Release of Liability Owner Rider - Horse Equine Forms
Sec. 1.
Short title.
This Act may be cited as the Equine Activity Liability Act. (Source:
P.A. 89-111, eff. 7-7-95.) (745 ILCS 47/5)
Sec. 5.
Purposes.
The General Assembly recognizes that persons who participate in
equine activities may incur injuries as a result of the risks involved
in those activities. The General Assembly also finds that the State and
its citizens derive numerous economic and personal benefits from equine
activities. Therefore, it is the intent of the General Assembly to encourage
equine activities by delineating the responsibilities of those involved
in equine activities.
(Source: P.A. 89-111, eff. 7-7-95.)
Sec. 10.
Definitions.
As used in this Act:
(a) "Engages in an equine activity" means riding, training, assisting
in medical treatment of, driving, or being a passenger upon an equine,
whether mounted or unmounted, or assisting a participant. The term "engages
in an equine activity" does not include being a spectator at an equine
activity, except in cases where the spectator places himself in an unauthorized
area and in immediate proximity to the equine activity.
(b) "Equine" means a horse, pony, mule, donkey, or hinny.
(c) "Equine activity" means:
(1) Equine shows, fairs, competitions, performances, or
parades that involve any or all breeds of equines and any of the equine
disciplines, including, but not limited to, dressage, hunter and jumper
horse shows, grand prix jumping, 3 day events, combined training, rodeos,
driving, pulling, cutting, polo, steeplechasing, English and western performance
riding, endurance trail riding and western games, and hunting.
(2) Equine training activities, teaching activities, or both.
(3) Boarding equines.
(4) Riding, inspecting, or evaluating an equine belonging to another,
whether or not the owner has received some monetary consideration or other
thing of value for the use of the equine or is permitting a prospective
purchaser of the equine to ride, inspect, or evaluate the equine.
(5) Rides, trips, hunts, or other equine activities of any type
however informal or impromptu that are sponsored by an equine activity
sponsor.
(6) Placing or replacing horseshoes on an equine.
(d) "Equine activity sponsor" means an individual, group, club, partnership,
or corporation, whether or not the sponsor is operating for profit or nonprofit,
that sponsors, organizes, or provides the facilities for an equine activity,
including, but not limited to, pony clubs, 4-H clubs, hunt clubs, riding
clubs, school and college sponsored classes, programs and activities, therapeutic
riding programs, and operators, instructors, and promoters of equine facilities,
including, but not limited to, stables, clubhouses, pony ride strings,
fairs, and arenas at which the activity is held.
(e) "Equine professional" means a person engaged for compensation
(i) in instructing a participant or renting to a participant
an equine for the purpose of riding, driving, or being a passenger upon
the equine, or
(ii) in renting equipment or tack to a participant.
(f) "Risks of engaging in equine activities" means those dangers of
conditions that are an integral part of equine activities, including, but
not limited to:
(1) The propensity of an equine to behave in ways that
may result in injury, harm, or death to persons on or around them.
(2) The unpredictability of an equine's reaction to sounds, sudden
movement, and unfamiliar objects, persons, other animals, or other things.
(3) Certain hazards such as surface and subsurface conditions.
(4) Collisions with other equines or objects.
(5) The potential of a participant to act in a negligent manner
that may contribute to injury to the participant or others, such as failing
to maintain control over the animal or not acting within his or her ability.
(g) "Participant" means any person, whether amateur or professional,
who engages in an equine activity, whether or not a fee is paid to participate
in the equine activity.
(Source: P.A. 89-111, eff. 7-7-95.)
Sec. 15.
Participant's responsibility.
It is recognized that equine activities are hazardous to participants,
regardless of all feasible safety measures that can be taken.
Each participant who engages in an equine activity expressly assumes
the risk of and legal responsibility for injury, loss, or damage to the
participant or the participant's property that results from participating
in an equine activity, except in specific situations as set forth in Section
20, when the equine activity sponsor or equine professional may be held
responsible. Each participant shall have sole individual responsibility
for knowing the range of his or her own ability to manage, care for, and
control a particular horse or perform a particular equine activity, and
it shall be the duty of each participant to act within the limits of the
participant's own ability, to maintain reasonable control of the particular
horse or horses at all times while participating in an equine activity,
to heed all posted warnings, to perform equine activities only in an area
or in facilities designated by the horseman, and to refrain from acting
in a manner that may cause or contribute to the injury of anyone.
Each participant, or parent or guardian of a minor participant,
may execute a release assuming responsibility for the risks of engaging
in equine activities. The release shall give notice to the participant,
or parent or guardian, of the risks of engaging in equine activities, including
(i) the propensity of an equine to behave in dangerous ways that may result
in injury to the participant, (ii) the inability to predict an equine's
reaction to sound, movements, objects, persons, or animals, and (iii) the
hazards of surface or subsurface conditions. A release shall remain valid
until expressly revoked by the participant or, if a minor, the parent or
guardian.
(Source: P.A. 89-111, eff. 7-7-95.)
Sec. 20.
Exceptions.
(a) This Act shall not apply to the horse racing industry as regulated
in the Illinois Horse Racing Act of 1975.
(b) Except as provided in Section 15, nothing in this Act shall
prevent or limit the liability of an equine activity sponsor, an equine
professional, or any other person if the equine activity sponsor, equine
professional, or person:
(1) Provided the equipment or tack, and knew or should
have known that the equipment or tack was faulty, and the equipment or
tack was faulty to the extent that it caused the injury.
(2) Provided the equine and failed to make reasonable and prudent
efforts to determine the ability of the participant to engage safely in
the equine activity and determine the ability of the participant to manage
safely the particular equine based on the participant's representations
of his or her ability.
(3) Owns, leases, rents, or otherwise is in lawful possession and
control of the land or facilities upon which the participant sustained
injuries because of a dangerous latent condition that was known to the
equine activity sponsor, equine professional, or person and for which warning
signs were not conspicuously posted.
(4) Commits an act or omission that constitutes willful or wanton
disregard for the safety of the participant, and that act or omission caused
the injury.
(5) Intentionally injures the participant.
(c) Nothing in this Act shall prevent or limit the liability of an
equine activity sponsor or an equine professional:
(1) Under liability provisions as set forth in the products
liability laws.
(2) Under liability provisions in the Fence Act.
(Source: P.A. 89-111, eff. 7-7-95.)
Sec. 25.
Warning.
(a) Every equine professional shall post and maintain signs that
contain the warning notice specified in subsection (b) of this Section.
Signs shall be placed in a clearly visible location on or near stables,
corrals, or arenas where the equine professional conducts equine activities
if the stables, corrals, or arenas are owned, managed, or controlled by
the equine professional. The warning notice specified in subsection (b)
shall appear on the sign in black letters, with each letter to be a minimum
of one inch in height. Every written contract entered into by an equine
professional or the providing of professional services, instruction, or
the rental of equipment or tack or an equine to a participant, whether
or not the contract involves equine activities on or off the location or
site of the equine professional's business, shall contain in clearly readable
print the warning notice specified in subsection (b).
(b) The signs and contracts described in subsection (a) shall contain
the following warning notice:
WARNING
Under the Equine Activity Liability Act, each participant who
engages in an equine activity expressly assumes the risks of engaging in
and legal responsibility for injury, loss, or damage to person or property
resulting from the risk of equine activities.
(Source: P.A. 89-111, eff. 7-7-95.)
