A large number of horse deaths in eventing do not occur from falls at fences, research has shown.
A new study, published in Equine Veterinary Journal, aimed to gather data to understand the reasons for equine fatalities in eventing. In the absence of full data sets being publicly available, information was gathered from various media reports between 1998 and 2023.
The reports were verified against national federations’ records of recorded faults – as a bare minimum if a report said a fatality was owing to a horse fall, for this to be included in the study the federation record must have recorded an elimination for a horse fall. In some cases horse records had been deleted since the death or some federations’ databases were not accessible, so 60 reports were not included as they could not be verified.
Of the 110 equine fatalities included, 62.7% were not associated with a report of a horse fall across country. Musculoskeletal injuries were linked to 36.4% reports, and 27.3% did not include how the horse died. Sudden death was attributed to 36.4% of fatalities – 90% of these were during the cross-country phase.
The team found the study “demonstrates that equine fatalities in eventing occur in contexts other than horse falls, including as a result of musculoskeletal injuries and sudden death”.
Lead researcher Heather Cameron-Whytock of the University of Central Lancashire, who has worked on a number of eventing safety studies, told H&H the biggest surprise was the high percentage of fatalities not associated with a report of a horse fall.
“I include ourselves when I say this, when there’s any mention of safety and eventing, everyone is focused on horse falls,” she said. “So the fact a lot of the fatalities were not associated with [cross-country] fences shows we may be missing something, and that there are other important factors we should have been looking into, but we haven’t been up to now because we weren’t aware.”
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‘Not a total picture’
Dr Cameron-Whytock added that as the data came from media reports it “very likely is not a total picture” – but provides “really useful” information to lead future work. The FEI’s eventing statistics report (2013–2023) published in January included some fatality information including level, number of starters, total falls and the number of fatalities related to a cross-country fence.
“I know just from my own contacts in eventing that there have been fatalities at lower levels that don’t always get reported in the media so this isn’t a complete picture, but what it does is provide information about different types of fatalities that happen, which could help us direct future research,” she said.
“It could be that data exists, but it’s not in the public domain and at the moment there’s been no research on it, which is potentially another area to highlight, that if governing bodies have the data, it would be useful to commission research on that. Obviously, that will be more reliable than using media sources. If every national federation put all their equine fatality data together, and the FEI, that would probably give you a nice, robust data set.”
A British Eventing (BE) spokesperson told H&H that although this is a worldwide report and not just UK-focused, the organisation “welcomes this important research and shares the authors’ commitment to evidence-based improvements in safety and welfare”.
“We are committed to analysing and improving horse safety in eventing, and progress is being made all the time in reducing horse falls through frangible technology and course design,” she said.
“At all BE-affiliated national events, we record detailed incident data, including all horse injuries and fatalities, which informs our safety strategy and policy development. Our newly formed equine welfare committee, comprising veterinary, scientific and rider experts, is tasked with reviewing such findings and guiding future improvements across all aspects of horse welfare. We will also be sharing data from our 2024 safety report in coming months.”
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Since joining H&H in 2018, Becky has covered a broad range of equestrian news including welfare matters, veterinary studies, FEI Tribunal hearings and road safety campaigns. She has also interviewed top riders including Scott Brash, John Whitaker and Ian Stark, to name just a few. Becky’s reporting has taken her to Canada for Spruce Meadows and France for Pau five-star, as well as the Royal Highland and Blair Castle International Horse Trials closer to home. She was also a key part of the remote reporting team for the Tokyo Olympics and the Europeans.
