Trump USDA announces “Big Lick” equine circles of hell to continue

A Donald Trump administration for the second time scraps a soring rule just before it was to take effect

            WASHINGTON D.C.––The politics of trying to reform the “Big Lick” show horse industry much resemble “Big Lick” horse shows themselves.

First the horses,  whose legs have often been sored to induce the “Big Lick” goosestep,  march in one direction to merry-go-round music.

Then the music pauses,  signaling the riders to turn the horses to march back the way they came.

In the 55 years since the 1970 passage of the Horse Protection Act,  horse advocates have gotten little farther in efforts to stop “Big Lick” soring than the horses themselves,  going in endless circles to tunes that were cliched before the Horse Protection Act was written.

“Abandon hope ye who enter here”

Occasionally comes hope that the equine circles of hell will finally end.

The USDA in 2016,  toward the end of the Barack Obama presidential administration, introduced new Horse Protection Act enforcement rules meant to stop soring,  but the first Donald Trump administration immediately stopped the rules from taking effect.

Originally introduced in Congress in 2013,  the Prevent All Soring Tactics would do most of the same things to protect horses as the withdrawn USDA rule.  The PAST Act cleared the House of Representatives in 2019 and 2022 by margins of 333-96 and 304-111,  but was blocked both times by opposition from Senate Republicans representing the Southern and Appalachian states,  where “Big Lick” horse shows have historically been big business––albeit a business in steep decline in recent years.

Eight years later,  Biden administration re-introduced the 2016 rules

The USDA then,  in May 2024,  toward the end of the Joe Biden administration,  introduced almost the same new Horse Protection Act enforcement rules as were introduced in 2016.

Humane World for Animals show horse consultant Keith Dane,  working in opposition to “Big Lick” soring for decades,  was hopeful on September 3,  2024,  after the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration,  annually the biggest of the “Big Lick” shows.

“If all goes according to plan,”  Dane blogged,  “starting in February 2025,  the rule will upgrade USDA regulations to prohibit the use on Tennessee walking and racking horses at horse shows of action devices,  including chains and stacks,”  meaning “heavy high-heeled horseshoes,”  Dane explained,  “both of which are integral to the process of soring.

“These devices torment the horses”

“These devices torment the horses,”  Dane continued,  “causing the animals pain to force them to perform the high-stepping ‘Big Lick’ gait.  The rule will also end the failed,  conflict-ridden system of industry self-policing that has allowed soring to persist.

“Buoyed by the seemingly strong enforcement of the Horse Protection Act by USDA officials,”  Dane said,  “we left this spectacle with the overriding hope that this will be the last Celebration with abused walking horses on display.

“However,”  Dane warned,  “relief for these horses is not certain.  The Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration Association has filed a lawsuit asking a Texas judge to set aside the rule and bar the USDA from implementing it.

“To make matters worse,”  Dane added,  “we’ve seen some congressional interference by a small handful of elected representatives doing the bidding of those who want to keep the ‘Big Lick’––and soring––alive.”

Trump pays back favors

Donald Trump owes the same political debt in 2025 to Republican members of Congress from Southern and Appalachian states that he owed during his first term in the White House.  His agriculture secretary,  Brooke Rollins,  lost no time after Trump appointed her in ensuring that the soring-induced equine goose step will continue.

“Last month,  crucial regulations to protect horses from abuse — a decade in the making — were slated to go into effect,”  wrote Animal Welfare Institute equine program director Joanna Grossman for the Amarillo Globe-News.

“That is,  until on January 24,  2025 the USDA announced that it would postpone full implementation of the Horse Protection Act rule until April 2,  2025,  citing” the case against the rule filed in Texas by the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration Association.

Judge partially sides with goose-steppers too

“One week later,  Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas sided in part with the walking horse industry,  concluding that certain aspects of the regulations exceeded the USDA’s statutory authority.

“Importantly, though,”  Grossman wrote,  “Kacsmaryk determined that reliance on independent,  trained,  and qualified inspectors with veterinary expertise — arguably the most essential part of the regulations — is lawful and may continue.”

This is now under Congressional attack,  as Keith Dane feared it would be.

