Recent Legislative Information

The Virginia Horse Council (VHC) condemns the use of any procedure, device, or substance intentionally used to cause pain, discomfort, or irritation in order to force a horse to move or perform in an exaggerated manner. To this end, the Virginia Horse Council supports the spirit of the Horse Protection Act (HPA), but has significant concerns about the apparent overreach of regulations into areas and disciplines to which soring does not apply. We feel this overreach will be significantly detrimental to the horse industry.  The VHC will continue to work with other representative organizations to ensure that the regulations are not implemented as currently written.