The FEI, at its annual General Assembly in Abu Dhabi, recently unveiled significant updates to its Equine Welfare Strategy Action Plan, focusing on safeguarding the well-being of equine athletes across all disciplines. A quick summary of the updates can be found below or in greater detail here.
1. Online Welfare Reporting Tool:
A new Welfare Hub has been launched, centralizing tools for injury tracking, lifecycle data, and reporting horse welfare concerns. Stakeholders, including riders, officials, and fans, can now confidentially report welfare issues online.
2. Optional Spurs for All Disciplines:
Spurs are no longer mandatory in any FEI discipline, allowing riders to adapt their equipment choices based on the needs and sensitivities of their horses.
3. Noseband Measuring Device:
The FEI is developing a standardized noseband measurement tool and accompanying protocols to ensure correct tack use. This initiative is aimed at enhancing horse comfort and addressing concerns over overly tight nosebands. the FEI Measuring Tool will begin use gradually at FEI events in the first part of 2025.
4. Improved Tack and Equipment Guidelines:
A dedicated Tack App is being refined to provide up-to-date clarity on approved bits and other equipment. Reviews are planned annually to ensure transparency and accessibility for riders and teams.
5. Enhanced Rules on Fitness to Compete:
Veterinary delegates will soon have expanded authority to check any part of a horse’s body during competitions, not just legs, to ensure horses are fit and sound for sport. Workshops in 2025 will address these updates in detail.
6. Out-of-Competition Testing:
A robust testing program aims to enhance integrity and ensure health issues aren’t masked outside of competition settings. Details were presented at the Assembly for implementation across disciplines.
But Questions Remain
What’s starkly missing from the welfare discussion, however, is a clear and transparent operating procedure for how reports are handled, nor is there an answer to the status of the cases currently open for investigation under this category. A review of public case records with the FEI reveals no open investigation associated with a suspension against riders like Andrew McConnon, who came under fire several weeks ago after videos surfaced of an individual alleged to be Andrew severely abusing two different horses. There is currently an Open Investigation of a dressage rider listed in the Case Status Tables, however, which raises more questions as to the investigation of riders like Andrew, which the FEI has confirmed is an ongoing one but has also confirmed is not currently associated with a suspension.
EN has subsequently followed up with the applicable governing bodies in the weeks since our initial story about Andrew and incident reporting as a whole. We’ve received little to no response, with the FEI continuing to decline to comment on an active investigation as well as declining to answer our questions regarding how incident reports are handled and what time frame can be anticipated.
The most we have been able to obtain from the FEI in terms of updates is the following quote, received on November 22, 2024:
“Andrew Mc Connon is currently not suspended by the FEI, which is why he is not listed on the Case Status Tables. The FEI is still investigating the matter and can therefore not provide any further information or comments at this point in time.”
The USEA, which had indicated that it could have the power to suspend a member, but confirmed it did not have a precedent to follow in this case, has also made no definitive moves in this specific instance, citing the fact that they were still awaiting further information from USEF and the FEI regarding the investigation. US Equestrian had previously denied the issue jurisdiction, due to the incident not occurring at a USEF-licensed competition (this rule is set to expand to allow incident reports for things that occur on private property, but is effective from December 1, 2024 only).
These interactions leave stakeholders and observers feeling left in the dark. As we stated before, it’s a larger problem than one person, one video, one comment — these incidents are all symptomatic of a system that fails at many turns to protect its most valuable members: the horses. When not all cases are treated with equal expediency, when there is a clear lack of transparency in how reports are handled and passed up the chain, it becomes easy to lose trust.
We don’t have the perfect solution, and while we appreciate that more initiatives are being set out for equine welfare, we nonetheless implore our governing bodies to show, through actions, that they are safeguarding our horses. We implore them — and the stakeholders who also have a voice — to realize that what the current process is is simply not sufficient. We worry that the reporting floodgates will open at the end of the year, with little improvement to processes and transparencies.
We will continue to follow up on the investigations that are active and will also lobby for a greater level of transparency when it comes to reporting and open investigations, and will provide updates here on EN as they are made available to us.
