We are not horse huggers, we are using horses for sport!

In many ways the FEI appears to be making bold steps forward with their Equine Welfare Strategy Action Plan. The plan, born out of the work of the independent Equine Welfare and Ethics Advisory Commission (EEWBC) in 2022, seems to be playing all the right notes, although not necessarily in the right order. A Senior Manager for Equine Welfare Initiatives & Implementation, Somesh Dutt, has been appointed and has been allocated a budget of CHF 1 Million across the lifecycle of the project including a research fund to address evidence to underpin decisions that relate to Horse Welfare (this is in addition to the FEI Veterinary Research Fund).

We are not horse huggers?
©Harveywetdog

But did we see and hear signs of dissenting voices amongst the delegates at the FEI General Assembly in Abu Dhabi in November?

Equine Welfare Action Plan Progress

You’ll remember that ultimately the FEI boiled the EEWBC final report down to 37 Actions split across seven categories (six are the priority areas of focus identified by the EEWBC and one is a “catch the rest” category):

1. Training, Riding, Tack & Equipment [6 actions];
2. Recognising Physical and Emotional Stress [6 actions];
3. Accountability, Enforcement, and Knowledge [5 actions]; 
4. “The Other 23 Hours” [2 actions];
5. Competitive Drive and Treating Horses as Objects [2 actions];
6. Fitness to Compete and Health Problem Masking [5 actions];
7. Other Actions [11 actions]

At the General Assembly delegates were given an update on progress with specific actions, starting with the 10 that are deemed as completed. It was then that the cracks in the strategy began to show. For a start, the FEI definition of "completed" appears to be quite loose. For example, Horse App and Database, which is shown as complete, was described as simply being evaluated for Eventing.

Progress with actions
FEI presentation image

Likewise the Welfare Hub action was shown as complete on the basis that there is now a page on the FEI website for Research and Other Information. While this is undoubtedly true, my review of the website unearthed a seemingly random list of, you guessed it, research and other information. No attempt has been made to curate the research, express an official opinion on it or rank it compared to other sources. Some of the research is dated, some of the research is incomplete and some you have to pay to read. So hardly useful and hardly indicative of a completed action.

Evidence based versus science informed decision making

While we’re talking about scientific research let’s talk about the importance of evidence based decision making. The word evidence is mentioned 54 times in the EEWBC final report. The importance of good quality evidence is stressed repeatedly and the cautionary approach required to be taken where evidence does not exist, or is contradictory, is spelt out. Evidence was seen as one of the six enablers required to deliver the FEI Equine Welfare Strategy. In April 2024 we were told the the FEI would ensure equine welfare is safeguarded through ethical, evidence-based policy and practices.

It appears this evidence-based approach is causing the FEI some consternation. They appear to prefer the term science-based information and science informed decision making. Is this splitting hairs? It seems to suggest that the only evidence worth considering is that demonstrated by science, and therefore scientists, and I'm not sure that is true. When I worked in the nuclear industry we were engineers and not scientists and we produced a lot of evidence to support our safety cases. I'm sure the same will apply in the equestrian industry. Writing a well researched, reviewed and independently verified report doesn't necessarily make you a scientist but it does produce valid evidence.

Evidence based or science informed
BEF Charter for the Horse

This distinction in definition was not missed by the GB delegation, namely Fields Wicker-Miurin (who I had to remind myself is the new chair of BEF) who pointed out that the GB National Federation were undertaking their own work, which up until now was to have been evidence based, and she was no doubt wondering how this change in terminology would change BEF's work going forward.

I also noticed a lot of use of should and may when describing the progress with the actions, the terminology did not make it feel that all the improvements were to be mandated across the National Federations.

Recognising physical and emotional stress in horses

Focus Area two deals with recognising physical and emotional stress in horses. This is a wide reaching topic which goes to the heart of the Be A Guardian ethos. It is worth reminding ourselves exactly what the EEWBC highlighted as the areas of concern under this heading. These were:

• equestrians being unable to recognize stress-related behaviour in their horses
• horses experiencing emotional stress during training and at competition events
• horses’ physical health issues being poorly cared for/addressed
• safety issues and death of horses during competition 

To me, these four bullets do not make easy bedfellows. Okay, one and three probably go together, as do two and four. Education has a strong part to play with one and three, but so does budget and affordability. Education in this area must be based on "science informed" material, but it must also be kept up to be date and comprehension must be continually assessed. At the General Assembly FEI explained that they were reviewing their educational material on FEI Campus to see how it could be improved in this area. An external "expert" on equine welfare and behaviour has been contracted to support the process.

But what of bullets two and four? These are more likely to be what the public see, hence of more immediate concern to the social license debate, and ultimately are more difficult to remove.

