SAFETY is not an ‘us and them’ issue. It is just ‘us’. The ‘us’ refers to the fact that everyone in our sport has a role to play in safety issues and only by working together, can we say we have done our best to keep riders safe. Whether you are a rider, groom, owner, official, supporter, farrier or veterinary surgeon, there is no one in the eventing world that has not been personally touched by at least one fatality and no one should fail to take the issue seriously.

In addition, the rider fatalities in eventing do not just reflect badly on eventing but on all of us in the whole sport horse world. Just as the six horses that died during the FEI-recognised endurance competitions in the UAE had a negative effect on all horse sports. As Jimmy Wofford said: “Although this scandal is taking place in a separate international discipline, it affects all horse lovers….if we tolerate people who are willing to kill horses for sport, how is the world to know the difference between them and the rest of the horse-loving community?”