Over the past decade, the general public has become increasingly critical of the health and welfare of performance horses. Highly publicized debacles, like the equestrian portion of the pentathlon in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, and frequent young horse fatalities at racetracks all over the world, have called into question the social license to operate of equestrian sports. With the development of new research in equine welfare indicators as well as the Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram, science is being applied to a previously purely subjective topic.
In 2021, the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) outlawed the use of pinch, (aka “flick”) boots in the show jumping discipline. These boots are designed to create a pressure point at the horse’s fetlock while jumping, with the intent of inducing extreme flexion over the fence to minimize the risk of hitting a rail. Additionally, as of January 2025, British show jumping instituted strict limits on the use of a whip on a horse during competition, detailing not only the length of whip and number of applications but also where on course the whip could be legitimately used and where the whip was applied to the horse. Furthermore, frangible devices have been used for over a decade in the construction of cross country jumps in three day eventing to reduce the number of rotational falls, which can be deadly to both horse and rider. While these are all examples of direct welfare reform, scientific data is now being applied to equestrianism to further promote the health and comfort of the animal.
Since 2000, several studies have indicated that protective leg boots don’t attenuate the strain in the equine leg that they were supposedly trying to offset. Further research has confirmed a direct association between limb temperature and an increased incidence of soft tissue injury. Both of these findings led to the elimination of all boots and bandages on competition grounds by the Royal Dutch Equestrian Sports Federation in April 2024. This rule applies to all disciplines including dressage, stadium jumping, driving, eventing and vaulting. (Standing wraps and shipping wraps were considered acceptable forms of protection as athletic strain was not being subjected to the limb while wearing such bandages). Additionally, as of 2025, the FEI has instituted the use of a standardized noseband gauge to ensure no noseband is overtightened. These are big steps in the global effort to promote equine welfare, but more still needs to be addressed.
Internationally recognized disciplines have taken proactive measures to ensure optimal welfare of their equine participants, and they will continue to make large scale changes to repeatedly earn the trust and confidence of the general public. Smaller, more regionally isolated disciplines have escaped much of the public scrutiny and continue to subject horses to damaging practices. As much of the support for these inhumane practices comes from the general public in these regions, less pressure is put on these industries to maintain their social license to operate.
On a broader canvas, at some point, the equine industry as a whole will need to determine if it’s fair to compete 2- and 3-year-old horses. The equine skeleton is not finished maturing until the end of their fifth year, which begs the question, should young horses be subjected to the stresses and strains associated with advanced training at such young ages? Multiple disciplines already have age restrictions on the upper levels of competition, but many others place a direct focus on the performance of young stock. It is our responsibility to integrate horses into equine sport in a humane fashion that considers their welfare first and foremost in order to ensure that equestrian endeavors do not become a thing of the past.
