Bridging the Gap: How the FEI Can Reconcile Public Expectations and Rider Realities
The 2025 FEI General Assembly has once again highlighted a defining question for modern equestrian sport: How can the FEI bridge the gap between public expectations and rider realities?
Over the past five years, the FEI has delivered genuine progress through welfare reform, digital transformation, and governance transparency. Yet progress is only as strong as the understanding that surrounds it. As welfare remains at the heart of equestrian policy, the sport must also address how it communicates, educates, and collaborates with the people who live its realities every day.
A Changing Standard for Welfare
Since 2019, the FEI’s General Assemblies have marked steady transformation. Helmet mandates, endurance reform, the Equine Welfare Action Plan, and the Horse Digital Passport have each advanced welfare monitoring, traceability, and public accountability.
However, the implementation of change has not always felt collaborative. Riders and trainers, who play the most immediate role in equine welfare, often find themselves responding to policies rather than shaping them. Their experience is an underused resource: It bridges the space between science and practice, empathy and evidence.
For welfare policy to succeed, it must be lived, not just legislated.
When Communication Shapes Perception
Equestrian welfare is a matter of science and ethics, but also of communication. Public understanding is often built around the few visible controversies that dominate social media rather than the daily evidence of responsible care.
Six global platforms now control most online algorithms, rewarding conflict over context. That dynamic has made welfare in equestrianism as much a communications challenge as an ethical one. Too often, the conversation focuses on appeasing outside perception or unverified opinion, rather than showcasing the research, education, and professional expertise that already define the sport.
To shift this narrative, governance must lead through transparency and authenticity. Riders and grooms, whose knowledge of welfare is grounded in experience, are the sport’s strongest ambassadors. Their inclusion in policy development and communication strategy is not a formality, but a foundation for trust.
Understanding Public Expectations and Rider Experience
Outside the arena, equestrian sport can appear to follow a “no pain, no gain” philosophy. In reality, professional horses are among the most carefully managed athletes in the world.
A 2023 study published in Animal Welfare found that horses owned by amateur riders often face greater welfare challenges than those in professional sport, primarily due to gaps in knowledge rather than intent. The study highlighted how cognitive dissonance can lead well-meaning owners to believe their practices are optimal even when evidence suggests otherwise.
This contrast reinforces a critical truth: Equestrian sport’s structured environment, when informed by science and regulation, can support stronger welfare outcomes than unregulated settings. But for the public to recognise this, the sport must communicate it clearly and consistently.
Explaining how and why rules exist, and how they protect both horses and riders, is essential to building understanding. The goal is not to relax standards, but to articulate them in a way that educates and inspires.
What Equestrian Sport Can Learn from Others
Many global sports have faced similar tensions between governance, welfare, and athlete representation. The most successful responses have come from structural reform.
FIFA’s Players’ Voice Panel, the IOC’s Athletes’ Commission, and the UCI’s Riders’ Charter of Rights have all formalised athlete input into policy and welfare decisions. World Rugby’s Player Welfare and Advisory Group, along with Formula 1’s Drivers’ Commission, have demonstrated that consistent athlete consultation strengthens both safety outcomes and public credibility.
Equestrian sport could benefit from similar frameworks: A cross-discipline riders’ council or an Equestrian Athletes’ Charter that combines welfare, education, and governance under a shared voice. These systems do not weaken authority; they modernise it, ensuring that policy evolves with those who uphold it.
Aligning Governance, Growth and Storytelling
Governance is the structure that sustains the sport, but communication is what gives it meaning. When riders are visible, accessible, and empowered to share their expertise, audiences connect emotionally, and the sport grows commercially.
Data from Deloitte and Launchmetrics shows that athlete-led storytelling drives higher sponsorship retention and audience engagement than top-down marketing alone. The same potential exists in equestrian sport, where riders and horses together embody the values of partnership, precision, and care.
By inviting athletes to shape not only regulation but also how welfare and performance are communicated, the FEI can transform its relationship with the public. Strong governance and compelling storytelling are not opposing forces; together, they define a sport’s relevance and resilience.
From Compliance to Connection
The outcomes of the 2025 FEI General Assembly have made one truth clear: Equestrianism’s next evolution will not be built on more rules, but on better relationships.
Progress depends on integrating welfare science with rider experience, transparency with education, and governance with communication. The FEI has the tools, research, and structure to protect its horses. What the sport now needs is alignment between what it practices, what it promotes, and what it represents.
The future of equestrian sport will not be secured by appeasing public scrutiny, but by earning understanding through evidence, empathy, and authenticity. Welfare is not a marketing slogan; it is a shared responsibility. Connection, not compliance, will define the next chapter.
Want the full story?
Read the complete feature “Rewriting the Rulebook: How the FEI Can Balance Public Perception and Rider Demands” and explore detailed insights from the 2025 FEI General Assembly.
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