Michael Collins

USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

WASHINGTON – A federal regulation finalized in the waning days of the Obama administration to end the abusive practice of horse soring is on hold.

Just one week before President Barack Obama left office, the Department of Agriculture announced it had finalized a new regulation to update the Horse Protection Act. To become effective, the rule must be published in the Federal Register.

The new rule was supposed to be published Tuesday. But on President Donald Trump’s first day in office last Friday, the White House issued a memorandum for all unpublished rules to be withdrawn and sent back to the relevant agency for review.

“They pretty much put a hold on it,” said Keith Dane, senior adviser for equine protection for the Humane Society of the United States.

The horse-soring ban is one of dozens of proposed rules that have been frozen. The delay doesn’t necessarily mean the ban is dead. The Trump administration could review it and decide to move ahead, “which is what we’re hoping the administration will do,” Dane said.

But, “It’s certainly possible the administration could decide to take no action,” he said.

Neither the Agriculture Department nor the White House responded to a request for comment.

USDA announces strict changes to end soring of Tennessee walking horses

If approved, the new rule basically would end the practice of soring, which involves placing chains, caustic chemical agents or other devices on the legs and hooves of Tennessee walking horses and similar breeds.

The devices are used to inflict pain so that when the animals’ hooves touch the ground, they kick up their feet higher and faster than normal, producing an exaggerated version of their natural high-stepping gait. The practice is often used to give horses an advantage in show competitions, but animal rights groups say it is cruel and painful and constitutes abuse.

The new rule would ban much of the gear used, including chains placed around horses’ ankles during training, and tall weights, or “stacks,” attached to the front hooves.

The rule also would force inspectors to become trained and licensed through the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Right now, the horse industry is responsible for training its own inspectors in what the USDA says is a conflict of interest that leaves them with no incentive to find violations. During audits, federal inspectors consistently find more sored horses than private inspectors do.

Dane said it’s unclear why the new rule wasn’t published before Obama left office.

“We don’t really know for sure what happened,” he said. “We know at the end of the administration, as with many administrations in the past, there is an effort to get final regulations published late in the game. Whether that was the cause of the delay that prevented the rule from getting published before Obama left office or if there was some other behind-the-scenes action is really impossible for us to know.”

“Clearly the USDA wanted this rule to move forward,” Dane said. “But by the time they announced it had been finalized and the potential deadline to get it published before the new administration came in, something failed to happen.”

Groups look to Obama to end 'soring' for Tennessee Walking Horses

Trump’s pick for agriculture secretary, former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, has not yet been confirmed. “Our hope is that either he, once he is confirmed, or someone else in a position to move the rule forward will do that swiftly and that it will be published in the Federal Register and become final,” Dane said.

A bipartisan group of 41 senators and 182 House members wrote a letter to outgoing Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack late last year urging the agency to swiftly adopt the new regulations before the end of Obama's presidency.

Priscilla Presley pushing to end Tennessee Walking Horse soring

Dane said his group intends to reach out to lawmakers who support the rule and ask them to call on the Trump administration to allow the regulation to move forward.

All of the rule changes were scheduled to go into effect by Jan. 1, 2018.

Reach Michael Collins at 703-854-8927, at mcollins2@gannett.com or on Twitter at @mcollinsNEWS.