We’ve seen a lot of myths and confusion floating around social media in recent months when it comes suspended persons. You may be wondering what someone can and can’t do when on suspension, or you may have even seen posts suggesting that we instruct suspended people on how to continue operating their businesses while on suspension.  

Most of the time, people who are serving suspensions abide by the restrictions in our rulebook, and many who take a misstep do so because they've misunderstood the rules. US Equestrian will not instruct someone on how to handle their businesses during suspension, but we do encourage people to ask our Regulations or Legal Department questions to verify that their plans for their business aren’t going to run afoul of the rules. We want to help people remain in compliance with the rules to keep the playing field as level as possible for everyone. 

Someone who has been suspended may not take part in competitions licensed or endorsed by US Equestrian during their suspension, and are excluded from competition grounds in any capacity during those competitions. GR704 lays out the ways in which suspended people are restricted during their suspension.  

If the suspended person owns horses, those horses are also suspended for the applicable timeframe. An exception exists for sales or leases that are documented and legitimately took place before the start of the suspension, but the new owner or lessee must request relief for the horse from the Hearing Committee and be prepared to show the horse wasn’t temporarily transferred to duck the suspension. You can find out more about how this works here. 

A suspended trainer cannot be on the showgrounds, which means they cannot train, give lessons, or spectate there. As a result, their clients must make other plans and transfer the horses to another trainer if they want to compete during the suspension. A suspended person’s spouse or companion (who co-habits with them) may not take over training duties for the suspended person. 

Someone who is considering taking over a suspended trainer’s barn should be aware of the finer points of GR704. If someone takes over a suspended person’s training operation, that arrangement cannot give the appearance that the suspended person is benefitting – financially or in credit or reputation – from the situation. 

For example, that means whoever takes over for a suspended trainer must have: 

• Separate bank accounts from the suspended person, from which they pay the business’s bills – including feed, vanning, show entries, etc. 

• No financial relationship in terms of payments or kickbacks to the suspended trainer 

• No affiliation with loans or credit from the suspended person or business entities tied to them 

• A billing system set up wherein they bill the clients directly 

• Contracts directly with clients that are independent of the suspended trainer 

• Employee records for their time training, including tax withholding and payment records for those employees 

• Tax records from the time they operated this business 

 

The rule isn’t intended to capture every possible circumstance that could lead to a suspended trainer receiving benefit from the person who has taken over for them. You can learn more about what is and isn’t permitted under suspensions from this FAQ. 

The result should be that while a suspended trainer sits out, their clients can continue learning and training at sanctioned events without benefiting the suspended person in a way that relates to sanctioned competition. The suspended person may not video conference into lessons given in the warm-up ring; their branding shouldn't be showing up on stall drapes and vans at the show, and they cannot be getting financial, promotional, or other credit for their clients’ performance while they’re on suspension. Suspended trainers must truly be taking the time required by the suspension.  

With that in mind, if you become aware of a situation that doesn’t align with GR704 or the resources linked above, we encourage you to let us know by emailing documentation to us at [email protected].  

There are two important things to keep in mind if you make a report about someone you believe is violating their suspension. First, while we can ask people to make their books, records, and other evidence available to us as part of our investigation into your report, we do not have subpoena power. Sometimes the documents show a different arrangement than the reporter expected. Second, our investigations rely heavily on documentation and witnesses who are willing to participate through the entire process. We cannot make a case on undocumented information that “everybody knows.”