The Big Hitters

H&H news editor Eleanor Jones rounds up the biggest stories in the equestrian world from 2017 — and finds out what we can expect to happen next.

CHECKING TACK

THE STORY: pictures of an Olympic dressage horse bolting when his bridle was removed in error at Aachen in July went viral.

Sweden’s Juliette Ramel and her Rio ride Buriel KH had just finished their test and were having their tack checked when Juliette’s groom removed Buriel’s fly veil.

This caused the headpiece to come over the horse’s ears and he fled, bridle hanging.

And competition tack has come in for further attention this year. In October, the Danish federation announced a noseband tightness limit, of 1.5cm, to apply from January in all disciplines. The ruling was made after research found a correlation between tight nosebands and mouth lesions.

In the UK in July, dressage riders and trainers were frustrated when stewards loosened curb chains to “unacceptable” levels in competition. Pammy Hutton was one of those who complained after horses were rendered “unworkable”.

British Dressage’s Tamsyn Cowie said: “We don’t stipulate on the fitting of curb chains beyond that they must be fitted in a conventional manner and in a way not to cause pain.”

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

AN FEI spokesman told H&H it had received a statement from the Danish national federation, but without the full study it was too early to comment.

The Swedish federation expects to complete a report on the use of nosebands by the end of the year to help decide whether to follow Denmark’s lead, while the US federation said it will look into the Danish report.

LIVE TRANSPORT FOR SLAUGHTER

THE STORY: in May, H&H charity of the year World Horse Welfare launched the latest campaign in its battle against live transport of horses for slaughter.