Welfare controversies in equestrian sport.

This page is history. The rules in force now are summarised on horse welfare and the FEI and whips, blood and nosebands.

Rollkur and hyperflexion, 2006 to 2024

"Rollkur", or hyperflexion, means riding or training a horse with its neck strongly bent so that its nose is well behind the vertical. Wikipedia traces the deliberate use of it to Francois Baucher's methods and says it became popular in competitive dressage in the 1990s. Who popularised it is told two ways: Wikipedia names Nicole Uphoff and Isabell Werth, while search summaries of FEI-era coverage associate it with the trainer Sjef Janssen and with Anky van Grunsven's horse Salinero.

31 January 2006: the Lausanne workshop

The FEI's Dressage and Veterinary Committees held a workshop at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne with about 60 people (Eurodressage, 1 February 2006). It proposed replacing "Rollkur" with "hyperflexion of the neck". Its preliminary conclusion was that there was no scientific evidence the technique was abusive in the hands of skilled trainers, but that use by inexperienced people could threaten welfare. In a response summarised by Eurodressage on 15 February 2006, the German Judges' Association said the committees could show neither that the method was useful nor that it did harm.

11 November 2008: the FEI restates its position

FEI Executive Sports Director David Holmes said the scientific evidence had not changed since 2006 and there were no known clinical side effects specific to hyperflexion, but that incorrect use carries welfare risks, and that excessive or prolonged hyperflexion is banned in all disciplines and enforced by stewards (Eurodressage, 16 November 2008).

18 October 2009 to 27 January 2010: the "blue tongue" video

At Odense, Denmark, the Swedish rider Patrik Kittel was filmed warming up the horse Scandic in a deep position in which the horse's tongue appeared blue. On 27 January 2010 the FEI said it had found no reliable evidence that the warm-up was excessive, did not send a case to its Tribunal, sent Kittel a warning letter, and set up a working group to define "prolonged and excessive" for stewards (Eurodressage, 27 January 2010).

9 February 2010: the round table

At IOC headquarters in Lausanne, a round table chaired by FEI President Princess Haya redefined hyperflexion or rollkur as flexion of the neck achieved through aggressive force, which it called unacceptable, while "Low, Deep and Round" flexion achieved without undue force was acceptable. It agreed that aggressive riding must be sanctioned and that no rule change was needed, and a working group under Frank Kemperman was to extend the guidelines for stewards (Dressage-News and Eurodressage, 9 February 2010). Princess Haya accepted a petition of 41,000 signatures against rollkur presented by Dr Gerd Heuschmann.

Each side

• The FEI, 2006 to 2010: no evidence of structural damage or clinical side effects when the technique is used by skilled riders; forced, prolonged or excessive flexion is banned (Eurodressage, 2006 and 2008). In 2010 it said earlier investigations had not shown a clear welfare harm but chose to act anyway (search summaries of Eurodressage, February 2010).
• Defenders of the method: summaries of a November 2006 Eurodressage report say the vet Rene van Weeren, presenting treadmill research at a coaching session with Janssen and van Grunsven, said he saw no biomechanical reason to contest it, and that Janssen described the low, deep and round position as a tool rather than a system.
• Critics of the 2010 outcome: Eurodressage's editorial of 9 February 2010 called it a "redefinition of the redefinition", and the FEI published a reply rejecting that reading (both seen as search summaries).
• The science since: a review of 55 studies by Uta Koenig von Borstel and colleagues, presented at the International Society for Equitation Science conference in Vancouver in August 2015, found 88 percent indicated that a hyperflexed position harms welfare (The Horse, 2015). A meta-analysis by Koenig von Borstel, Kienapfel, McLean, Wilkins and McGreevy in Scientific Reports on 2 October 2024 found that 75 percent of the 36 studies assessing welfare raised concerns, while performance results were inconclusive, and concluded that the welfare costs outweigh any benefit.

The FEI's Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission recommended in its final report, made public in April 2024, that scientific research on hyperflexion and rollkur be resumed (Chronicle of the Horse, May 2024).

Hong Kong 2008 and the anti-doping rules

EquiSearch reported on 21 August 2008 that on 20 and 21 August the FEI provisionally suspended four jumping combinations at the Olympic equestrian events in Hong Kong after their horses tested positive for capsaicin: Bernardo Alves (Brazil) on Chupa Chup, Christian Ahlmann (Germany) on Coster, Denis Lynch (Ireland) on Latinus and Tony Andre Hansen (Norway) on Camiro. They could not ride in the individual final. The FEI classed capsaicin as a prohibited doping substance because of its hypersensitising effect, and as a prohibited medication because it relieves pain. We did not read the FEI Tribunal's final decisions on these cases, so their outcomes are not given here.

