Improving Equestrian Sports
How can we fix equestrian sports?
What changes need to be done in the equestrian sport world to imrpove ethics and welfare, but still showcasing the sport and power of the horse?
I think we need to break this into 4 categories, not focusing on the discipline, but on the issues that run within them all. Breeding, training, sport regulations and aftercare.
Breeding. Should always be focused on the long term health and wellbeing of the animal. Not on cosmetic or short term goals. Breeding horses to have extreme and unhealthy displays of breed characteristics will only damage the breed. Extreme breeding leads to health issues, including serious, career and even life-ending diseases. Breeding for a cosmetic goal at the expense of the horse and the breed is counter productive. We want to breed athletes able to do the jobs and sports we're asking of them, with a focus on conformation and traits that matches their life goals. With a focus on their ability to do this job for a long time, not just until they retire at 6 (horses can and should live to around 30! 6 is not retirement, it's the beginning!)
Training for sports and careers needs to not only be focused on using kinder, gentler options, but rewarded for such. As of now, sports have rules AGAINST kinder options, treats aren't allowed but twisted wire bits are? Why are bits required when athletes have proven time and again they're not necessary? Kinder options should not only be allowed, but promoted and rewarded. A trainer/rider competing with kinder training should get the advantage over someone using harsher tools. The whole point of equestrian sports is the horse/human partnership, it's not partnership when one is bound, gagged, whipped, and spurred into it.
Training tools and practices need to be better regulated as a whole. Extreme aversive tools and tools of restraint need to be seriously limited and looked down on as a whole by our entire equestrian community. When I see someone using harsh tools, I see a failure of training and a failure of ethics. They have resorted to violence because they couldn't achieve their goals kindly, that's not something we should reward with ribbons, fame and prize money. Equestrian professionals need to be transparent and exposed. Everything that happens behind the scenes counts for how you succeed in your event. Rollkur in the warmup ring should mean DQ before you even start. Abuse at your home arena should mean you aren't welcome at the event. Why is abuse tolerated? Aren't equestrian sports supposed to be about our love of the horse? By rewarding abuse we are not only condoning it but encouraging young people who love their horses to follow suit, justifying it because it must be right, because these professionals are doing it?
The sports, all of them, need a major shift in focus in their rules and regulations. Not just in training tools, but in the goals of the sports themselves. To focus first on animal welfare. They need to slow down their expectations. If a 3 year old horse is supposed to be competing at high levels, how can competitors be ethical and start their horses older and slower and more gently? Horses live 30 years, their career shouldn't start at 2 and end before 10, leaving them without value or home. Slow the pace of competitions to match the growth and development of the horse. Unmounted classes until they're 5 or 6, slowly growing from there. If you aren't allowed to enter a 2y.o horse in a ridden class, people won't push their horses to be ridden by 2!
The sports need to refocus their challenges on equine welfare too. This means extremes are reduced to the safety of the horse. Jumps, speeds, weight pulls, obstacles, footing, etc... They should all be designed for the safety of the horse (just like dog competitions!) If we went to a dog sport where I dog had to be shot because they didn't make the jump correctly, we would be moritified, yet it happens daily in the equestrian world. We need to hold the horse world to the same standards. Making the challenges appropriate and as safe as we can. We can't predict for every accident or mistake, but we can make an effort to protect our animals and increase their safety. Dog sports have been working hard at this, making obstacles safer so dogs don't get hurt. They also have limits on their competitions and faults, if they don't touch the safety color on the end of the ramp they're faulted, because if the dog jumps off the A-frame they could get hurt. Their weight pulls have max weights based on the dog's size, if multiple dogs reach max, then they go by speed. Use other criteria to measure, rather than pushing to 1 extreme, at the expense of the animal. Horse sports need to be focused on the safety, wellbeing, and longevity of the horse. Not something that risks their lives, careers, or future ability to have a home. Restructure sports to focus on welfare and fun – so people can love and compete their horse for a lifetime, not just until they're injured or outgrown.
This leads us to aftercare. Equine sports are so focused on the “here and now” the “bigger and better” that horses are frequently passed on and on until they end up places quite dangerous. Thousands of amazing equine athletes find their way to slaughter or a garbage pit home when they find themselves no longer able to compete at the levels they used to. So while the breeding, training, and sports should focus on longevity for the horse, horses also need to be provided for when their career is over. This means, once responsible for a horse, always responsible. Lease them to younger riders, but don't give up custody. Pay retirement board, even if it means you can't buy a $500 pair of breeches that month. Horses go through MANY homes in their lifetime, someone needs to be responsible to ensure their fate is safe. They have earned it by being your choice companion for however long they are.
Remember riding and competeing is a luxury. No one needs to compete horses to survive, no horse needs to compete. Horse shows and events are meant to be fun and focused on the love and partnership of the horse. It's time we started acting like it. Changes need to be made.