The Horse – The cross-country phase of eventing comes with risk, but new research aims to keep horses and riders safer.

Researchers now know that eventing riders are more likely to fall off during cross-country if they lack experience or they’ve had a poor dressage score at the same event. Risk also increases at higher levels or when riding longer courses. And a horse that’s fallen before is more likely to fall again.

In a recent study, researchers examined more than 200,000 eventing starts in Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) competitions over 10 years. Their data could lead to the development of “risk profiles” for each horse/rider combination prior to entering an event, which could ultimately improve safety and welfare for participants, said Euan Bennet, MSci, PhD, of the University of Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine, in Scotland.

“We’re not talking about massive changes,” Bennet said. “We’re just saying that the evidence that we’ve got here could inform the Minimum Eligibility Requirements (MERs, a series of checks that permit athletes to move up to higher star levels) to make sure people are competing at levels appropriate for them, to minimize the risks.”

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.

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The competitive history of endurance horses is important in predicting their likelihood of elimination from a competition, especially in relation to lameness, researchers have found.

Endurance is an internationally recognised equestrian sport in which horse-and-rider combinations compete over distances of up to 160km in a day.

The discipline is governed globally by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), and by Endurance GB in Britain.

Protecting the welfare of the horse is a key strategic priority within the discipline. However, horse injuries and fatalities in high-profile races have led to a negative public perception of the sport.

This has resulted in calls for increased safeguards around the welfare of endurance horses in order to reduce the risk not only to the horse, but also to the discipline and its social licence to operate.

Horse and Hound – Discussions around making cross-country safer without removing the challenge continue – as new data highlights where risk could potentially be reduced and scope to create course risk profiles.

In a newly published FEI-funded study, researchers at the universities of Glasgow, Bristol and Nottingham Trent aimed to identify cross-country fence risk factors using data from FEI eventing competitions between 2008 and 2018. Fences including corners and trakehners were identified as having increased odds of a horse or rider fall, compared to square spreads – and fences featured later on course, those with an approach and/or landing downhill or into water, and combinations, also had increased risk.

The researchers said it “should be considered” whether it might be possible to design around the “more challenging” fences, and suggestions included ensuring more challenging fences are not “over-represented” in the second half of the course, and including more alternative routes. They said the findings are the “first step” towards building a “risk profile or score” for every FEI cross-country course, which could be used to support the development of horses and riders, and be taken into account for qualification criteria.

Lead author Euan Bennet told H&H that although some of the findings might be “common sense”, the study provides quantification of the data.

Nottingham Trent University – New research into equestrian eventing safety has assessed different types of fence and course design, and quantified their associated risk of falling for either rider or horse.

The study is published in the Equine Veterinary Journal, and has highlighted ten fence types which are at increased odds of a fall occurring when compared with square spread fences. Seven types of fence were found to be at reduced odds of a fall. Twelve other factors related to fence and course design were also identified as affecting the risk of falls occurring.

Eventing is a challenging equestrian sport including three phases: dressage, show jumping, and cross-country. Cross-country involves riding at speed over a course of fences and is the most dangerous phase because falls can happen at fences. Around 6% of starts result in a fall – with either the rider falling off the horse, or the horse itself falling. Falls can have very serious consequences, up to and including death for both the horse and rider. Since 2016 there have been at least 41 horse fatalities and at least 18 rider fatalities.

The study assessed fence eventing risk factors, covering aspects of fence design and course design. Researchers found that fence types were at increased odds of a fall occurring compared to square spread fences, and seven types were at reduced odds. Fences positioned with approach and/or landing downhill were more likely to have falls occur than fences on flat ground, and fences which were a jump into water were risker than jumps onto solid ground.

The study team, at the Universities of Glasgow, Bristol, and Nottingham Trent, analysed data from over 200,000 fences in about 6,500 competitions over an 11-year period, and, overall, found thirteen factors related to competition, fence, and course design that meant falls were more likely to occur.