22 Jun 2026
BEVA chief executive David Mountford says horse industry needs to ‘bring a big box of humility to the table’ following survey results.
Chris Simpson
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Image © Gabriel Cassan / Adobe Stock
Stakeholders have been urged to show more “humility” after fresh figures showed public acceptance of horses in sport has continued to fall.
World Horse Welfare unveiled the results of its fifth annual YouGov survey at a panel discussion, “Public acceptance of the involvement of horses in sport: what does good training look like?”.
With acceptance decreasing, panellists advised those across the industry to take a proactive approach in improving welfare and better communicating their efforts to the public.
The survey had a sample size of 4,310 respondents, of which 112 regularly interact with horses.
Almost one-quarter (24.4%, up from 19.5% in 2024) said they do not support horse involvement in sport under any circumstance, while over the same period support of continued involvement dropped from 23.3% to 20.9%.
Two in five (39.4%) were only supportive if welfare improves.
World Horse Welfare chief executive Roly Owers said: “Over the past five years, public sentiment does not appear to be going in the right direction.
“Only a slight trend and likely within the margin of error… but it certainly is one to continue to watch.”
BEVA chief executive David Mountford said despite the results, “in regulated sport the direction of travel [on welfare] is really genuinely positive. Awareness is high, engagement is real and that momentum is really important.”
But the vet added: “I think also one of the things that is true in horse sports, in racing, is that we don’t have much humility. We need to… bring a big box of humility to the table.
“We can all learn every week… on what’s going on with the science, how they can improve, how we can learn from others.”
Major Owers agreed “confidence with humility” is needed to celebrate positives while recognising there are “practices we don’t think are acceptable”.
Mr Mountford also suggested increasing commercialisation within the vet sector had increased pressure on surgeons. He said: “A vet who’s measured by their turnover will face genuinely difficult tensions when a client wants repeated injections for their horse or pony, or insists on overfeeding a laminitic pony, and when clients can and do move between practices, that tension intensifies.
“Now, that’s not to say that there’s a lack of integrity in vets at all, but that tension exists, and we need a situation where the systems in place enable good behaviour rather than make it more complicated.”
David O’Connor, US Equestrian Federation chief of sport and Fédération Equestre Internationale Eventing Committee chairperson, attributed falling acceptance levels to the public’s lack of daily interaction and experience with horses.
He urged stakeholders to “stay proactive through education, through rules, through telling the stories. It’s multiple pieces of the puzzle that have to be worked on together”.
Racing journalist and broadcaster Lydia Hislop agreed with her fellow panellists, adding: “We need to communicate and educate better, but we also need to challenge ourselves to do better… the idea that we wouldn’t bring new technology, new understanding, data, to be able to make things better is just an absurd position to hold.”