Expert blog: Horse falls in eventing – a brief history of one of the most dangerous equine sports

Nottingham Trent University – By Dr Heather Cameron-Whytock, an expert in equine sport risk in the School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences.

Equestrian eventing is sometimes known as the ‘Equestrian Triathlon’. Luckily, horses aren’t required to swim, but the sport is composed of three distinct phases. The cross-country phase – which involves galloping across country, over logs, ditches, water and other obstacles composed of ‘natural’ materials – poses the biggest risk of injury and fatality to horse and rider, due to the occurrence of horse falls.

Horse falls typically happen due to the horse coming into contact with one of the cross-country obstacles whilst attempting to jump over it. If a horse hits one of these solid obstacles at speed then rapid deceleration occurs, sometimes causing the horse to rotate in a somersault motion over the fence and land on its back – and potentially on top of the rider. It is no surprise then that these incidents carry substantial risk of serious injury to both the horse and the rider, and in the worst cases even death.

In the past five years alone, there have been 13 rider and ten horse deaths worldwide as a result of horse falls at cross-country fences.