"We are not horse huggers, we are using horses for sport"

As one delegate pointed out, "we are a sport", and human athletes in sport put themselves through all sorts of physical and emotional stress to achieve their goals. Can we honestly expect horses involved in sport to be any different? Of course some would say yes and I was surprised when FEI Veterinary Director Göran Akerström replied by saying "we are not horse huggers, we are using horses for sport" before going on to explain how while competition will always contain elements of stress, the general mental wellbeing of the competition horse could be improved when the other 23 hours are taken into consideration. 

The issue of safety in equestrian sport is still to be addressed by FEI. But as we saw at Cheltenham a few weeks ago, equine fatalities can occur in high intensity competition situations without any previous symptoms, just as they can for human athletes.        

Nosebands

One ongoing action which prompted a lot of discussion was 1.5 Tack and Equipment (Nosebands) where FEI have developed a measurement tool which is a pass through tool and which measures the tightness of the noseband over the nasal bone. Delegates were shown a video of the tool in use and told that 600 tests have been carried out without incident. My understanding is that the tool will come into use on 1st January 2025 for FEI events and any competitor found to have a too tight noseband within competition will be eliminated and receive a Yellow Warning Card.

FEI Noseband Measuring Device
FEI presentation image

There still appeared to be dissent regarding the correct place to measure noseband tightness, one delegate challenged why it was necessary to issue a Yellow Warning Card if the rider had been eliminated, and, while accepting the tests had been carried out on 600 horses so far without incident, wondered what will happen in the heat of competition when the horse is more likely to be stressed. [I was certainly left wondering how our horse might have reacted if someone came at him to force a piece of plastic under his noseband!].  

FEI Board member and Athletes' representative Jessica Kürten gave a passionate plea for riders not to push themselves and their horses too far too quickly, reminding the Assembly that they all knew equine welfare was their overriding priority and almost appearing dismayed that they were getting into heated debates about measuring noseband tightness when that really came down to common sense. Of course common sense is not always common practice, but I felt she had a point.

Losing the thread?

As I watched and listened to all this debate, and reflected on the large amount of work the FEI were setting themselves to do, I found I to remind myself just what they were trying to achieve. I find the EEWBC Strategic Approach graphic gives a far better illustration of the case that we have to set before the public than simply concentrating on the actions alone as the FEI appear to be doing at the moment. Yes the actions are important, but they are not the end in themselves and need to be understood as a part of this bigger picture and a trigger for a change in equine welfare culture throughout the horse sport world.  

EEWBC Strategic Approach
FEI Illustration

But it is not all gloom, and we have to hope that the still to be formed Independent Advisory Committee (remember your critical friend?) will lift them out of the detail of the action plan, worrying about changing the name of the FEI Veterinary Department to the FEI Equine Welfare & Veterinary Department, and get the FEI sighted on some of the higher objectives of the strategic approach. As Göran Akerström said this is all about human behavioural change, and demonstrating a change in attitude to equine welfare will be key.

"This is about survival; it is not an option"

FEI Secretary General Sabrina Ibáñez reminded delegates that this was about survival and not an option; we need to demonstrate we are prioritising this change in equine welfare ethos across all aspects of equestrian sport. We need to be seen to be doing the best for our horses.

Ambassadors for Change

Göran Akerström felt that this change in culture would not come about by simply telling people that change was needed, in practice it would need to be ambassador led. Mr Akerström called for the National Federation to identify key athletes, with their huge networks of followers, who could act as role models and create a framework to drive sustainable change in equestrian sport.

How would we feel about a contrite, suitably admonished and reformed Charlotte Dujardin taking up such a role? One cannot consider the Dujardin case without considering the state of competition Dressage as a whole and the steps that FEI are currently taking to make it fit for the 21st Century. If FEI can succeed, and I accept it is a big if, then the dressage world that Charlotte excelled in will no longer exist, but that doesn’t mean she can’t reinvent herself to excel in the new world of dressage.

We all know she has the skill and the drive to do that, if she wants to, and in the grand British tradition of Profumo, Archer and Christie, we may see Dame Charlotte yet.

Why not but would she want to?
©Harveywetdog

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Harveywetdog/Author - David Robinson CEng FIET 

David spent approaching 50 years in Her Majesty's Electricity Supply Industry before retiring

He was part of the highly successful design team on the Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station Project before spending 25 years producing safety cases to keep our aging AGR fleet generating for the good of the nation

He is responsible for the Harveywetdog YouTube Channel which he maintains as an outlet for his creative talents

David is now in remission from blood cancer but refuses to be a victim

All views are of course his own but might be influenced by the medication he's had to take