Officials said a letter will be sent to the seven unlicensed companies advising them of Washington's licensing and registration requirements. And, all nine companies will receive letters requesting labels for the 20 products.

"We will take appropriate regulatory action after we confirm with the Food and Drug Administration that the claims on the products are misleading or unproven," said Ali Kashani, feed and fertilizer compliance coordinator at Department of Agriculture. All of the information collected will be sent to the appropriate committee of the Association of Feed Control Officials, which will compile the data. An educational response will be developed for firms found to be out of compliance. Follow_up activities may include training and compliance monitoring.

The companies identified by Department of Agriculture are based in Minnesota, Nevada, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Arizona, California, Australia and Germany. Among the 20 products were five herbal mixtures claiming to promote calming, mitigate excessive bleeding or cure colitis; six supplements claiming to reduce irritability, promote calmness, allow offspring to reach genetic potential, act as an anti_inflammatory, act as a bronchial dilator, or improve performance; five claiming to be biological aids that furnish ultra_trace minerals; promote faster healing; decrease symptoms of arthritis; raise hormone levels to make horses more competitive; or relieve stiffness in legs, tendon strains, and swelling in the joints; three homeopathic products that claim to give "fantastic results," be a "powerful anti_inflammatory," "make a horse feel really good," or help relax the horse and one high calorie diet claims to aid environmentally challenged, anorexic or weak foals.

Surf Day was sponsored by the Association of American Feed Control Officials in partnership with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and feed control officials from many states and Canada. Each participant was assigned three search engines. For four hours they surfed the Web looking for Internet vendors selling equine feeds and equine feed supplements that may not be in compliance with federal and state commercial feed regulations.