High-profile Tennessee Walking Horse trainer Jackie L. McConnell, accused of violating the Horse Protection Act (HPA) by soring horses, can only train horses he personally owns while he awaits trial on the charges against him, said a U.S. District Court judge.

In February, a federal grand jury in Tennessee handed down a 52-count indictment accusing McConnell, Jeff Dockery, John Mays, and Joseph R. Abernathy of conspiring to violate the HPA by applying prohibited substances (such as mustard oil) to horses’ pasterns areas to achieve an exaggerated high stepping, or so-called "big lick," gait. The indictment also describes the methods allegedly used to sore the horses; train the animals not to react to pain in their feet by causing pain elsewhere; and to otherwise mask evidence of soring.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Neff said that on March 15 all four men appeared in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga, Tenn., where Dockery and Mays agreed to conditions set by federal prosecutors that they not train or care for horses other than their own before their trial on the soring charges. Under a special agreement, Abernathy, a farrier, is allowed to continue providing services for clients’ horses but must provide a weekly client-and-contact list to prosecutors and probation officers, Neff said.

McConnell’s attorneys, Hugh Moore and Tom Greenholtz, objected to federal prosecutors’ conditions that McConnell not train horses while awaiting trial and that he waive his rights under the 4^th Amendment of the Constitution, Neff said, which protects Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures. A second court appearance on the bond conditions was set for March 23