Sable Oak Equestrian Center

09/25/2026

A INTERESTING READ-
Not sure if this is true?
🚨UPDATE USDA - today updated the press release below and removed Horse Protection Act “ and “horse” as companion and any mention of horses to the press release see latest post! We the public DEMAND answers!! 🚨

🚨🐴 A HUGE STEP FOR AMERICA’S HORSES 🇺🇸❤️

A heartfelt THANK YOU to Lara Trump, Secretary Brooke Rollins and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for helping bring animal welfare to the forefront.

This week’s USDA Strikeforce Roundtable brought federal agencies and animal-welfare leaders together to strengthen protection, enforcement and the connection between animal health and human health.

Most importantly for us:

🐴 USDA explicitly included HORSES alongside dogs and other companion animals in its strengthened animal-welfare efforts.

The official USDA release refers to strengthening:

“dog, horse and fellow companion animal welfare.”

For years, we have said horses are companions — not food. Seeing horses included in this new companion-animal welfare effort is an important step toward the protection America’s horses deserve.

USDA has also deployed a new Animal Protection Bureau supporting enforcement of both the Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act.

Now we must continue this momentum and ensure horses still moving through the slaughter pipeline receive the protection they deserve.

🐴 HORSES ARE COMPANIONS.
HORSES DESERVE PROTECTION.

📌 Read the official USDA release:
“USDA Announces Actions Marking New Era of Companion Animal Welfare” — September 21, 2026

Full Press Release :
👉 : https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2026/09/21/usda-announces-actions-marking-new-era-companion-animal-welfare

P.S. An important clarification: This announcement does not mean horses have suddenly been legally reclassified from livestock to pets. That would require a much broader regulatory and legislative process across the relevant federal programs.

What IS significant is the language USDA chose: for the first time in this new initiative, horses are being explicitly included in the conversation around “dog, horse and fellow companion animal welfare.” 🐴❤️

Horses may still fall under livestock regulations in certain federal programs, but USDA is now publicly recognizing their place within this new companion-animal welfare effort.

That distinction matters — and we believe it is a very important step forward for the protection of America’s horses. 🇺🇸🐴

09/21/2026

Little bit before 7:30 and everything is packed up and I'm about to hit the road. Lots of reflections, but I'm going to just leave this one here for now:
Holy freaking world class officials! Three decades plus doing this and I've worked with a lot of people in a lot of states. There's always something good. You can say about someone.
But that is not what this is. We had a world class saddle horse judge was just as good at the stock horses. We had a world class ranch/stock Judge who was just as good at the saddle horses. Then in the trail Ring, we certainly had an ace doing ranch trail.
Judge Ricky Harris. Judge Jennifer Sawyer. Judge Robert McDonald. Don't think I can top that? We had a world class AQHA Judge acting as our Ring Steward! A lot more on the show tomorrow… But our exhibitors were very lucky to experience these people… Our staff was very lucky to work with these people… And I was damn lucky that all these people said yes to coming to Skowhegan. Gratitude is an understatement. ❤️ and of course… Our exhibitors know how grateful I am for them being patient when viruses hit our computers this weekend. 

09/18/2026

🤠🥇🏆

Some riders seem to know exactly when to ask, when to wait, when to correct, and when to leave a horse alone. They make difficult patterns look simple. They quietly reorganize a nervous horse before anyone else notices something is going wrong. They pick up the correct diagonal without looking, guid...

09/14/2026

The Maine Event Championship Show- Skowhegan Fairgrounds,Skowhegan, Maine 🏆🥇

09/14/2026

CONGRATULATIONS TO PInkham Performance Horses!