The USDA is continuing its work to update a presentation given to the general public, including walking horse owners, trainers and exhibitors, last month by Dr. Aaron Rhyner. The presentation took place in Shelbyville, Tennessee at the Blue Ribbon Circle, and will be on the USDA’s website in the next couple weeks. 

The follow up information results from several requests for clarification by members of the audience as well as the Walking Horse Report about charts and data presented at the meeting.

Bernadette Juarez, Deputy Administrator of APHIS, released the following information this morning regarding the follow up requests:

“Regarding the FY17 detection of noncompliances, unfortunately we did not track the number of horses we referred back to DQPs so we do not have that breakdown,” she said. “In FY18, DQPs identified 649, of which 120 were referrals from USDA.  

“In addition, USDA collected information involving 30 noncompliances.”

Juarez said the original numbers presented here were duplicative and the new presentation, which will be on its website in the weeks to come, will not duplicate this data, which concerns the noncompliances found by DQPs and USDA for FY 2018.

“In FY18, we sampled 260 horses (194 padded, 66 flat) and 172 (144 padded, 28 flat) were positive for at least one prohibited substance,” she said. “Of those, 48 horses (38 padded, 9 flat) had substances that are reported under the ‘other’ category. Please note that all substances, aside from management provided lubricants, are prohibited under the HPA regulations and many horses we sample (88), in fact, have no substances detected whatsoever. Finally, the specific identification of a substance does not necessarily mean it was non-harmful to an animal.”

More information will be published in the Walking Horse Report as well as online as it becomes available.