Ways to make eventing safer identified in new study

Ways to make eventing safer have been identified in a new study by University of Bristol academics.

In the first study of horse falls for over 20 years, Bristol academics have identified some simple interventions to make eventing safer.  The new data hopes to guide the reduction of injury and falls.

The study pinpointed characteristics associated with an increased risk of falls in eventing. This included higher-level events, longer courses, more starters at cross-country phase and less experienced horses and athletes.

Identifying these risk factors allows riders and event organisers to assess the level of risk for individual horse, rider and event combinations. The study, published in the Equine Veterinary Journal, recommends simple mitigations. Adjusting minimum eligibility requirements [MERs] to ensure horses and riders always compete at a level appropriate to their ability was one suggestion.

The study was led by Bristol Veterinary School’s Dr Euan Bennet and Professor Tim Parkin, with Dr Heather Cameron-Whytock of Nottingham Trent University. It was funded by Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) and the first large scale study. It used a global data set of every FEI eventing competition over an 11-year period.

This data included every horse start worldwide in all international, championship, Olympics and World Equestrian Games competitions between January 2008 and December 2018. This amounted to over 200,000 horse starts, allowing researchers to specifically analyse the cross-country phase and identify any common factors.

Of 202,771 horse starts during this period, 187,602 started the cross-country phase. Of these, 1.5 per cent recorded a fallen horse and 3.5 per cent had an unseated rider. At least 50 riders and 109 horses have died since 2000 across all levels of competition worldwide. This calls for the need to make eventing safer.

Bristol Veterinary School’s Dr Euan Bennet commented;

Eventing is an exciting equestrian sport, but horses and riders sometimes get injured during competitions. Occasionally they are very seriously injured, even fatally. We have gained a detailed understanding of the risk factors that make horses more likely to fall, so that we can provide actionable advice to governing bodies on how to reduce the number of horse falls, and therefore injuries and fatalities among horses and riders.”

“This data is about probabilities, and we would never say don’t ride because you’re going to have a fall, but we might say what we can see is according to your risk profile you’re in the top 5% at risk of a fall.”

Fall Risk Factors

The study identified the following factors as contributing to a fall:

• Horses competing at higher levels.
• Horses competing over longer cross-country course distances.
• A higher number of starters at the cross-country phase.
• Mares were at increased odds compared with geldings.
• Horses whose previous start was longer than 60 days ago.
• Horses who had previously made fewer starts at the level of their current event.
• At the human athlete level, male athletes were at increased odds of experiencing a fall, compared with female athletes
• Younger athletes were at increased odds compared with older athletes.
• Less experienced athletes were more likely to fall than their more experienced counterparts
• Athletes whose previous start was more than 30 days ago were at increased odds compared with athletes who last started within 30 days.
• Athletes who did not finish their previous event, for any reason, were at increased odds compared with those who successfully finished their previous event.
• Horse-athlete combinations who recorded a score in the dressage phase that was higher than 50 (i.e. poor performance) were at increased odds of falling during the cross-country phase compared with combinations who recorded a dressage score of 50 or less.

The researchers now hope the FEI will use this new evidence to implement evidence-based rules for eventing. This will make eventing safer without compromising on competitiveness.

To read the research paper, click here.

Header image; Ingrid Klimke (GER) riding SAP Hale Bob OLD at FEI Eventing European Championships 2021, Avenches, Switzerland (FEI/Richard Juilliart).

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Abby Dickinson

Journalist and News Reporter, Everything Horse
Reporting on equestrian news stories, Abby also produces a variety of engaging content for the magazine.