On May 8, 2024 the USDA published a final rule amending the horse protection regulations. Those amendments would have banned the use of action devices and pads, eliminated HIOs, and amended the Scar Rule and due process provided by USDA. It also extended reporting requirements to other major horse breeds in addition to the Tennessee Walking Horse and Racking Horse.
The industry challenged each of those areas of the rule that applied to the Tennessee Walking Horse and Racking Horse and prevailed on all, except the elimination of the HIO Designated Qualified Persons. The implementation of a USDA led inspection regime, with inspections conducted by Veterinary Medical Officers (VMO) and Horse Protection Inspectors (HPI) was set to go into effect February 1, 2025. This would also have extended the reporting requirements to other breeds.
Those changes were delayed initially until April 2, 2025 but on March 21, 2025 the USDA published a further delay of the effective date to February 1, 2026. The USDA now has delayed that effective date until December 31, 2026. The notice on the Federal Register web site says the delay will be printed officially on January 28th.
The USDA cited multiple reasons for the delay until December of this year, most notably the industry’s challenge to the existing regulations in federal court and the preliminary injunction granted by that Court on August 19, 2025. The USDA cites that currently HPIs are trained on the existing regulations however those are not effective due to the preliminary injunction and could be struck down in the final decision by the court requiring different training for those HPIs. In addition, currently the USDA only has 17 HPIs which would be insufficient to cover the inspections across the industry.
Today’s notice also delays the implementation of the reporting requirements for other breeds. Throughout its notice, USDA mentions comments they received regarding the length of the delay were outside the scope of their request, however they may consider them in future rulemakings. The industry’s challenges in federal court have been paramount in preserving the show horse. Without the initial challenge the show horse would be prohibited from wearing pads and action devices in the show ring and without the second the HIO DQP programs would already be eliminated leaving USDA in charge of inspections at horse shows.
Without further rulemaking, the USDA will eliminate the HIO inspection programs and implement inspections at horse shows conducted by VMOs and USDA selected and trained HPIs for the 2027 show season per today’s announcement. This would also extend the reporting requirements to other show horse breeds outside of the Tennessee Walking Horse and Racking Horse.
Read the official document here.