Although the Horse Protection Act (HPA) was enacted 34 years ago, show ring abuse of the Tennessee Walking Horse and other high-stepping gaited breeds is still a significant, ongoing problem. Horses are intentionally abused through mechanical and chemical means to obtain an unnatural, high-stepping gait that leads to the winner’s circle. Winning brings prestige, breeding fees, sales, and training contracts. Those who support soring have more money to fight the law than the USDA has to enforce it. The good news is that many people in the gaited horse industry are working tirelessly to transform the show ring into a place where only sound horses and honest trainers reap the rewards of show ring glory.

During the mid- to late 1960s, the American Horse Protection Association and other humane organizations brought the issue of soring gaited horses to public attention. Widespread publicity and political pressure spurred Senator Joseph Tydings to sponsor a bill that became the Horse Protection Act (HPA) of 1970. The HPA made it a federal offense to intentionally sore a horse to alter its gait and tasked the USDA with enforcing the HPA, but the USDA had limited success due to inadequate funding and personnel. In 1976, Congress amended the HPA to help make its enforcement more effective through the Designated Qualified Person (DQP) program, which allows people from the gaited horse industry to inspect horses at shows and sales. The USDA supervises DQP training programs and performs unannounced, random inspections at horse events to see that DQP inspections are done properly.

The main role of the DQP is to detect and disqualify the sore horse