JUST days into the Trump administration, rules to end the abusive practice of horse soring in America have been put on hold.

The last days of Obama’s rule finalised a federal regulation which would have ended horse soring – an equine welfare issue that has brought the Tennessee Walking Horse community into disrepute.

The US Department of Agriculture had finalised the new regulations to update the Horse Protection Act but to become effective, the rule must be published in the Federal Register, due to be published last Tuesday.

However on Donald Trump’s first day in office last weekend, the White House issued a memorandum for all unpublished rules to be withdrawn and sent back to the relevant agency for review.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,” commented Keith Dane, senior adviser for equine protection for the Humane Society of the United States.

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,” added Dane.

The new rule would end the practice of soring, which involves placing chains, caustic chemical agents or other devices on the legs and hooves of the Tennessee Walking Horses and similar breeds.

The devices inflict pain so that when the animals’ hooves touch the ground, they pick up their feet much higher and faster than normal, producing an exaggerated version of their natural high-stepping gait. The practice is condemned by animal rights groups as cruel, painful and abusive to horses.

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

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 January 1st 2018.