Summaries of an FEI document say that in 2009 the FEI set up an independent commission chaired by Lord Stevens, which was combined with the athlete-initiated Ljungqvist Commission as a joint commission on 9 October 2009. On 19 November 2009 in Copenhagen the FEI General Assembly adopted new Equine Anti-Doping and Controlled Medication Regulations by 95 votes to 5, the commissions' Clean Sport recommendations by 90 to 8, and a new Prohibited Substances List of more than 1,000 substances (Dressage-News, 19 November 2009).

One part divided the members: a "Progressive List" allowing a few medications in competition within set limits passed only by 53 votes to 48. Summaries of a 2010 veterinary convention paper say it stayed controversial and that the FEI Bureau delayed it; they also give the new rules' start as 5 April 2010, while a draft of the regulations shows 1 January 2010. Both dates are unconfirmed.

The 2024 suspension

Eurodressage reported on 5 December 2024 that on 22 July 2024 the FEI received a video showing the British dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin excessively whipping a horse during a training session at a private stable. She confirmed she was the rider, was provisionally suspended from 23 July 2024 and withdrew from the Paris Olympics. On 5 December 2024 the FEI Tribunal confirmed an agreed sanction: a one-year suspension, with time already served counted, ending on 22 July 2025, on charges including abuse of a horse. She admitted the offences, and the decision is final. The FEI treated the video as an isolated incident; the Tribunal found the sanction within the rules but said it had not assessed whether it was reasonable. British Equestrian and British Dressage applied the suspension nationally.

The jumping blood rule, 2017 to 2026

Search summaries of Your Horse and Horse and Hound say amendments voted through at the 2017 General Assembly meant that from January 2018 blood on a jumping horse's flank brought elimination. In November 2025, at the General Assembly in Hong Kong, the FEI changed the rule by 56 votes to 20 with 2 abstentions, from 1 January 2026 (BEVA and Nancy Jaffer, both 7 November 2025). Blood caused by the rider no longer means automatic elimination: a first case brings a recorded warning, and a second within 12 months a one-month suspension. Every horse with blood must pass a fitness-to-compete check, and disqualification for excessive use of spurs remains.

• For the change: the FEI said the old rule did not separate abuse from accidents and minor lesions, so penalties were inconsistent; its jumping director Todd Hinde cited 101 blood-related eliminations in about 340,000 starts in 2025. The International Jumping Riders Club sought the change and called the elimination of Brazil's team at Paris 2024 over a tiny lesion excessive (Nancy Jaffer, 7 November 2025).
• Against the change: British Equestrian said the rule was not supported by the evidence or expert opinion; British Showjumping called it "a step backwards" and said it would keep its own national rule; the president of the German federation, the FN, said it did not fit the principle that the horse's welfare comes first; the Equestrian Action Group raised concerns about the sport's social licence; and a petition to keep the no-blood rule gathered 65,581 signatures (BEVA and Nancy Jaffer, 7 November 2025). British Showjumping also called the FEI's decision not to require padded batons instead of whips a missed opportunity.

At the same Assembly the FEI approved a stricter blood rule for dressage, in force from 1 January 2026, and said it would look at a more consistent approach across disciplines (Chronicle of the Horse, November 2025).

Social licence and the ethics commission, 2022 to 2025

In June 2022 the FEI formed an independent Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission of 10 members, chaired by the welfare scientist Professor Natalie Waran. Its survey of people in the sport in August 2022 drew almost 28,000 responses, and it gave an interim report in Cape Town on 12 November 2022 (Eurodressage, 2 November 2022). Waran presented the final report, with 30 recommendations in six areas, to the General Assembly in Mexico City in November 2023 (VetClick), and it was made public at the FEI Sports Forum in Lausanne in April 2024 (Chronicle of the Horse, May 2024). The FEI presented its own action plan, of 37 actions in seven categories, at the General Assembly in Abu Dhabi on 12 November 2024 (Eurodressage, 13 November 2024).

• The FEI: President Ingmar De Vos said at the April 2024 Sports Forum that some changes would come quickly and others would need scientific research (Chronicle of the Horse, May 2024).
• A critic: an opinion piece by an equine ethologist, seen only as a search summary, argued the FEI could already act on the evidence about nosebands, head position and whips without waiting, and warned of "welfare washing".