On June 3, USEF Chief of Sport David O’Connor participated in a panel titled Public Acceptance of the Involvement of Horses in Sport: What Does Good Training Look Like, hosted by the World Horse Welfare in London. The panel discussed the current public perception of horses in sport and steps the horse world can take to improve horse welfare and, in turn, public perception.
As part of the discussion, O’Connor shared some of the welfare-based initiatives that US Equestrian has put into practice over the last few years. He shared that the first step was education and recognizing the issues that were out there, followed by examining the existing rules. One change that came out of that evaluation was expanding the Unethical Treatment of Horses rule (GR838) in 2024, which empowered USEF and its licensed officials to act in cases of unethical treatment of horses both on and off show grounds.
“We expanded our rules to have jurisdiction also outside the competition ring,” he said. “We don’t have the right to go on anybody’s farm, we don’t have subpoena power, but if somebody brought something to us and it was proved in the evidentiary process to be accurate, then they would trigger a regulatory process, and that has had an effect.”
Following the implementation of the expanded rule, O’Connor developed an education component, which is aimed at officials, riders, judges, and anyone involved in equestrian sport, through a series of Horse Welfare Guidelines. Modeled after a stoplight, the Guidelines outline behavior into one of three zones: green (acceptable or horse friendly), yellow (cautionary or needs monitoring), or red (unacceptable or needs intervention).
He also agreed with other panelists that educating the general public is crucial, especially as daily interaction with horses has decreased in increasingly urban environments. As people question whether horses are used as a commodity rather than a companion, he stressed the importance of showing how much joy we get from spending time with horses, whether in the tack or on the ground. It’s vital that equestrians are open to discussion between disciplines and with the world at large, and that they’re willing to re-examine the status quo.
“Being willing to be open, whether it’s talking about yards, talking about training, talking about warm-ups, talking about competition -- that is the way that that is going to permeate all the way through the decision making,” he said.
O’Connor believes it’s important that equestrians, national federations, and international federations are the leaders of change. Otherwise, outside parties like the federal government will get involved in regulation. He pointed to action eventing took in 2000 following the release of the Hartington Report, a comprehensive overview of risk management, which led to the prevalence of frangible devices on cross-country and establishing an international database tracking falls. While it would be nice if there was a single answer, he said, it’s a complicated puzzle that needs a multi-faceted approach.
“The organizations have to be proactive, and I think that comes back to the question about are we reacting enough,” he said. “I don’t know that we’re ever reacting enough, but we have to make sure that we change from reactive to proactive and the more that we’re proactive about things from an organization’s point of view will help the sport grow.”
Watch the World Horse Welfare panel here.