December 19, 2024, 9:02 am | Read time: 8 minutes
Whether horse riding constitutes cruelty to animals is a topic of heated debate, especially when frightening images from equestrian sports make the rounds: bloody sides, tortured tongues, or horses that are made docile through brutal training methods. Critics see horse riding as a form of abuse, while supporters point to the thousands of years of tradition and the positive effect of good riding on the animal. PETBOOK author Nadja Müller has more than 25 years of experience in equestrian sports and training, and she classifies the different views below.
In early December 2024, British dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin was suspended from competitions and tournaments for one year by the tribunal of the World Equestrian Federation (FEI) and fined 10,000 Swiss Francs. In the summer, an old video of her surfaced in which, during a training session, she whips a horse being ridden around her with more than 20 lashes. The three accusations against Dujardin were the abuse of a horse, behavior that brought equestrian sport into disrepute, and violation of the FEI Code of Conduct. She is not an isolated case. Time and again, there are ugly images from equestrian sport that raise the question of whether riding, in general, is tantamount to cruelty to animals.
Horse Abuse is Not a New Phenomenon
Blue tongues crushed by harsh bits, hands tugging on the reins and unnaturally rolling up the horse’s neck, bloody sides from stinging spurs. And that’s just in the discipline of dressage. Anyone looking at show jumping, horse racing, or gaited horse riding – keywords: Tennessee Walking Horses and Big Lick – will find similar, terrible images.1, 2
Despite the calm tone this statement may imply, the abuse of horses is not a new issue. In some backward stables, coercion and violence in horse training are almost commonplace. But one crucial thing has changed: public perception. Ugly images spread like wildfire on social media. The critical public is alarmed, and animal welfare organizations are at the ready and see the time for extreme demands: They want a ban on equestrian sports because riding is deemed cruel to animals!3
What Does the German Animal Welfare Act Say?
Is that the case? Is riding really cruelty to animals? The German Animal Welfare Act prohibits inflicting pain, suffering, or harm on an animal without reasonable cause (Section 1 TierSchG). Legal practice defines the terms as follows: Pain is avoidable physical or psychological distress, suffering is a prolonged or recurring condition that impairs an animal’s well-being, and harm constitutes physical injury or permanent impairment.
However, there is the restriction “without reasonable cause”. According to the law, this can be the use of animals for food, research, or culture. Crude, cruel, or deliberately torturous acts remain prohibited. The law, therefore, leaves plenty of leeway as to what can and cannot be considered cruelty to animals, especially if you consider horse riding to be a cultural asset.
Indeed, Horse Riding Can Be Cruel to Animals
According to the Animal Welfare Act, common sense or individual ethical standards, certain forms of riding can indeed be cruelty to animals. This is not only the case when the rider’s patience breaks and he beats his horse in the heat of the moment. There is also systematic cruelty to animals in the form of training methods. For instance, the rollkur is a controversial training method where the horse’s head is pulled toward its chest with the reins, and it is ridden in this hyperflexed position. This is particularly bad for the horse – a flight animal whose well-being depends on being able to keep an eye on everything.
The objective of the rollkur is to develop more extravagant gaits. The federations are part of the problem. After all, the FEI has permitted riding for ten minutes in the rollkur position in preparation for a competition. Later, even this time limit was secretly removed. Equipment can also cause the horse pain. For example, sharp bits, often combined with various leverage effects or loop reins, provide the normal reins with a pulley effect. This allows the rider to maximize the pressure on the reins even further.4
Pressure to perform, the need to earn money with horses, and perhaps egomania are possibly the main reasons for such perverse excesses in horse training. The horse has to work at the push of a button, and you need absolute control at all times. In addition to sport riding, recreational riders are also coming under pressure. Here, ignorance, excess weight (in humans and horses,) and neglect are frequent points of criticism.
Horses Are Not Naturally Designed for Riding
From a neutral point of view, it has to be said that even if a rider can sit comfortably on the horse’s back and the horse’s appearance seems almost predestined to carry him, it is not anatomically equipped to do so. The back muscle on which the rider sits is not suitable for carrying the horse due to its fiber structure. It is a movement muscle, not a support muscle, stabilizing the body and transferring power from the hindquarters to the forehand.
However, good training still enables the horse to carry a rider without damage. To achieve this, however, the entire musculoskeletal system, including muscles and tension, must work together in a certain way. If you want to ride and not harm your horse, you have to prepare it for the strain and train it systematically.
Is Riding Enjoyable for Horses?
And this is where we come full circle as to why riding is not cruelty to animals per se. Good, horse-friendly riding strengthens the horse’s body – it can prevent pain and wear and tear and keeps the horse fit and supple even in old age. There are plenty of good examples – but not usually on television.
What’s more, horses are running animals and need exercise to keep them mentally busy and physically healthy. Riding is the easiest way to give a horse this exercise. This is especially so when horses cannot be kept in herds on hectares of land in the cramped conditions in Germany. Riders love to fly across the meadows and through the forest on their horses – and many horses enjoy this kind of freedom just as much as the pleasure of movement and the speed of traveling together.
As horses are cooperative animals in need of harmony, they are generally happy to participate if the training is fair. If the husbandry is right and they can satisfy all their needs – company, exercise, air, and light – then humans are an enrichment in the horse’s life, a welcome change that provides stimulation. And that includes riding. The image of the maltreated, enslaved horse under the thumb of the irascible rider does not do justice to this type of partnership and connection.
A Horse Itself Shows Us How Comfortable It Feels Under Its Rider
By the way, the best answer to the question of whether riding is cruelty to animals or not can be given by the horse itself. It speaks a very clear language with its body and facial expressions, even and especially under duress.
Good riding is, in one word, harmonious. Horse and rider move in unison, not against each other. The horse’s movements are springy and elastic, the eyes are alert, and the tail is carried calmly.
Bad riding is the opposite. The movements are cramped and hard, the tail rotates, the eyes are wrinkled, and their whites are visible. Sometimes, the mouth is bleached and foaming at the mouth because the horse cannot swallow the saliva.
Harmonious riding also means that the rider does not have to keep the horse under control with bit and reins but that the horse is in control of itself. Being able to give the horse this mental relaxation involves a lot of training. In practice, this simply means that the rider is able to ride his horse in all gaits on a long rein.
Tips & Training How to correctly train the rider’s seat and why it is important for the horse
High-maintenance thoroughbreds Why former racehorses are not always suitable for leisure riding
Life expectancy How long do horses live?
A Ban on Riding Could Lead to the Extinction of Horse Breeds
If the extremists get their way and a riding ban is actually imposed, then we should be clear about one thing: without equestrian sport, there will be no horse breeding. Depending on the breed, horses are specialists with unique abilities. The Quarter Horse is not only a strong sprinter at a distance of a quarter mile (hence the name “Quarter”), but some breeding lines have a pronounced cow-sense and are made for working cattle.
The Thoroughbred is bred for speed, while the Arabian horse is known for endurance and its affinity for humans. With its compact build, the Spanish PRE is predestined for dressage lessons.
Horse breeds are as different as their original purposes. If they are no longer allowed to be ridden – which is the main purpose of breeding – breeding efforts will simply cease for economic reasons. And with that, breed diversity among horses will die. Nobody can seriously want that.
Conclusion: Even if it is more exhausting than lumping all riders together and calling them cruel to animals, the discussion needs to be differentiated. Riding is not cruelty to animals per se but can even be beneficial to the horse. A riding ban serves neither people nor horses.