A strange thing happened in the equestrian world last month, you probably heard about it, but to me it highlighted everything that is wrong with mainstream equestrian sports.
It came down to one question: what about the horses?
In case you missed it, 3 time equestrian event Olympian, Shane Rose, participated in a fancy dress class in the Southern Highlands on 11th February, 2024.
The popular annual event was promoted by the organisers to have elite equestrians competing throughout the day, and the highlight being the fancy dress classes, where competitors would wear “outlandish costumes”.
Shane Rose lived up to expectations, and for one of his 3 costumes appeared dressed in a Mankini, like the character Borat. His other 2 costumes were a gorilla and Duffman from the Simpsons. The stewards allowed him to compete in the mankini, and the photos and video of his round showed the judges and audience laughing and having a great time, in the spirit the event intended. I should note that Rose made extra efforts to ensure there would be no “mishaps” with the use of tape – adding to his discomfort!
Strangely, the media failed to report where he placed in his fancy dress classes…?
But someone on the day complained to Equestrian Australia as well as Sports Integrity Australia. The complaint was that he was dressed inappropriately for an event where children were present.
I’m not sure what Swimming Australia, and our many swimming Olympians, made of that..!
But this single complaint had immediate ramifications for Rose. The day following the complaint, Equestrian Australia notified Rose that would be stood down from competition while the incident was investigated – a process that usually takes months to complete. While this was not an official sanction or suspension, this was a real possibility and missing any events would likely impact Rose’s chances of competing again in the upcoming Olympics.
No one was laughing any more.
Following a huge amount of media attention, public backlash, and huge support on a Change.org petition that gained over 15,000 signatures within 3 days. Rose’s bare butt cheek were plastered across social media, TV and print media for days. Very few people would ever have known about it, if the complaint was not made!
But as a result, Equestrian Australia’s internal disciplinary process cleared Rose in record time – less than 7 days.
But this brings me back to my question: What about the horses?
The week before a rider was photographed and reported to Equestrian Australia as abusing a horse during competition (using a banned training method called rollkur) and they were not stood down for any period of time. I’m not sure if the complaint has even been addressed by Equestrian Australia as yet.
This is not unusual. Using banned methods as well as excessive whipping, spurring or rough handling of horses, when reported to Equestrian Australia, does not earn a rider anywhere near the same severe official response that Rose incurred for exposing a bit of skin, while he and his horse performed beautifully.
How is the way a rider is dressed treated as a serious incident, when abusing a horse in front of a crowd is not? Do we really care more about how people dress than how they treat their horses?
This not only feeds the negative perception of horse riding being an elitist and upper class sport, but it clearly shows that Equestrian Australia does not take horse welfare seriously.
There’s an increasing amount of lip service that sporting organisations are improving welfare, setting higher standards, implementing procedures to deal with mistreatment of animals in sport and responding to Social Licence to Operate.
The incidents of poor horse welfare that occur routinely at horse shows and events would never be tolerated at any competition that dogs participate in, nor at a bird, or rabbit show. Why do we treat horses differently?
And yet, when it comes to the crunch, we can see where their priorities really lie. And its not with horse welfare. This problem is not unique to Equestrian Australia, nor is it isolated to sports.
This meme shows an extreme example, but makes a valid point – that, for some reason, we expect horses to be treated differently to other companion animals. Perhaps because they are larger than us, or because they don’t whimper like cats or dogs do, we tolerate a sub standard treatment of horses, that we would be outraged by if it were done to any other companion animal.
Social Licence to Operate is coming for the horse industry, and most of the industry has its head in the sand. The horse industry needs to step up to raise welfare standards to be in line with the minimum standards that other companion animals enjoy in our society – not because we are afraid of the public backlash, or the attacks by animal right extremists, or the potential impact it might have on our sporting careers – but because we actually care about the horses, and their experience.
Or do we not?
By: Karri Nadazdy – Animal Care Australia Horse & Livestock Representative. Originally published: March 2024 ACE Newsletter.
