violations than did APHIS inspectors. Now, inspectors will be trained by the USDA instead.
All horse show and event managers will be required to provide notice to APHIS at least 30 days in advance of the event via mail or email, provide any event updates 15 days in advance of the event, and report any violations of the HPA within five days post-event. (View the USDA’s explanation of “covered events” here.)
In an October email to members about its efforts to ensure horse welfare, USEF said it intended to handle the HPA registration requirement for USEF competitions: “An important element of the recent amendments to the Act involves a mandatory competition registration requirement for virtually all equestrian competitions held in the U.S. each year. Knowing this new federal requirement may be burdensome for our competition organizers, USEF will assume the registration duties to help relieve this burden and keep competition organizers and managers compliant with the federal law regarding the reporting requirements.”
In its message to stakeholders about the 60-day delay, APHIS said it will issue guidance for the upcoming horse show season in light of the postponement of the new rule.