SYNOPSIS: AN ACT defining the responsibility of individuals engaged in equine activities.

TEXT: Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

24:1 Statement of Intent.

I. The general court finds that equine activities are important to the economy and culture of the state. The general court also recognizes that equines are prone to behave in ways that may result in injury, harm, or death to persons involved in equine activities, and so finds that the responsibilities of sponsors and professionals should be distinguished between those of the participants for purpose of determining liability for injuries suffered from those activities.

II. It is the intent of the general court that no person shall be liable for damages sustained by another solely as a result of risk inherent in equine activity insofar as those risks are inherent to the equine activity and obvious to the person injured.

III. It is the intent of the general court that a person responsible for equines, or responsible for those engaged in equine activity, whose negligence approximately causes injury to a person engaged in those activities, is liable for that injury in accordance with other applicable law.

24:2 New Section: Liability; Equine Activities. Amend RSA 508 by inserting after section 18 the following new section:

508:19 Liability; Equine Activities.

I. In this section:

(a) "Engages in equine activity" means rises or drives an equine; or assists in medical treatment of an equine; or is a passenger upon an equine; or is a passenger in a vehicle drawn by an equine; or who is evolved in event management. The term "engages in equine activity" does not include being a spectator at an unauthorized area and in immediate proximity to the equine activity.

(b) "Equine" means a horse, pony, mule, donkey, or hinny.

(c) "Equine activity" means:

(1) Equine shows, fairs, competitions, performances, or parades that involve any or all breeds of equines and any of the equine disciplines, including, but not limited to, dressage, hunter and jumper horse shows, grand prix jumping, 3-day events, combined training, rodeos, diving, pulling, cutting, polo, steeple chasing, hunting, english and western performance riding endurance riding, games, and eventing.

(2) Equine training or teaching activities.

(3) Boarding equines.

(4) Riding, inspecting, or evaluating an equine belonging to another, whether or not the owner has received some monetary consideration or other thing of value for the use of the equine or is permitting a prospective purchaser of the equine to ride, inspect, or evaluate the equine.

(5) Rides, trips, hunts, fields trials, or other equine activities of any type, however informal or impromptu, that are sponsored by an equine activity sponsor.

(6) Placing or replacing shoes on an equine.

(d) "Equine activity sponsor" means an individual, group, club, partnership or corporation, whether or not the sponsor is operating for profit or not for profit, which sponsors, organizes, or provides for, equine activities, including, but not limited, to pony clubs, 4-H clubs, field trail clubs, hunt clubs, riding clubs, school and college sponsored classes, programs and activities, therapeutic riding programs, stables, clubhouses, pony ride strings, fairs, and arenas at which the activity is held.

(e) "Equine professional" means a person engaged for compensation:

(1) In instructing a participant or renting to a participant an equine for the purpose of riding, driving, or being a passenger upon the equine.

(2) In renting equipment or tack to a participant.

(3) In providing daily care of horses boarded at an equine facility.

(4) In training an equine.

(f) "Inherent risks of equine activities" means those dangers and conditions which are an integral part of equine activities, including, but not limited to:

(1) The propensity of an equine to behave in ways that may result in injury, harm, or death to persons on or around them.

(2) The unpredictability of an equine’s reaction to such things as sounds, sudden movement, and unfamiliar objects, persons, or other animals.

(3) Certain hazards such as surface and subsurface conditions not obvious to the equine participant or not known and reasonably not known by the equine professional or sponsor.

(4) Collisions with other equines or objects that can be reasonably foreseen as a result of normal equine activities.

(5) The potential to injury of the participant to act in a negligent manner that may contribute to injury of a participant or others, such as failing to maintain control over the animal or not acting within the participant’s ability; except where said negligence can be reasonably foreseen and the equine professional or sponsor has failed to take any corrective measures.

(g) "Participant" means any person, whether amateur or professional, who engages in an equine activity, whether or not a fee is paid to participate in the equine activity.

II. Except as provided in paragraph III of this section, an equine activity sponsor, an equine professional, or any other person engaged in an equine activity, shall not be liable for an injury or the death of a participant resulting from the inherent risks of an equine activities and, except as provided in paragraph III of this section, no participant’s representative shall make any claim against , maintain an action against, or recover from any other person for injury loss, damage, or death of a participant resulting from ant of the inherent risks of equine activities. Each participant in an equine activity expressly assumes the risk and or legal responsibly for any injury, loss or damage to person or property which results from participation in an equine activity. Each participant shall have the sole responsibility for knowing the range of his or her ability to manage, care for, and control a particular horse or perform a particular equine activity, and shall be the duty of each participant to act within the limits of the participant’s own ability, to maintain reasonable control f the particular horse at all times while participating in an equine activity, to heed all posted warnings, and to refrain from acting in a manner which may cause or contribute to the injury of any person.

III. Nothing in paragraph II of this section shall prevent or limit the liability of an equine activity sponsor, an equine professional, or any other person engaged in an equine activity, if the equine activity sponsor, equine professional, or person:

(a) Provided the equipment or tack, and knew or should have known that the equipment or tack was faulty, and such equipment or tack was faulty to the extent that it did cause the injury or

(b) Provided the equine and failed to make reasonable and prudent efforts to determine the ability of the participant to engage safely in the equine activity.

(c) Owns, leases, rents, or otherwise is in lawful possession and control of the land or facilities upon which the participant sustained injuries because of a dangerous latent condition which was known to the equine activity sponsor, equine professional, or person and for which warning signs have not been conspicuously posted.

(d) Commits an act or omission that contributes willful or wanton disregard for the safety of the participant, and that act or omission caused the injury.

(e) Intentionally injure the participant.

24:3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect January 1, 1999.