US Equestrian Annual Meeting attendees from across all breeds and disciplines reconvened on the morning of Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, to continue the previous day’s discussion about horse welfare in the equestrian world. Representatives from different segments of the industry shared some of the challenges and solutions they’ve seen from their community in an open session moderated by US Equestrian Chief of Sport David O’Connor.
Changing Culture
“We have worked tirelessly for animal welfare,” said Stan Morey, Executive Director of the Arabian Horse Association. “Quite frankly, what we’re trying to do as a breed and as an organization is to change the culture, and changing the culture — as we all know — is extremely difficult. I came from that culture. I know what took place as a trainer for 35 years. You have to talk to people [to initiate change].”
Morey said that some trainers and exhibitors are hesitant to reassess the way they’ve always worked with horses because they believe it might have a negative impact on performance. This highlights the importance of judges in affecting cultural change.
“You have to change it from a judging standpoint and how they perceive the horses,” he said. “Our western pleasure made leaps and bounds this last year just because we had two meetings with trainers alone where they could express what was taking place. We challenged them to change the way that they let these horses move.”
Morey said that while there is a long way to go, he sees the industry making positive movement and adds that horse owners are an important part of the equation. They don’t want to see their horses mishandled by trainers.
Ling Fu Wylie, a Morgan breeder and exhibitor who serves on the US Equestrian Board of Directors, the USEF National Breeds and Disciplines Council, and the Morgan Horse Committee, shared how the breed’s popularity in the Amish community has brought to the forefront the need to navigate cultural shifts in a methodical and open-minded way.
“There’s a large community of Amish that have joined [the American Morgan Horse Association],” said Wylie. She explained that while there’s an outside perception that Amish horses aren’t treated well, many are loved and cared for, “and so we’ve tried to embrace their community. But we let them know that visually, some things are incorrect. They don’t see these things usually because they’re not exposed to social media and television. And they really welcome the help, and they have some very good ideas as well, so I think they welcome that interaction.”
Karen Homer-Brown, US Equestrian Director of National Breeds and Disciplines, added that in her conversations with Amish horse owners, most embrace input that will help them care for their horses and produce quality individuals through responsible breeding.
“They want to learn how to be part of the community and still maintain their values and their way of living,” said Homer-Brown. “They are seeking education. I think we just need to be open in offering it.”
Lisa Gorretta, a member of the US Equestrian Board of Directors, Co-Chair of the USEF Dressage Sport Committee, and past president of the United States Dressage Federation, said that her sport actively works to ensure that welfare standards keep up with the times.
“USDF has had a welfare statement since its inception, which was updated four years ago to reflect some of the concerns about our industry,” she said. “The USEF Sport Committee has been working on a welfare project for close to two years, and we’ve presented a new group statement that reflects our concerns about not only what happens in the competition ring, but the other 23 hours of the day for our horses. In dressage, our horses tend to be older and tend to be in competitions longer, and I think our version of the welfare statement reflects that we are concerned about the horses’ welfare throughout their life.”
Gorretta reiterated that sharing knowledge is key to meaningful change.
“I think, like all things dressage, it’s going to take a period of education,” she said. “I believe that in the broad sense, yes, [USDF members] are all with us. In the details, it will be an education process.”
Honor the Horse
Western Dressage is one of the newest equestrian disciplines, and in building the sport from scratch, the Western Dressage Association of America set out to keep equine welfare at the center.
“Pretty much everything we do in Western Dressage is all about the horse. In fact, ‘Honor the Horse’ is part of our mission statement,” said Cindy Butler, president of WDAA. “Riders can put their horses at the level where they need to be. They can start where they want. They can go up the levels, and when the horses are older, they can go back down the levels. They can use bitless bridles. We allow posting and lengthening and free jogs so that horses are more comfortable through their backs. We limit the number of tests a horse can do per day. We encourage light contact and harmony and natural movement through our judges’ education and exhibitors’ training based on biomechanics.”
Beyond these competition rules and structures that build a foundation of horse welfare, the culture of the WDAA was intentionally built toward the mission to honor the horse.
“We reward the horses instead of the riders in our awards programs. We celebrate rescue horses and share their stories with everybody,” said Butler. “Our lifetime achievement award system is based on the horse’s achievements over their lifetime to add value to the horse, so even if it’s a grade or unregistered horse, it’ll have that added worth.”
Fostering Open Conversation
Several attendees reported positive outcomes from holding sessions with riders or trainers to directly discuss welfare issues in an honest and intentional way.
