This bill establishes requirements to prevent the practice of soring horses at horse events (i.e., shows, exhibitions, sales, or auctions), including by requiring soring inspections to be overseen by a new organization that is formally affiliated with the horse event industry. Generally, the soring of horses includes certain actions taken on horses' limbs to produce higher gaits that may cause pain, distress, inflammation, or lameness.
The bill directs the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the Department of Agriculture to establish the organization. The organization must be governed by a board that is appointed by the walking horse industry. The organization must appoint inspectors for each horse event and license, train, and oversee inspectors to detect soring at horse events.
The bill also directs the management of horse events to disqualify horses for specified durations if the horses are determined to be sore by objective inspections conducted by veterinarians or veterinarian technicians using certain science-based protocols.
Currently, inspectors must be designated by the management of horse events and licensed by APHIS-certified horse industry organizations. However, an APHIS rule issued in 2024 established several requirements to increase efforts to protect horses from soring practices, including requiring inspectors to be designated by APHIS. In 2025, a court upheld the parts of the rule requiring APHIS-designated inspectors but vacated other parts of the rule relating to other requirements. APHIS subsequently delayed the effective date of the rule to December 31, 2026.