Your chance to help shape the FEI’s equine wellbeing policy

To progress its aim of ‘A Good Life for Horses’, the Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission (EEWBC) set up by the FEI, has launched a new survey of equestrian stakeholders to hear their views on the proposed approach to safeguarding equine wellbeing.

This is further to the 24 recommendations outlining the actions the FEI should take in order to demonstrate; leadership, trustworthiness, transparency, proactivity and, openness to independent evaluation, which include:

• ‘Publicly commit to defining, promoting and ensuring a Good Life for horses as the fundamental tenet of the FEI Equine Wellbeing Strategy’. (Recommendation 2)
• ‘Adopt a transparent and evidence-based approach for assessing the impact on horse welfare of new and existing items of tack and equipment in training and competition’. (Recommendation 8)
• ‘Require mandatory collection and publication of comprehensive lifecycle information and injury statistics for horses involved in sport’. (Recommendation 16)
• Ensure that all FEI stakeholders commit to the ‘FEI Equestrian Charter’. (Recommendation 17)
• ‘Empower officials to ensure welfare is paramount, through improved mandatory training and ongoing professional development, greater support for ensuring effective enforcement and more accountability for achieving high standards of individual horse welfare at all times at an event. (Recommendation 21)

The survey — which is offered in English, French and Spanish — is inviting responses from anyone involved with horses by June 22 2023. The questions include:

• Do you agree that horses can live a Good Life when involved in sport?
• To what extent you feel the 24 recommendations made by the Commission would make a real difference to the welfare of the sport horse if adopted by the FEI?
• Whether respondents would be happy to pledge to the FEI’s proposed new Equestrian Charter, requiring all FEI athletes to affirm their awareness of the responsibilities that come with using horses in sport, understanding its welfare and behavioural needs and, “respecting the horse as a sentient creature capable of feeling both positive and negative emotions”?

The survey also outlines the Commission’s proposed ‘Strategic Approach’ to help ensure ‘A good life for horses’ , through use of six strategic enablers; evidence, education, engagement, effective regulation, enforcement and empowerment.

“We were delighted with the extremely positive response to our recommendation” says EEWBC Chair Professor Natalie Waran. “The equestrian community understood that we can only demonstrate how seriously we take the responsibility of involving horses in sport with top-to-bottom engagement across the equestrian community, and a desire to act in the best interests if the horse”.

“The use of the word ‘sentient’ in the Charter is deliberate because it highlights that horses feel negative and positive emotions such as fear, stress, pain, contentment and pleasure, as well as the responsibility we all have for ensuring that equestrians understand the responsibility they have for how their horse feel. Animal sentience is recognised in law in many countries, and to ensure good welfare, we all need to understand what that is, why it’s relevant and why it matters to the horse.”

The EEWB Commission advocates evidence-based decisions to safeguard horse welfare; with the proviso that caution should always be used wherever there may be a welfare risk to the horse, while work is not complete or still being carried out to identify the indicators that can be used to assess equine wellbeing.

The survey should be completed by Thursday 22 June 2023 using the links below.

Link to the Spanish version: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Z9275QB

Link to the English version: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RH6WC8C

Link to the French version: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QYVN9XV

 This is the second survey carried out by the Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission to understand equestrian stakeholders views about the involvement of horses in sport. The results will be used to inform the work of the independent FEI Commission.

There are 10 questions addressing topics related to the recommendations made by the Commission to guide the FEI in safeguarding equine welfare and maintaining social license to operate. It should take a few minutes to complete and, your responses will be confidential with the data only being used to inform the work of the Commission.