Nordic Initiative for Horse Welfare

The equestrian associations in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland have joined together in a joint letter on horse welfare addressed to the International Equestrian Federation (FEI).

From a Nordic perspective, we highlight how important it is to prioritize the work for horse welfare internationally and suggest that the FEI call for a Dressage Forum, where together we can focus on primarily developing dressage forward based on horse welfare after the revelations that rock equestrian sports in the last the time.

- The love of the horse is the foundation of equestrian sports, which makes the debate about horse welfare so important. That the debate first means that we all get the opportunity to look at what is not working so that we can develop together, says Johan Fyrberg.

The Nordic confederations who wrote the letter want, among other things, to have a discussion about the assessment at the competition and make it more transparent. We also want to have a discussion about training and championships for young horses and what the purpose of these championships is.

The initiative was brought up by Sweden in connection with an international workshop on horse welfare held during the Gothenburg Horse Show.

More information about the initiative can be found in a joint press release: Nordic equestrian federations address the FEI with concern for horse welfare | Svenska Ridsportförbundet (Nordic equestrian federations address the FEI with concern for horse welfare | Swedish Equestrian Association)

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