05/07/2025
The topic we have all been talking about.
In the wake of the Lexington horse I posted about yesterday who as good as fell, but not by the rules so completed the event - what is the purpose of holding Vs spinning horses at an FEI event?
Firstly to stay up to date - the FEI has now yellow carded the rider for dangerous riding.
The horse in question was held at the trot up and re-presented to then pass and complete with a clear show jumping round.
Back to trot up: An FEI vet is not just any old vet - it is an individual who must first be a licensed veterinarian in good standing with their National Federation and be actively involved in equine veterinary practice.
They need to be recommended by their National Federation and approved by the FEI Veterinary Department. Additionally, they must meet specific educational requirements, including passing relevant FEI courses and examinations.
This vet has trained for judging trot ups specifically so I am unsure how a horse can be in a position that a vet thinks it has an issue one moment, then ten minutes later, with no intervention of any kind or maybe an ice pack, the same vet can now think it is fine, which is what happens in most cases at the events I have seen despite rarely seeing a well muscled horse with functioning thoracic sling.
The years that I competed under the FEI were between 1999 and 2012 - but I did not just compete. I helped before events (national and FEI) to prepare the course, dressage arenas, during events to collect scores, dress write or fence judge or help in the start box or cross country box and after events to break down fences and arenas.
I also spent time working or as a working pupil with 4 people who had ridden at top-level and all had GB flags on their hats.
These were the people who taught me about trot ups and alot about international eventing and basically all of them had the same philosophy, which if I boiled it down to one sentence would be:
"The horse comes first - however we will weigh up the horse, the competition and the implications of a high place/win for the rider Vs an injury for the horse before deciding to run cross country.
Sometimes we will start and just do the first 2 phases of a 5* event and will not risk the horse cross country if the placing at this time is not high enough.
When the placing is high enough and we decide to go for it and have a good placing after cross country, we will do everything we can to get this horse to complete the competition and will break the rules as necessary to do this and get a horse that we know is clearly uncomfortable through the trot up."
For some reason riders are more likely to pull out en masse if the ground is too hard or soft, however if their individual horse has a cracker of a moment (or 2) such as seen at Lexington the riders do not then pull out despite a much higher imminent risk that something has happened to their horse that could be damaging in the long term.
The riders know how to trot their horses up for varying issues. Some things disappear if you trot really fast, some disappear if you trot very slowly.
I can't even believe I am going to write this next sentence but it is important because this is the mentality of many riders, the people who we want to see it more from our viewpoint - If I was trotting up a horse I knew might not pass the trot up then there was a specific way the trot up would go - starting with a game of distraction, often including a short trot (just enough so it was seen) and little canter and a look on my face of “Oh! My pony! So out of control! Oh dear! “ While my very long a fairly wild red hair blew everywhere in the wind.
I was not in a place to question the authorities who were teaching me and so I was guided along this path learning all sorts of unethical tidbits here and there and listening to the hearsay around events from the officials camp that I overheard about what they knew vs what the riders were doing at various stages of the events.
I had been held during the trot up at the odd event which was always a mystifying experience. Lots of serious people, a vet telling us that we were held for X reason, palpating the horse and watching him trot up again, giving feedback and the choice to re-present or retire. Trot up and get accepted.
One specific time was after the huge horse fall that I got on after we both fell (it was in the rules!) - we were held then passed and really for the good for that horse, I should have been stopped - if not on course - the next day at trot up, when my judgement was being clouded about what to do for the best for my horse.
The system is a difficult one, because having overheard organisers and officials talking and having talked to them about it in the past - if they eliminate everyone for the slightest thing in a trot up they fear that the competitors will not return to their event and then they lose the event. This thinking is rife among most events - they really don’t want to p**s off a high level competitor because they don’t just lose 1 entry they lose multiple entries and their pals potentially too that they enjoy spending their weekend with.
Organisers and Officials have the hardest job - they want to run a safe viable event and they want the competitors to enjoy themselves and look after their horses. They are not parents forcing riders to abide by the rules, but are there to enforce them - but there is a huge rider:official ratio and the riders who want to abuse their horses can always find a secluded spot away from official eyes.
Officials are also under pressure other conform to certain ideals and if they do not, they will soon be ousted from the job as many have attested to so where can the change come from in this case?
Why can FEI Eventing FEI Dressage not lead the way with an initiative to re-invent all horse sport from a welfare based stand point given the pressure that is on them with the disasters that keep happening under their banner by starting giving riders tools they do not have to understand more about their horse's welfare, training tools for understanding hoof balance and training the thoracic sling to create a safer sport due to more functional horses, and stricter rules around these 'lucky moments' that actually carry huge risk to horses and are mostly completely overlooked.
