To the Members of the New York State Horse Council and other friends:

Yesterday I came across a news article that brought me great happiness and sorrow at the same time. The title of the article was “Local horse industry welcomes new equine liability legislation”. I quickly read the article with the hope that this would somehow be about New York, but that would have meant that my feelings would only be of happiness. Instead it was about the fact that Pennsylvania has finally passed its legislation and Governor Rendell had signed it. Therefore, great happiness for our neighbors in PA who have been working as hard and as long as we have to pass this legislation and sorrow that we in New York continue to be stymied.

Having worked on Inherent Risk (the more common name for equine liability legislation) in New York for many years, the first bill was introduced over 13 years ago, I was sure that the above article was not about New York. However, the problems that are described in the article (written by Gretchen Metz) are as valid here as they are in PA. Comments such as:

1. Pennsylvania is one of the last states to get a law like this (with the enactment of the PA law there are 46 states with inherent laws or something comparable enacted). New York is one of the remaining 4. As one member of the Horse Council Board said, we will wait until New York is the only one without and the Legislature will celebrate its tenacity.

2. "I think we’re over-sued," a farm owner said. "This should slow it down a bit."

3. "Some horse farms have stopped offering lessons, trail rides and hosting shows because they feared one accident involving an animal could result in a lawsuit that would bankrupt their operation,"

4. That was particularly unfortunate because the equine industry is one of the fastest-growing segments of Pennsylvania agriculture, he said. (New York also. We are rapidly becoming the largest animal commodity in the state.)

5. The new law will provide immunity to equine operations from liability for injuries to adult patrons that may result from their customary participation in equine activities.

6. The law should result in more available and affordable liability insurance for horse farms and riding stables, as well as open up the industry for more services, such as trail rides and riding lessons.

7. It had unanimously passed the state Senate and passed the House with a 195-to-1 vote. All of Chester County’s lawmakers supported the measure. "It made sense for the horse industry."

The last item is particularly telling when we look at what has been happening here in New York. As I said above the bill has been introduced continually for over 13 years that I know of. I have personally worked on the bill since I joined the Horse Council Board in 1996. During that period of time, the Senate has always embraced the bill and in most years has passed the bill. The Assembly however is another story. In those years that we could get a sponsor for the bill and have it introduced it has been buried in the Judiciary Committee. Why the Judiciary Committee and not the Agricultural Committee where it belongs – weellll it goes like this. The Judiciary Committee is that committee used by the Assembly leadership as a holding (read dumping) ground for bills that should not see the light of day. Although there is a chair for the Judiciary Committee, the person who determines which bills will wend their way through the Judiciary Committee is Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Having personally spoken to every member of this committee over the years, I can say that they have two characteristics in common. The first is that they all claim to have either ridden, loved or wanted a horse when they were young. The second is that they are lawyers from the city and its closest suburbs. The first is interesting because they always tell us how interested they are in our business. The second because they are lawyers (for the most part ex-trial lawyers) who do not believe in crossing one of the strongest lobby groups in the state (The Trial Lawyers’ Association).

Just for the record – this is the organization most opposed to the passage of Inherent Risk in New York State. They are in fact the only organization that has opposed it in any way. Realizing this we (the Horse Council Board) approached the TLA in 2000 with an attempt to see if we could craft a bill that would be acceptable to both organizations. After spending most of a day with the TLA negotiators, we had gone through every phrase and clause and the TLA had rejected all of them. We even proposed a law as bland as Connecticut’s and they rejected that. Their final comment to us was that they did not think it was possible that any verbiage could be constructed that they would support. This information was of course passed on to Speaker Silver and we went back to square one.

So what should we do? First of all, do not give up hope. Pennsylvania had a tremendous problem getting theirs past first base. But now they have hit the home run. We (The Horse Council and The Farm Bureau) will work to get it introduced again this year and we will work to get it passed again. We will work closely with Senator Young and Assemblyman Magee the chairs of the two Agriculture Committees to develop new approaches to the problem. And we will continue to work with the Executive Branch to see if pressure can be exerted from that direction.

The last thing we will do is depend upon each and every one of you to do your part in contacting your local Senator and Assemblyperson and make sure they truly understand where we stand on this subject. One of the most telling comments on this came from Assemblyman Magee a couple of years ago when he said that “every time he tried to broach this with his colleagues they told him that there was no local interest in this in the assemblyperson’s district.” If you do not talk to your local assemblyperson and senator then they will never support you. This is especially important in those bastions of Democratic assemblypersons in and around our larger cities. It is these people who can help us advance this agenda.


George