Champing at the Bit for Improvements: A Review of Equine Welfare in Equestrian Sports in the United Kingdom.
Authors: Holmes Tim Q, Brown Ashleigh F
Journal: Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
Summary
# Editorial Summary Holmes and Brown's 2022 review comprehensively examines welfare risks across the breadth of UK equestrian sports—from racing and show-jumping through to endurance and carriage driving—and identifies that whilst improvements have been made in recent years, significant welfare challenges persist throughout horses' lives, spanning housing, nutrition, farriery, training methodology, breeding practices and equipment design. Rather than treating welfare as a straightforward biological measure, the authors present it as a complex, multifaceted construct influenced not only by individual management decisions but by the institutional frameworks governing competition, the attitudes and ethics of diverse stakeholders, and the structural barriers embedded within equestrian culture. The review reveals that the greatest obstacles to welfare improvement are not primarily technical or knowledge-based, but rather stem from competing values among participants, officials, owners and other industry actors who operate within different regulatory systems and hold divergent standards of what constitutes acceptable practice. The authors conclude that meaningful progress requires a systematic, stakeholder-inclusive approach that prioritises welfare risk factors, establishes evidence-based interventions, and integrates education with knowledge management across the sport. For farriers, veterinarians, physiotherapists and other equine professionals, this work underscores that individual best-practice decisions—whether regarding shoeing protocols, training load management or equipment selection—operate within a broader landscape where industry-wide cultural and institutional change is equally necessary to achieve substantive welfare gains.
Read the full abstract on PubMed
Practical Takeaways
- •Identify and prioritise the specific welfare risk factors in your discipline and implement targeted interventions through evidence-based management practices.
- •Engage with diverse stakeholders (veterinarians, farriers, trainers, owners) to address conflicting values and work toward consensus on acceptable welfare standards.
- •Support further research, education and knowledge sharing initiatives that help translate welfare science into practical improvements at grass-roots level.
Key Findings
- •Equestrian sports in the UK involve tens of thousands of equids with multiple welfare risk factors throughout their lives including housing, feeding, veterinary care, shoeing, handling, training, breeding and equipment use.
- •Significant welfare improvements have occurred in recent times, but substantial barriers remain to reducing welfare risks to acceptable levels.
- •Institutional components including competition rules, stakeholder attributes, and physical spaces create both barriers and opportunities for equine welfare improvement.
- •Stakeholders across equestrian sports hold differing ethics, attitudes and values that complicate unified approaches to welfare enhancement.