Today, the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders' & Exhibitors' Association, and the Walking Horse Trainers' Association submitted a joint comment to the USDA regarding its 2024 Horse Protection Act rule.
 
In the comment, the industry restated its concerns with the rule, the majority of which have already been overturned in court, and requested that the USDA delay for at least a year its current start date of February 1, 2026. The organizations also urged the USDA to use that delay to begin a new rulemaking process that fully addresses long-standing issues like due process and the scar rule, and to reconsider the elimination of the Designated Qualified Person (DQP) program.

The comments also request USDA to immediately reverse its policy of a disqualifying entries for an entire event and go back to the USDA’s previous policy of only disqualifying the entry for the class entered.  Lawyers representing the industry point to the USDA’s continued violation of due process without a pre-deprivation process for entries to appeal a disqualification which is only exacerbated by making that disqualification last for the remainder of the event.

Click here to view the full comment