Soring show horses “persists because the government outsources inspections to the shows and competitions being regulated,”  Grossman explained.

USDA Office of the Inspector General dismantled

“This most often occurs at smaller shows, but also happens at the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration.

“In 2010,  the USDA’s Office of the Inspector General,”  now dismantled by the Trump administration,  “concluded that these industry-run inspections pose an inherent conflict of interest and fail to protect horses from abuse.  Eleven years later,”  wrote Grossman,  “the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a comprehensive report affirming the Office of the Inspector General’s findings.

“The USDA does send its own inspectors to a small portion of these events,”  Grossman continued,  “and when it does,  the difference is stark.  According to the department’s own review of 2021 and 2022 data,  for example,  industry inspectors reported an overall noncompliance rate of only about 1%.

“When USDA inspectors were on hand to inspect for evidence of soring, however, they found a 24% to 31% noncompliance rate.”

Republican Congressmen try to end-run Trump

Despite winning a partial victory from Judge Kacsmaryk,  Grossman continued,  “In recent weeks, 13 state agriculture departments urged the Trump administration to consider squashing the USDA’s anti-cruelty measures entirely.  Among the most vocal critics is Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller,  a self-described ‘horse shower’ and ‘rodeo guy,’  who called [USDA anti-soring regulations] ‘government overreach at its worst.’”

Trying to end-run Trump,  Rollins,  and the likes of Miller,  Pennsylvania Republican Member of Congress Brian Fitzpatrick,  with fellow Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrats Steve Cohen and Jan Schakowsky,  on March 14,  2025 reintroduced the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act.

Now designated HR 1684,  the PAST Act within a week attracted 191 cosponsors.

“Vile & inhumane”

“Horse soring is a vile and inhumane practice that must be prohibited,” said Fitzpatrick.

Agreed Buchanan,  “The practice of horse ‘soring’ is nothing less than animal torture.”

But Members of the House of Representatives Scott DesJarlais and John Rose,  both Tennessee Republicans,  had already tried to pre-empt HH 1684 with HR 1675,  called the Horse Protection Amendments Act.

Explained Keith Dane to ANIMALS 24-7,  “HR1675 is likely the same legislation that DesJarlais has introduced in previous Congresses at the behest of his constituents in the ‘Big Lick’ faction of the walking horse industry.

“Previous versions would have codified elements of the current failed enforcement scheme that PAST is trying to remedy––including the reliance on industry inspectors as the primary source of enforcement.

What happens meanwhile?

“However,”  Dane added,  “the USDA has announced that they are going to delay implementation of the remaining portion of the [2024 soring rule ]and open a 60-day comment period,  likely very soon,   to solicit input on whether to extend the postponement even longer.”

Meanwhile,  either the USDA or the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration could appeal Judge Kacsmaryk’s decision.

“The deadline to do that is April 1,”  Dane noted.

Goosestepping as usual

What happens meanwhile?

Announced Sarah Helming,  USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service deputy administrator for animal care,  on March 14,  2025,  “USDA will exercise its enforcement discretion with regard to violations of the scar rule as it did for the 2017 to 2023 show seasons,”  in other words exactly as it was enforced before the announcement of the 2016 rule update that Donald Trump kept from taking effect.

“I don’t think the USDA announcement indicates much of a change in enforcement from the past several years under the Biden administration,”  commented Keith Dane,  “except that the agency does not anticipate using ultrasound or thermography this season,  which I believe they were using in the recent past.  And the revised interpretation of the scar rule enforcement that was announced last year to the consternation of ‘Big Lick’ enthusiasts appears to have been removed,  with the previous interpretation restored.”

The ghost of Clant Seay

Citizens Committee Against Big Lick Animal Cruelty founder Clant Seay,  76,  died on March 6,  2023.

His demonstrations outside walking horse shows throughout both the Obama and previous Trump presidencies cut deeply into “Big Lick” show attendance and profits,  heightening public awareness of soring and increasing political pressure on Congress to enact the PAST Act.

Yet two years after Seay’s death,  sore-legged horses are still endlessly goosestepping back and forth to merry-go-round music in mostly empty arenas,  with no end to the misery in sight.

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