Our approach to horse sport

World Horse Welfare is the only equine welfare charity globally to support the responsible involvement of horses in sport.

We see the participation of horses in sport and leisure as part of the unique and evolving horse-human relationship – and we believe we all have a responsibility to ensure that sport horses are given a good life and treated well from birth to death.

We strongly believe that involving horses in sport can be ethical and provide horses with a good life as part of the horse-human relationship.

We also believe that to be truly ethical, and to reflect the values of society and evolving knowledge of what horses need to have a good life, horse sport must be proactive in evolving their policies and practices based on the latest evidence and communicate to the public – and within wider equestrianism – how they do this.

We have worked with horse sport for decades, as independent welfare advisors to the FEI and to the British Horseracing Federation. We also regularly engage with sport leaders and the wider equestrian and racing communities to facilitate and encourage higher standards of safety and welfare, including:

• Undertaking research and host events where horse sport disciplines can share good practice and approaches to improving welfare, and to learn from other animal industries on how they have successfully approached the same challenges.
• Delivering hundreds of presentations at horse sport leadership events around the world, advising on adopting ethical and evidence-based practices in horse training, management, and aftercare.
• Providing educational resources and other advice for those involved in horse sport aimed at improving welfare across a range of topics.
• Regularly following up on public opinion research to monitor, objectively, the state of horse sport’s social licence and trust in the horse sport sector.