Last week a federal court judge in Tennessee, U.S. Magistrate Judge William B. Mitchell Carter, set May 31 as the trial date for a Spotted Saddle Horse trainer and two other individuals accused of violating the Horse Protection Act (HPA). The act prohibits "soring," the deliberate injury of a horse’s feet and legs to achieve a high-stepping gait.

Earlier this month a federal Grand Jury in Tennessee returned an indictment accusing Spotted Saddle Horse trainer Barney Davis, along with Christen Altman and Jeffery Bradford, of conspiring to violate the HPA by soring horses and falsifying forms and other paperwork required to exhibit animals.

According to the indictment, Davis allegedly placed bolts in horses’ feet, taped blocks to horses’ feet, and applied other soring techniques to horses prior to competition. The indictment also alleges that Davis would remove external devices prior to pre-performance HPA compliance inspections and inject horses with pain-reducing drugs to limit the animals’ reactions to inspection procedures.

The indictment further alleges that Davis and Altman used others as nominee trainers to obtain trainers’ licenses and that Davis, Altman, and Bradford falsified horse show entry forms and other documents claiming that Bradford and others were trainers of horses actually trained by Davis