Common Problems with Horse Show and Clinic Liability Releases

Having a liability release form for your clinic, horse show or other equine event is an essential step to protect your organization from unintended consequences. As horse show exhibitors, we’ve noticed most equine events have woefully inadequate liability releases that won’t protect them from lawsuits — at all. Here are the most common problems.

Problem No. 1: The Release Is Written in Legalese

Liability releases are legal documents, so they’re supposed to be written in legalese, right? WRONG! Whether an equine event liability release is enforceable hinges on whether the person signing the release understood and assumed the risks of participating in the event. Most equine event liability releases flunk the understandability test — you can’t read the waiver and understand the risks of participating in the event. For example, a good liability release form for a jumping clinic would not simply say, “Jumping is dangerous.” Instead, it would describe the specific risks of jumping, such as the fact that the person signing the release and their horse could be injured or killed if their horse refuses to jump.

Problem No. 2: The Release Is Designed for Brevity, Not Enforceability

Many horse shows and clinics include a liability release paragraph on the entry form. The paragraph is short and often in small type. The event organizer’s highest priority is usually to fit all the event information onto the fewest number of pages, not to make sure the release is enforceable. More often than not, the release will not contain enough detail to be enforceable. Additionally, courts might refuse to enforce a release that is very small typeface (say, smaller than 10 point) or one that’s inconspicuous, such as on the back of an entry form or tucked into a big show premium book.

Problem No. 3: The Right Parties Don’t Sign the Release

You can only waive your own legal rights. Therefore, anyone who hasn’t signed a liability release can sue you. Even if the exhibitors have signed liability releases, the spectators usually haven’t, and neither have the exhibitors’ trainers, parents and friends.

Problem No. 4: The Release Is Borrowed

The fact that another organization, or even a major industry association, uses a particular liability release form or has provided a release form for you doesn’t mean it’s enforceable or will work for your event. Most of the form liability releases out there for shows and clinics have been used year after year, even though they’re probably unenforceable.

Problem No. 5: The Release Doesn’t Name the Right Parties

It doesn’t do any good to have a liability release if it doesn’t release the right parties. For example, if an industry association provides a liability release for a horse show, but the release names only the association and not the organization putting on the horse show, the release won’t protect the organization. Period. The liability release also needs to name everyone who could be sued in connection with the event. For example, if the release names the organization putting on the show but not the volunteers helping out at the show, the volunteers could still be sued.