Outcry over World Championships promo video: ‘big dreams deserve better than AI’
Concerns for the industry if artificial intelligence (AI) is used to promote it have been raised in response to promotion for the 2026 World Championships.
Aachen shared the AI-generated video 100 days before the event (11–23 August).
It was captioned “Big dreams deserve a big stage”, and showed a horse supposedly dreaming of performing at the German showground. As well as jumping, pulling a carriage and in a dressage arena, without a rider or driver, the horse was shown doing a backflip and being ridden by a Shetland-type pony.
Of 200+ comments on the Aachen Instagram post, almost all were negative. More than one person wrote: “Big dreams deserve better than AI.”
Equestrian journalist and photographer Tilly Berendt told H&H she had multiple concerns about the Aachen AI video.
“I find this repellent from many angles, and dangerous,” she said. “I think AI will dismantle us as an industry and this is a dangerous precedent.”
Ms Berendt said a major concern is for the environment. There is growing research showing that the proliferating number of data centres needed for AI have a detrimental effect.
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The centres produce electronic waste, use large amounts of water and electricity, rely on minerals and rare elements, often mined unsustainably, and are among the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
“It does broadly contribute to climate change,” Ms Berendt said. “But there’s the direct effect on degradation of land as well. Both are unbelievably damaging for our sport.
“For eventing, and the land we need simply to run competitions, if we start to damage that land in this snowballing way AI is doing, we will lose those spaces.
“We’ll see land sold to data centres. They’re colossal, and the money these companies have to buy land – we will lose green spaces in that way, and those that become unusable because the climate has changed.
“Climate change has already contributed to hay prices pushing people out of business this year. So contributing to that, from a competitive point of view or simply being able to keep and enjoy horses, and keep horses accessible to people who aren’t ultra-wealthy, this is going to have a huge, irreversible impact.”
Understanding the sport
Ms Berendt said another concern is public acceptance of horse sport; not only as horses “who look lame and stressed, even though they’re AI” do not paint a good picture, but owing to the effect if AI pushes out experienced journalists who understand the sport and public perception of it.
“Photographers and videographers will be priced out; a hard drive has gone from £100 to £400, as supply and demand of RAM [computer memory] has gone haywire because it’s used by data centres,” she said. “Already, people responsible for putting out good images of the sport can’t afford to do the job.
“I’m seeing more AI writing about our sport, which is so dangerous as inaccuracies go out. The more the nuanced, experienced journalists who write sensibly about our sport and help enact change get pushed out of work, the quicker our sport gets to the final day.”
Another concern is trust and transparency, which has often been cited as a key to public acceptance; Ms Berendt feels the equestrian industry is often behind public sentiment, which has shifted against AI.
“The horse world might be a bit slow to say, ‘We don’t trust this,’ but the public isn’t,” she said. “It makes us look untrustworthy, sloppy and incredibly amateur.
“It’s heartening how many people spoke against it; that catches up a bit with the mainstream. We should be demanding better, for the sake of the industry, the planet and the horses.”
EquiConsulting founder Sarah Skillin told H&H she is a fan of AI in many equestrian contexts, such as monitoring horses’ health and helping prevent issues, but not this one. She shared the environmental concerns, adding: “Is this really how we want the world to see the sport; artificial and lacking intelligence?”
She pointed out, as did Ms Berendt, that Aachen has a wealth of footage and imagery that could have been used.
“I saw a post explaining their thinking, about digitising and showing a different audience a different view and I’m on board as we have to widen our market and understanding,” she said. “But it was the execution; as if someone had put into ChatGPT: ‘Show me a video of a horse dreaming of going to Aachen and living its best life.’
“The horse’s legs didn’t move in the right way, the way it jumped wasn’t right. You had the Shetland dancing on its back, a horse doing a somersault; they’ve missed out the connection between horse and rider, which is huge. It was so poorly done. I feel bad for the creative team because the vision was good, the execution let it down.”
Ms Skillin said the campaign could have worked and fulfilled its brief by using real creators’ work.
“That’s why there’s such public outcry,” she said. “We’ve got incredible content creators, creating really good artistry to present the sport, and it’s been superseded by a really bad AI impression of it. We don’t need to live in a 100% AI world.”
The Aachen AI video creation
An Aachen spokesperson told H&H the Aachen AI video was created with a specialist agency.
“It is deliberately conceived as a creative vision – showing how AI, used as a tool, can open up new perspectives in storytelling for our sport without replacing real athletes, horses or the unique horse-human bond at the heart of Aachen,” he said.
“We are convinced that engaging proactively and transparently with modern technologies such as AI – for example to enhance fan engagement – is essential for keeping equestrian sport attractive, accessible and competitive in a rapidly changing media landscape.
“At the same time, we remain firmly committed to a responsible use of AI and to supporting human creatives – above all the many outstanding photographers and videographers whose work captures the great moments of our sport for eternity and without whom there can be no authentic image of Aachen, now or in future.”
An FEI spokesperson said the FEI engaged with the Aachen post “in the context of supporting the promotion of the event”.
“We are aware of the feedback it has generated,” she told H&H. “We are in close contact with the organising committee in Aachen to reflect on this feedback and to ensure that, in the lead-up to the World Championships, future content continues to represent the values of the sport.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.