SALT LAKE CITY — A West Jordan lawmaker hopes to put an end to an inhumane form of entertainment called horse-tripping.

Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan is sponsoring HB261 to raise awareness about the clandestine practice and hopefully prevent future such events.

Ivory spoke of his own love for horses, describing them as companion, service and comfort animals.

“It would probably be fair to say we wouldn’t have settled the west without the help and aid of horses,” Ivory said. “And yet we have something that is not part of our tradition that is now coming into the U.S.” referring to a non-rodeo event called horse-tripping that results in grave damage or death to the animal.

“It’s an event where they get horses at full speed and rope their legs and take them down,” Ivory said.

HIs bill defines horse-tripping as “for the purpose of entertainment, sport or contest.”

West Jordan resident Taylor Brady said that he became aware of the practice about a year ago.

“Horse-tripping actually does occur in the U.S.,” Brady said, noting that part of the process involves taking the horse down. Such events became popular in Oregon, he said, eventually spurring legislation there. California passed its anti-horse-tripping law in 1995, Brady said, to curtail horse-tripping.

Lyle Barbour, a Salt Lake Valley veterinarian, spoke of the damage that occurs in horse-tripping.

“What we’re discussing here are unregulated, unsanctioned acts or equine activities that cause these egregious rolls, tumbles and external trauma to these horses,” Barbour said, citing neck and head trauma, soft tissue injury, joint damage, arthritis, chronic lameness along with fractured bones that end with the euthanasia of the animal.

Gari Lafferty, chairwoman for the Paiute Tribe, spoke in support of HB261.

“I don’t see anything good with (horse-tripping). Horses have played a big part in our history,” Lafferty said, likening the practice to dog-fighting and cock-fighting. “There’s a lot of entertainment in our world this day that’s evil and wrong, but it’s accepted. Nevertheless it’s wrong.”

Sterling Brown, vice-president of the Utah Farm Bureau, spoke against the practice but said the bill made him jumpy..

“Potentially we’re putting something on the books that down the road can open the door even slightly to something that none of us intend today,” Brown said. “Are we using a sledgehammer to drive a ten-penny nail here?”

Richard Johnson, a retired Brigham Young University sociologist, spoke in support of the bill.

“I cannot imagine taking my kids to an event where a horse is running along and has its legs tripped out from under them, and having them ask if I knew that was going to happen and why didn’t I do something to stop it,” Johnson said. “Empathy is important for society and empathy is not going to be allowed to exist in people when they gain their entertainment out of watching another living thing be poorly treated.”

Ivory’s bill will require the state’s Agricultural Advisory Board to monitor equine events, and report back to the Legislature’s Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee this fall.

HB261 advanced out of the House Natural Reources committee Monday with approval from all 13 members, and HB261 now heads to the House for full consideration.

More information on horse-tripping can be found online at http://www.horsefund.org/horse-tripping-fact-sheet.php

Contact reporter Cathy McKitrick at 801-625-4214 or cmckitrick@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @catmck.