Welfare challenges in competitive horse sports including racing, show jumping, dressage, and endurance riding.
Horse sport creates welfare challenges across disciplines. Racing involves intense physical demands on horses whose skeletal maturity has not been completed at standard starting ages. Show jumping can cause repetitive joint injury. Dressage training methods including hyperflexion cause discomfort that is well-documented. Endurance riding can push horses beyond safe physiological limits. Yet horses are also athletes that appear to engage willingly in training and competition when relationships are positive. The welfare challenge is preventing exploitation while recognizing that appropriate sport can be compatible with good horse welfare.