Lawmaker: Parade bill would be ‘knee-jerk’ reaction

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A local lawmaker says legislation that may be introduced by state Sen. Frank Kloucek in the upcoming legislative session is a knee-jerk reaction to a Wagner parade incident.

Kloucek, D- Scotland, recently announced plans to introduce a bill that would require an outrider — a single horse and rider that helps keep a team of horses under control — with every team of two or more horses in a public parade. The announcement came only days after three people suffered injuries when two mules pulling a wagon were spooked and ran into Labor Day parade spectators in Wagner.

Rep. Lance Carson, RMitchell, said he’s unlikely to support the bill. Carson said his lifelong experience with horses and other animals — he’s been involved with the Corn Palace Stampede Rodeo and its parade for more than two decades — has shown him that animals will occasionally get scared and react accordingly.

“I’ve been around animals all my life, and horses can be spooked,” Carson said.

He thinks the addition of an outrider could exacerbate the situation should a problem arise.

“My experience is if you add another animal, you’ve just got another one going out of control,” Carson said. “If you add it to the mix, are you real- ly better off? No.”

Kloucek said Wednesday that Carson’s characterization of the proposed legislation as “knee-jerk” is incorrect, because Kloucek was discussing the legislation in the weeks prior to the Wagner incident.

Kloucek said he was working on the legislation with Russ Leonard, a resident of Yankton and former Hutchinson County commissioner who has vast experience with horses.

“It’s not any knee-jerk reaction,” Kloucek said. “It’s something we’ve been working on for quite a while.”

Leonard said Wednesday that an outrider horse in front of a team could help prevent team horses, which might have side-view blinders, from getting spooked.

Leonard further said that the lack of outriders has been used as fodder for lawsuits from people injured by animals at parades.

In a press release released hours after the Wagner incident, Kloucek stated his legislation would apply only to public parades. Enforcement would be done by local law enforcement.

“This legislation will greatly reduce the citizens’, horse owners’ and horses’ exposure to injury from a runaway team of horses at these types of events,” Kloucek stated.

In a separate parade incident earlier this summer in Mitchell, Davison County Auditor Susan Kiepke lost her balance while riding in a car driven by former state Sen. Ed Olson and received cracked ribs and other injuries.

Calling the situation “unfortunate,” Carson cited it as an example of another situation that he believes does not require legislation.

“To try to legislate every sad situation in the world, I don’t understand how that’s supposed to happen,” Carson said.

Tags: lance carson, frank kloucek, labor day parade, our towns, news, state, wagner, legislature, politics, local, fccnetwork