Whips, blood and nosebands: the FEI's welfare rules and the arguments over them.

The FEI's rulebook site refused our requests, so the rules below come from reporting on them, named in each case; exact current wording belongs to the FEI rulebooks. Any injured horse needs a vet. The wider welfare review behind several of these changes is on the welfare and the FEI page.

The whip

Eventing, 2026

The 2026 FEI Eventing Rules were approved at the November 2025 General Assembly and took effect in January 2026. The Chronicle of the Horse reports that they list inappropriate use of the whip (Art 525.2) under the athlete and horse welfare rule:

• using the whip more than twice in one incident, or after the final fence, is treated as abuse and reviewed by the ground jury;
• inappropriate use always brings a recorded warning, and excessive use an automatic yellow card, with harsher penalties possible;
• visible skin damage or marks are always treated as excessive;
• whipping the head, after elimination or overhand remains banned.

For jumping, drafts of FEI rule changes in 2024 and 2025 are reported in search summaries to set a limit of three strikes in a row; we did not read the adopted text, so that limit is unconfirmed. In November 2025 British Showjumping said it was disappointed that the FEI had not moved to padded batons in place of whips.

A suspension for abuse (2024 to 2025)

Eurodressage reports that on 22 July 2024 the FEI received a video showing British dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin excessively whipping a horse in a training session at a private stable. She confirmed it was her on 23 July 2024, withdrew from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and accepted a provisional suspension. On 5 December 2024 the FEI announced a one-year suspension, ending 22 July 2025 with the provisional period credited, on three charges: abuse of a horse, bringing the sport into disrepute, and breach of the FEI Code of Conduct for the Welfare of the Horse. She admitted the offences and the decision is final. British Equestrian and British Dressage applied the suspension nationally.

Blood on the horse

Jumping: the 2026 rule and the vote

Before 2026, visible blood on a jumping horse generally meant elimination. A micro-lesion led to the elimination of Brazil's team at the Paris 2024 Olympics. At the FEI General Assembly in Hong Kong in November 2025, a revised jumping blood rule (Article 259) was voted on separately and passed by 56 votes to 20 with 2 abstentions; the wider jumping rules revision passed 73 to 3 with 3 abstentions. As Nancy Jaffer reports it, the new rule works like this:

• Blood caused by tack or equipment, or induced by the athlete, brings a Jumping Recorded Warning. A second warning within 12 months brings an automatic one-month suspension. All such warnings are published.
• Blood from a bitten tongue or lip, or a nosebleed, may be wiped or rinsed and the pair may continue if the horse is judged fit, with no warning.
• A fitness-to-compete check by the ground jury and veterinary delegate is mandatory in every blood case.
• Mandatory disqualification for excessive use of spurs stays.

FEI director of jumping Todd Hinde said there had been 101 blood-related eliminations in 2025, in about 340,000 starts, mostly involving blood on the flank. A petition to keep the no-blood rule gathered 65,581 signatures before the vote.

Who argued for the change, and who against (November 2025)

The Chronicle of the Horse reports that the FEI acknowledged the jumping vote was not unanimous and said it would look at a more harmonised approach across disciplines.

Dressage and eventing

The dressage blood rule went the other way. Approved at the same General Assembly on 7 November 2025 and in force from 1 January 2026, Art 424.5.6 requires the judge at C to stop the horse to check suspected fresh blood from the time the pair enters the area around the arena until the end of the test. Confirmed blood means elimination, as does fresh blood found after the test in or around the mouth or the spur area.

In the 2026 eventing rules, according to the Chronicle of the Horse, the blood rule for the dressage phase is unchanged, jumping-phase blood follows the new jumping approach, and cross-country blood caused by the athlete is judged case by case, with heavy bleeding still meaning elimination.

Other dressage changes from 1 January 2026 include allowing padded or covered cavesson nosebands and curb chains provided they are never tight enough to cause harm, making spurs optional, allowing snaffle bridles up to CDI3* and in some youth categories, and allowing static cameras to record or stream warm-up arenas for welfare monitoring. Judges may also eliminate a pair for resistance or dangerous behaviour lasting under 20 seconds if welfare is at risk.

Noseband tightness

The FEI published "General and Discipline Specific Protocols for Assessing the Tightness of Nosebands", dated February 2025. Eurodressage reports that it applies from 1 May 2025 at all FEI events, to all noseband types and to both upper and lower straps. FEI stewards check with an FEI measuring device 1.7 cm thick, placed over the nasal bone. Eurodressage places the sanction for a failed check under Article 1044.8 of the FEI Veterinary Regulations.

• A noseband that fails the check before competition must be loosened before the horse may start.
• A failure after competition means elimination and a yellow warning card, with no discretion for officials.

The Chronicle of the Horse reports that the FEI developed the device with external experts and tested it more than 600 times at events in Europe and the US, that the start moved from 1 January to 1 May 2025, and that stewards previously checked with their fingers. FEI legal director Mikael Rentsch said checks had varied significantly between disciplines and that the aim is adjustment, not exclusion.

Where national rules differ

US Equestrian's 2026 dressage booklet (1 May 2026) requires that two fingers can be inserted under the noseband on the side of the face, and states that the FEI noseband tool is not used at USEF competitions. The FEI uses its 1.7 cm device at FEI events. Search summaries also report that Denmark, and a 2024 Equestrian Canada proposal, use a 1.5 cm gauge, and that one rider said the FEI's 1.7 cm leaves a noseband very loose; we could not confirm either. For what the FEI tack rules allow, see bridles, bits and nosebands.