§ 25-21,252.Equine activities; applicability of other laws; liability enumerated.

Section 25-21,251 grants broad immunity, and section 25-21,252 is where that immunity meets its limits. It opens by removing an entire industry from the Act’s reach: sections 25-21,249 through 25-21,253 do not apply to horseracing as regulated under sections 2-1201 to 2-1229, so racetracks operating under that separate regulatory scheme are not covered here.

For everyone else, the section lists five specific situations where the liability limit does not prevent or limit recovery. It does not protect a sponsor or professional who provided equipment or tack that caused the injury because they failed to reasonably and prudently inspect or maintain it. It does not protect one who provided the equine but failed to make reasonable, prudent efforts to match the animal to the participant’s stated ability. It does not protect an owner or possessor of the land or facility for a dangerous latent condition the sponsor or professional knew or should have known about, if no warning sign was conspicuously posted. It does not protect conduct that a reasonable, prudent person would not have done — or that shows willful or wanton disregard for the participant’s safety — if that conduct proximately caused the injury. And it does not protect an intentional injury to the participant.

The section closes by preserving product liability law entirely: nothing in section 25-21,251 limits an equine activity sponsor’s or professional’s liability under product liability principles. Together, these carve-outs mean the Act protects against the ordinary, unavoidable dangers of working with horses, not against a sponsor’s or professional’s own carelessness, recklessness, or wrongdoing.