“At Dressage at Devon this year, we pulled all the riders together before the show started, along with technical delegates, vets, and judges, and we had a conversation about [horse welfare], not only in the following few days when we were all showing, but to be very aware after. What can we as riders, trainers, etc., do to band together and make this more of a movement? And it was an incredibly interactive, powerful discussion. I’m wondering if there’s a way to institutionalize something like that at every horse show so that we could really meet people where they are and continue the conversation.”
Connecting with the correct audience is key to affecting change, and who is part of that audience varies throughout equestrian sports. Some disciplines are more trainer-driven while others are largely amateur owners.
“At [Arabian] U.S. Nationals this year, we decided to have a trainers-only meeting,” said Morey. “No owners, no amateur riders, just trainers. Almost 100 trainers showed up to that thing. Most of them want to adapt to what we’re trying to do from a welfare standpoint. They understood. Everybody said they appreciated us having this meeting. Our industry is driven by trainers, and when you accept that, you can change the trainers’ standpoint, and they can talk to the owners and change their standpoint.”
United States Hunter Jumper Association President, US Equestrian Board of Directors member, and Chair of the USEF National Breeds and Disciplines Council, Britt McCormick, pointed to a combination of rule changes and conversations among professionals from the hunter/jumper community as factors that have created a cultural shift.
“We’re moving toward a system that promotes quality and horsemanship and away from just running your horse’s wheels off,” said McCormick, referencing changes to the qualifying system that disincentivize the practice of overshowing a horse to chase points. “We’re starting to implement other things on a competition level, such as soundness jogging for every discipline and not just hunters.”
The problem of illegal doping of competition horses has been an ongoing struggle on the hunter/jumper circuit. McCormick reported a positive shift in the overall mindset within the community on that front but reiterates the continued need for strong regulation.
“For the first time ever, in this past year, I’ve had many trainers contact me who are outraged about ‘super cheaters.’ It makes us all sick, and we’re tired of it,” he said. “We’re at a point where everybody has said, ‘Stop. That’s enough. We’re not going there.’ And that’s a good thing.”
“It starts with the vets. A vet has to prescribe it and a pharmacy has to fill it before it can ever get in the hands of a trainer,” McCormick continued, referring to people who violate drug and medication rules. “We have to be willing to look ourselves in the mirror, identify the problem, and call out the bad actors — in my opinion there has to be life-changing punishment for someone who would do that to a horse. We have to be willing to go there.”
Empowering the Community to Protect the Horse
“Welfare is very easy at a distance because you can always see what the other guy is doing wrong. Within your own discipline, it becomes more difficult,” said Gorretta, adding that bad actors are often perceived like eccentric family members within their community. “This is where education — which is where most of the affiliate organizations come in —and regulation from the Federation comes in. Unfortunately, you can lead a person to education, but you cannot make them learn. So, [on the regulation side] we need to have some teeth and use them, particularly empowering licensed officials and having a clear path for those who are willing to stand up and identify the problems within their own house.”
Gorretta adds that punitive action is necessary for rule violators and those who mistreat horses. Education is available for anyone, but regulation is necessary to steer some people to that education.
Dr. Jenny Susser is a clinical sports psychologist who counts many equestrians among her clients, including the U.S. Olympic Dressage Team, which she served as Team Sport Psychologist for at the 2012 London Olympic Games. She said that in all sports, competitive pressure can lead to bad decisions, and for equestrian sport, that can lead to equine welfare violations.
“Pressure changes how our brains work. When our brains aren’t working well, we don’t have access to everything,” Susser explained. “Frustration is just what happens when we don’t have enough tools. But frustration leads to anger, which leads to bad behavior. Pressure can do this whether we are at home or at a show.”
Love and respect for horses are important, but they’re not enough on their own to prevent that bad behavior, especially when our brains are compromised by stress.
“Love and good care are not mutually inclusive,” she said. “We see that in humans. There are plenty of human-to-human relationships where there’s lots of love and lots of bad actions.”
Strong leadership is imperative for improving the welfare of competition horses, especially when it comes to eliminating practices that were once tacitly permitted but are now known to be abusive or damaging.
“Our actions have to follow our words. If we say something like rollkur [hyperflextion] is not acceptable, we have to stand by it. We have to actually do something,” said Sussman. “We have to be brave enough to call out the Olympians who are not warming up well. We have to be brave enough as trainers to call out super wealthy clients for not treating their horses in the right manner.”