Release of Liability Owner Rider - Horse Equine Forms
60-4001
Definitions. As used in this act:
(a) "Engages in a domestic animal activity" means riding,
training, boarding, loading, hauling, breeding, racing, providing or assisting
in medical treatment of, driving, or being a passenger upon a domestic
animal or in or on a vehicle pulled or pushed by a domestic animal, whether
mounted or unmounted or any person assisting a participant or show management.
The term "engages in an activity involving domestic animals" does not include
being a spectator at an activity involving domestic animals, except in
cases where the spectator places the spectator's self in an unauthorized
area and in immediate proximity to the activity involving domestic animals.
(b) "Domestic animal" means a cow, swine, sheep, goat,
domesticated deer, llama, poultry, rabbit, horse, pony, mule, jenny, donkey
or hinny.
(c) "Domestic animal activity" means, but is not limited
to:
(1) Shows, fairs, competitions, performances
or parades that involve any or all breeds of domestic animals and any of
the equine disciplines, including, but not limited to, dressage, hunter
and jumper horse shows, grand prix jumping, three-day events, combined
training, rodeos, driving, pulling, cutting, polo, steeple chasing, English
and western performance riding, trail riding, endurance trail riding and
western games, and hunting;
(2) domestic animal training or teaching activities
or both;
(3) boarding domestic animals;
(4) riding, inspecting or evaluating domestic animals
belonging to another, whether or not the owner has received some monetary
consideration or other thing of value for the use of the domestic animals
or is permitting a prospective purchaser of the domestic animals to ride,
inspect or evaluate the domestic animals;
(5) rides, trips, hunts or other domestic animal activities
of any type however informal or impromptu that are sponsored by a domestic
animal activity sponsor; and
(6) hoofcare and placing or replacing shoes on a domestic
animal.
(d) "Domestic animal activity sponsor" means an individual,
group, club, partnership or corporation, whether or not the sponsor is
operating for profit or nonprofit, which sponsors, organizes or provides
the facilities for, a domestic animal activity, including but not limited
to: Pony clubs, 4-H clubs, hunt clubs, riding clubs, trail rides, racetrack,
school and college-sponsored classes, programs and activities, therapeutic
riding programs, breeding farms, training farms and operators, instructors,
and promoters of domestic animal facilities, including, but not limited
to, stables, clubhouses, pony ride strings, fairs and arenas at which the
activity is held.
(e) "Domestic animal professional" means an individual,
partnership or corporation and such individual or entities' employees engaged
in a domestic animal activity for compensation:
(1) In instructing a participant or renting
to a participant a domestic animal for the purpose of riding, driving or
being a passenger upon the domestic animal, or a passenger in or on a vehicle
pulled or pushed by a domestic animal; or
(2) in renting equipment or tack to a participant.
(f) "Inherent risks of domestic animal activities" means
those dangers or conditions which are an integral part of domestic animal
activities, including, but not limited to:
(1) The propensity of a domestic animal to
run, buck, bite, shy, stumble, rear, fall, step on or behave in ways that
may result in injury, harm or death to persons on or around them;
(2) the unpredictability of a domestic animal's reaction
to such things as sounds, sudden movement and unfamiliar objects, persons
or other animals;
(3) certain hazards such as surface and subsurface conditions;
(4) collisions with other domestic animals or objects;
and
(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 such
participant's ability.
(g) "Participant" means any person who engages in a domestic
animal activity.
60-4002
Affirmative defense of assumption of risk.
Except as provided in K.S.A. 60-4003, any participant is assuming
the inherent risks of domestic animal activities when such participant
engages in a domestic animal activity. The domestic animal activity sponsor
or domestic animal professional, pursuant to K.S.A. 60-208, and amendments
thereto, shall plead an affirmative defense of assumption of risk by the
participant.
60-4003
Same; limitations.
(a) Nothing in K.S.A. 60-4002 shall prevent or limit the liability
of a domestic animal activity sponsor, a domestic animal professional or
any other person if the domestic animal activity sponsor, domestic animal
professional or person:
(1) (A) Provided the equipment or tack, which
was faulty, and such equipment or tack was faulty to the
extent that it did cause the injury; or
(B) provided the domestic animal and failed to make
a reasonable effort to determine the ability of the
participant to manage the particular domestic animal based on the
participant's representations of such
participant's ability;
(2) 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 condition which was known to the domestic
animal activity sponsor, domestic animal professional or person and not
made known to the participant;
(3) commits an act or omission that falls below the
standard of care of a reasonable domestic animal
activity sponsor, domestic animal professional or other person
engaged in domestic animal activities in the same locality; or
(4) injures the participant by willful, wanton or intentional
conduct.
(b) Nothing in K.S.A. 60-4002 shall prevent or limit the
liability of a domestic animal activity sponsor or a
domestic animal professional under liability provisions set forth
in the products liability laws or under liability
provisions of article 4 of chapter 29 of the Kansas Statutes Annotated,
and amendments thereto.
60-4004
Posting warning notices, specifications; contract language requirements.
(a) Every domestic animal professional shall post and maintain
signs which contain the warning notice specified in subsection (b). Such
signs shall be placed in a clearly visible location on or near stables,
corrals, boarding areas, or arenas where the professional conducts domestic
animal activities if such stables, corrals, boarding areas 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 a domestic animal professional for the providing of professional
services, instruction or the rental of equipment or tack or a domestic
animal to a participant, whether or not the contract involves domestic
animal activities on or off the location or site of the domestic animal
professional's business, shall contain in clearly readable print the warning
notice and language specified in subsections (b) and (c).
(b) The signs and contracts described in subsection
(a) shall contain the following warning notice:
WARNING
Under Kansas law, there is no liability for an injury to or the
death of a participant in domestic animal activities resulting from the
inherent risks of domestic animal activities, pursuant to K.S.A. 60-4001
through 60-4004. You are assuming the risk of participating in this domestic
animal activity.
(c) The contracts described in subsection (a) shall
contain the following language:
Inherent risks of domestic animal activities include, but shall
not be limited to:
(1) The propensity of a domestic animal to
behave in ways i.e., running, bucking, biting, kicking, shying, stumbling,
rearing, falling or stepping on, that may result in an injury, harm or
death to persons on or around them;
(2) the unpredictability of a domestic animal's reaction
to such things as sounds, sudden movement and unfamiliar objects, persons
or other animals;
(3) certain hazards such as surface and subsurface conditions;
(4) collisions with other domestic animals or objects;
and
(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 domestic animal or not acting within
such participant's ability.
