Horses compete in a range of sports from racing to dressage to eventing. Welfare challenges vary by discipline but include injury risk, training methods, and confinement practices.
Horse sports welfare varies significantly by discipline and management. Racing involves genuine injury risk particularly in jump racing, where fatality rates are higher than flat racing. The 2019 Santa Anita fatality cluster focused public attention on track surface quality, medication practices, and early career pressure on young horses. Dressage training controversies including Rollkur — hyperflexion of the neck — have been addressed through FEI regulation following welfare evidence of stress responses. Across all disciplines, stabling practices that isolate horses from social contact create welfare problems for a species evolved in herds. The trend toward all-day turnout access and social group housing represents welfare-positive development in horse management.