Ethical equitation: Applying a cost-benefit approach

Abstract 

Riding and training horses is the basis of a multi-billion dollar industry, but their use in the developed world is predominantly for recreational, competitive, entertainment, or performance purposes. However, when we consider the poor welfare outcomes for the horses involved, our ultimate focus on fun seems a poor justification for using horses in this way. This article is not intended to diminish the use of horses in the ridden context, rather it foreshadows a time when horse welfare and equestrian competition are as balanced and sustainable as possible.

Any use of horses is inevitably associated with a range of activities and interventions that can, collectively, compromise welfare. Laws are unlikely to adequately protect horse welfare if they assume traditional practices, including the use of the whip to accelerate horses, to be “reasonable” and “acceptable” without regard to their effect. Objective measures of the influence of training and riding methods on horse welfare are needed, along with a more sophisticated ethical framework than legislation or codes currently provide.

Using a cost-benefit analysis approach is one way to test the acceptability of our impacts on horses. This requires that welfare costs associated with an activity can be reliably estimated and balanced against the potential benefits of the activity to both humans and horses. To justify our use of horses for fun, we must have a strong moral obligation to ensure that we do everything possible to avoid jeopardizing their welfare.

In other areas of animal use, particularly research, ethical models permit objective comparisons of the relative impact of different activities through “impact scales.” We propose the adaptation of such models for use in equestrian contexts to identify ways to improve ridden horse welfare.

The challenge to equestrians is to maintain current levels of difficulty in competition without compromising horse welfare—for example, relying more on the skill of the trainer and rider and removing devices and training methods that negatively affect the horse.

Keywords: ethical equitation, horse, training, competition, utilitarianism