Nosebands harming horses at the Olympics, say experts

Olympic horses are showing signs they are being deprived of oxygen and subjected to pain as their nosebands are pulled too tight, experts say.

- JANE DALTON

Olympics chiefs this week admitted some horses were suffering from “blue tongue” – when bits pulled too tight in the mouth stop oxygen flow to the tongue. Riders try to hide the condition with white foam, it is claimed.

Shelby Dennis, an equine behavioural consultant and co-founder of the Alliance for Horse Welfare in Sport, said in Olympics footage during the past two weeks she had seen poorly fitted equipment including nosebands over-tightened to stop horses from being able to open their mouths.

Horses naturally open their mouths to relieve the pain when a bit – a metal bar placed over the tongue – causes too much pressure, experts say. But dressage competitors lose points if their horse opens its mouth. Ms Dennis said footage and photos from the Olympics also showed horses with tongues that had turned blue from the blood supply being cut off from the pressure of the bit.

Horses in Paris showed signs of pain and stress, she said, through “gaping mouths to try to escape bit pain, tail swishing, very tense eyes with the white sclera showing, jaw tension, lip tension and teeth grinding”.

Studies have shown too-tight nosebands make the animals more likely to bite their lips or tongue. Most horses – at least 60 or 70 per cent in this year’s tournament – displayed these signs, Ms Dennis said.

“We’re already placing a foreign object in their mouth, and then when we clamp down to their jaw and make it so that they can’t move their mouth, it’s stressful,” she said. “There’s a lot of documented physical problems associated with it, in addition to psychological issues.”

Around 205 horses competed at this year’s Olympics equestrian events. The chief vet at governing body the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) found pictures of horses with blue tongues during a dressage competition, the organisation said on Tuesday.