Follow The Horse Amendment to the OP

Congress enacted the Horse Protection Act in 1970 to stop an abuse to
Walking Horses called soring. Soring, the application of harmful, chemical
and mechanical irritants, force walking horses into an animated gait for
desirable show ring appearance. The Act has never been properly enforced.
In fact, the most recent report from the USDA to Congress shows that an
appalling number (80%) of these horses shown in stacks and chains, are still
being sored in flagrant disregard of a 33 year old federal law.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has delegated most of
their responsibility for enforcement of the HPA to Horse Industry
Organizations (HIO). The HIOs are organizations certified by the USDA to
hire horse inspectors to detect soring at horse shows. The USDA attends
roughly 10% of these shows to make sure that the HIO inspectors are
inspecting horses properly. The actions of the horse show industry and HIO
inspectors show that they do not have the commitment to enforce the HPA.
Some industry personnel threaten the government with violence when the USDA
attends shows to make sure the industry is doing its job. The USDA has even
had to hire armed guards to accompany them to shows. USDA statistics also
show that the HIO inspectors write more tickets for HPA violation when the
USDA is supervising them, to make it look like they are doing their jobs.
One industry organization, called the Walking Horse Trainers Association
annually celebrates a Trainer of the Year. The majority of the WHTA Trainer
of the Year honorees are violators of the HPA or had pending violations at
the time of their award, which also illustrates the industry's lack of
motivation to condemn violators.

To further complicate this hindrance, the same bodies that celebrate HPA
violators and use violence to intimidate the USDA and do not ticket horses
that were depicted as sore, meet with the USDA to advise the USDA on how to
enforce the Horse Protection Act. Yes, the organizations that show little
or no interest towards enforcing the HPA and actually prevent enforcement
are advising the USDA on how to enforce the HPA.

One of the results of these meetings is called Follow The Horse. Follow The
Horse was formed by the horse show industry through the Walking Horse
Trainer Association (WHTA). The WHTA continuously honors HPA violators with
Trainer of the Year awards. Why would they want to come up with a
reasonable method of enforcement to punish their honorees? In this Follow
The Horse strategy, the USDA agreed to punish horses that have been scarred
by soring while letting the abuser take a short vacation from the show ring
during winter break. Scarred horses, barred from the show ring, will
inevitably go to slaughter, an unsuspecting buyer, or become part of an
insurance scam to collect money on the animal as the abuser moves on to a
new horse.

The undersigned do NOT support this technique called Follow The Horse.
Follow The Horse is another method of the show industry to prevent penalty
to the violators that they house. Please contact the USDA and request that
they cancel the use of Follow The Horse before more horses and legitimate
owners suffer at the expense of the industry's profit.