10/23/2025
Are service horses legal?
There is nothing stopping anyone from training a pet, no matter what species, to perform helpful tasks. But what if they then want to bring that pet into a grocery store or Doctors Office?
You can do that, but only under very specific circumstances. And yes, the TLDR is that horses are completely legal as service animals and have full access rights in the United States.
Federal law protects the rights of handlers with service horses and service dogs. That doesn’t mean just any horse though. So what makes a service horse a service horse?
The horse must stand 34 inches tall or shorter. Typically, much smaller horses are used as this is an impractically large size for many situations.
The horse must be completely housebroken. The use of diapers is not acceptable.
The horse must perform at least one task that mitigates a handlers‘ disability. These are actionable things, such as helping someone to balance, guiding a blind handler, and alerting to oncoming medical episodes. These are tasks that are specifically trained. Providing emotional comfort does not count as a task, as it is something an animal does automatically and is not trained to do.
A service horse is allowed anywhere the public is allowed with a few exceptions. The horse must not alter the inherent nature of a service or pose a risk. For instance, a petting zoo could turn away a service horse because of the risk of direct contact with its animals.
Service animals do not have access rights to food prep areas, but do have a right to be in any other part of a restaurant. By in laarge, there are very few circumstances in which a service animal can be turned away on principal.
How do I know if it’s a real service animal?
If someone enters your business with a service horse or dog, you are legally only allowed to ask them two questions.
Is that a service animal required for a disability?
What work or tasks has the Animal been trained to perform?
You cannot ask a person for their diagnosis or medical history, ask that the animal demonstrate a task, or ask to see licensure or certification.
There is no legal requirement that service animals be certified. There are many websites that allow you to purchase certificates for a service animal, and each and every one of them is a scam. There are no requirements that a handler has an identifier showing that the animal is a service animal or uses certain types of gear.
What if the animal is poorly behaved?
Service animal or not, if they are behaving poorly, you can ask the person to remove the animal and come back without it. If the animal relieves itself inappropriately, is jumping up on people, is snatching food from counters, or is vocalizing frequently in a way that does not have to do with a task, these are all reasonable reasons to ask someone to remove the animal.
Animals of course aren’t perfect, and they make mistakes and have off days. An animal behaving this poorly, and causing disruptions however, can and should be asked to leave.
There is a huge problem in our country at the moment of people passing off regular pets as service animals. Business owners do not realize that they have the ability to ask someone to remove an animal that is not a miniature horse or dog or that is behaving poorly, and, afraid of lawsuits, consequently do not do so. This has had far-reaching negative impacts on actual service animal handlers. For instance, the number one reason for a service dog to wash out (not end up working out as a service Animal) is attacks from other dogs, many of which are fake service dogs.
If you own or operate a public facility or have a service animal, it’s very important to understand these laws. It helps to both protect the rights of people with legitimate service animals, and stop people from cheating the system.
Do you have any other questions related to service horses?
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Part of our mission is to help educate people on this very important topic. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and, if you didn’t already know, learn a bit about service animal laws in the US.
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Logo by Erika Abbondanzieri | Banner Farm
Image description: Light blue text on a dark blue background says “Are service horses legal?“ In the middle of the image is the CALI Corp logo, which is a blind person being guided by a miniature horse. The letters CALI are under the feet of horse and handler.
