08/11/2025
Great post. It’s so disappointing to see the FEI repeal the blood rule. I can’t even imagine how horrible I’d feel if I was riding Willow (or any other horse) and stressed her to the point where she bit through her tongue, or kicked her so hard she started bleeding. How can anyone claim to love their horse when they care more about winning than their horses welfare?
And to see recent pictures of the Melbourne cup winner celebrating victory while blood drenches the horses mouth is just disgusting. Is there no shame? Are they not even pretending to care any more?
Horse sport will lose its social licence to operate if this continues, and then they’ll all be sorry
𝐀 𝐒𝐚𝐝 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐞😭
It’s a hard one to swallow.
The Fédération Equestre Internationale has voted in The new “blood rule” has passed, 56 countries in favour, 20 countries against, 2 countries abstentions. From January 2026, a horse can bleed in the ring and still keep jumping as long as someone decides it’s “minor” and that the horse is “fit to continue.”
Once upon a time, we didn’t need a committee to tell us what that meant. Blood meant stop. End of story. It was the line that separated good horsemanship from ambition gone too far. You could win a class another day, but you couldn’t unsee a horse bleeding in front of a crowd. It was simple, it was fair, and it protected both horse and rider from their own adrenaline.
Now that line’s been blurred into bureaucracy. Instead of elimination, we’ll have “recorded warnings.” Two of those in a year and you might get a fine or a month’s suspension. The message? You can draw blood once or twice before it really matters.
They call it consistency. I call it moral drift.
Sweden, Germany, Denmark, and Austria all voted no ( countries way ahead of horse welfare). Britain has already said it won’t mirror the rule nationally. And fair play to them. They still understand what the wider world sees that a bleeding horse is not a technicality.
The public won’t read through pages of regulations or veterinary clauses. They’ll see a horse bleeding and a rider still competing, and they’ll decide for themselves what sort of sport we are. In an age where our “social licence to operate” already hangs by a thread, this vote cuts straight through it.
And where was Ireland in all of this?
We didn’t make a statement before the vote, and we haven’t made one after. That silence speaks volumes. Ireland, of all places, should have something to say. Not because we’re spotless far from it but because we know the other side of it too well. We’ve all seen the horses left tied in yards, the mouths torn by harsh bits, the training still ruled by dominance instead of understanding. Welfare isn’t our national strong suit and that’s exactly why we should have stood up here, not stayed quiet.
We can’t pretend we’re beyond reproach. But we can choose to be better. This was our chance to do that to stand beside Sweden and Germany and say, enough.
Blood isn’t a grey area. It’s a fact. It’s skin split, tissue torn, pain felt. You can dress it up in all the veterinary wording you like, but no horse ever bled because it was having a good time.
I’ve ridden long enough to know accidents happen horses bite their tongues, rub themselves raw, knock a rail and cut a leg. That’s life. But the line between accident and pressure gets dangerously thin when medals and money enter the mix. That’s why we needed the rule as it was: a clean, simple stop that reminded everyone who we were supposed to be horsemen first, competitors second.
You can have all the “recorded warnings” in the world, but they won’t teach feel. They won’t restore the trust lost when people see red on a grey horse and wonder why the bell hasn’t rung.
Sweden’s federation said it plainly, blood on the horse is a clear signal of impact or injury. They’re right. It’s not a matter of interpretation. It’s a matter of respect.
And that’s what hurts most about this decision not just what it changes on paper, but what it says about where the sport is heading. Rules can evolve, yes. But welfare should never be the part we compromise for convenience.
Because at the end of the day, it’s not the ribbons or the ranking that define us. It’s the choices we make when the horse can’t speak for itself. To every coach, rider, and official reading this, hold your own line. If there’s blood, you stop. You don’t need a rulebook to tell you that.
The FEI might have changed the rule,
but they can’t change what’s right.
We’re supposed to be equestrians not monsters under the bed.
If we can’t stop when there’s blood,
then God help the next generation learning from us.
Photo Credit: Julia Clarke
