Being a part of the equestrian community while not agreeing with the majority on many topics is a difficult place to be. Focusing on positive reinforcement, liberty, and consent based methods as opposed to the more common positive punishment, coercive methods makes it hard to find agreement on the issues around the use of horses in sport. However this occurred recently during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, when non-equestrians and equestrians alike sat in horror as they watched the distressing footage from the show jumping portion of the modern pentathlon, in which a rider was brought to tears by the loss of a potential medal when her horse refused to perform, and her coach (who has since been banned) punched the horse for ‘misbehaving’.
The show jumping portion of the pentathlon involves 12–15 jumps set at a maximum of 120cm (40cm lower than specialist Olympic showjumping). It is not uncommon for riders to have trouble with their horse, however this year multiple riders had difficulty riding and handling their horses through the course with a number being thrown from their mount. What sets the pentathlon apart from normal show jumping, is that competitors are not riding a familiar horse, they are assigned a horse at random and given 20 minutes to familiarise themselves with the horse and build trust. The horse is also assigned to two competitors, one in the higher half of the standings, and one in the lower half.
Many pointed to the difficulty the rider Annika Schleu from Germany had with her assigned horse Saint Boy, who in many articles has taken the blame for losing the athlete a gold medal. But Saint Boy was displaying a multitude of behaviours that have been objectively linked to pain and stress.
It is not possible to measure pain levels in horses or other animals, who cannot express their pain verbally. But we can use a tool called an ethogram, where we count particular standard behavioural markers, to objectively measure the extent to which a horse exhibits behaviour associated with pain. One such is the Ridden Horse pain Ethogram (RHpE) developed to assess the presence of pain associated behaviour in horses when ridden. Behaviours shared by the RHpE and Saint Boy are: head shaking, stumbling, not tracking up, mouth opening and shutting, and ears moving back and forth. Another pain measurement tool is the Horse Grimace Scale (HGS) with shared behaviours of; flattened profile, triangulated eye, and triangulated chin. These pain-related behaviours are rarely displayed by the horses used in the non-pentathlon show jumping as can be seen in the images below.
Image 1. Left: Saint Boy with ears held stiffly back, mouth open with teeth exposed, head held upwards and tilted to the side, white of the eyes visible. Centre: Typical equine pain face demonstrators with ears held stiffly back and to the sides, flattened profile, open mouth with teeth exposed, head tilted at an angle. Right: Show jumping horse with closed mouth, ears forward, more rounded eye, head aligned with chest.
Image 2. Left: Saint Boy with ears held stiffly back, white of the eye showing, flattened profile, mouth open with teeth showing, head raised, triangulated chin. Centre: Equine pain face demonstrating ears held stiffly to the side and asymmetrical, mouth open with teeth exposed, head twisted to the side, head in front of vertical line, triangulated chin. Right: Show jumping horse with ears forwards, mouth closed, eyes rounded, head in line with chest, rounded chin.
This is not to place responsibility for pain onto the riders, nor to suggest the horse was unfit physically for competition. However Saint Boy displayed many behaviours indicative of pain, and showed a psychological unfitness for the competition ahead. As such it brings up welfare concerns as Ms Schleu used the whip multiple times to force Saint Boy to continue in a competition he was clearly expressing his discomfort with. It has been pointed out by previous Olympic riders that during the pentathlon there is a reserve horse in the event the assigned horse is unfit for riding. This should apply in these circumstances and it is unclear why Ms Schleu did not choose to change horses and instead increased the psychological stress and possible physical pain that Saint Boy was experiencing.
But several in the media have chosen instead to focus on the horse and pin the blame of Ms Schleu’s loss on an animal who was given no choice in participating. The BBC went with “the somewhat inappropriately named Saint Boy proved to be more of an equine enemy” and the Guardian with “her horse Saint Boy very much acted the sinner”. This kind of language is inappropriate and unhelpful. All horses’ psychological well-being should be assessed before the rider can be assigned them, and after the warm-up period to guarantee the horse is able to perform at the expected level. Not only is this a welfare and ethical issue for the horse itself, but not doing so creates a disadvantage for any rider assigned a horse not in excellent psychological health. You would never expect a horse who has poor physical health or a lack of training to compete at any level of sport, and neither should we ignore its psychological well-being. It is very important that we stop using judgemental, anthropomorphic language, calling the horse temperamental, an enemy, etc. and instead acknowledge the demands the horse was under and how he expressed his discomfort with it.
Since the outcry the recorded event has been made unavailable on the streaming service BBC iPlayer and only the Gold medalist Kate French’s show jumping round can be viewed. Due to this an additional aspect of this ride, the excessive use of whip, cannot be evaluated nor described objectively.
Image 3: Removal of the recorded event on BBC iPlayer just days after the incident.
If you are interested, a petition has been started asking to ban the unnecessary and uneducated use of spurs, the use of harsh mouthpieces and any bit with a head lifting action, such as the running gag; to regulate the frequency and position of crop use; and to ensure minimum competency levels of athletes before they are allowed to compete on horses — https://www.change.org/p/union-internationale-de-pentathlon-moderne-ensure-horse-welfare-in-the-modern-pentathlon
Another petition has also been created to remove the equestrian aspect of the modern pentathlon altogether — https://www.change.org/p/international-olympic-committee-modern-pentathlon-without-riding-olympics-dosb-iocmedia-worldpentathlon-horse-schleu-animalabuse?source_location=topic_page
Anna Kodíček
References:
Barnsley. W (2021) Annika Schleu’s Modern Pentathlon medal hopes dashed as horse fails to jump at Tokyo Olympics [Online] Available at: https://7news.com.au/sport/olympics/annika-schleus-modern-pentathlon-medal-hopes-dashed-as-horse-fails-to-jump-at-tokyo-olympics-c-3614928 [Accessed 7th August 2021]
BBC, (2021) Tokyo Olympics: Annika Schleu’s modern pentathlon hopes ended by temperamental horse [Online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/58117391 [Accessed 7th August 2021]
Belam. M, (2021) Tokyo 2020 Olympics briefing: Italy’s gold rush and Saint Boy the sinner [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/06/tokyo-2020-olympics-briefing-17 [Accessed 8th August 2021]
Dalla Costa. E, Minero. M, Lebelt. D, Stucke. D, Canali. E and Leach. M.C (2014) Development of the Horse Grimace Scale (HGS) as a Pain Assessment Tool in Horses Undergoing Routine Castration PLoS One [e-journal] 9(3) pp DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0092281
Dyson. S, Berger. J, Ellis. A.D, Mullard. J, (2017) Development of an ethogram for a pain scoring system in ridden horses and its application to determine the presence of musculoskeletal pain Equine Research [Journal] 23 pp. 47–57 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2017.10.008
Dyson. S, and Pollard. D, (2020) Application of a Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram and Its Relationship with Gait in a Convenience Sample of 60 Riding Horses Animals [Journal] 1044 DOI: 10.3390/ani10061044
Górecka-Bruzda. A, Kosińska. I, Jaworski. Z, Jezierski. T, and Murphy. J, (2015) Conflict behavior in elite show jumping and dressage horses Journal of Veterinary Behavior [Journal] 10(2) pp. 137–146 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2014.10.004
Mullard. J, Berger. J.M, Ellis. A.D, and Dyson. S (2017) Development of an ethogram to describe facial expressions in ridden horses (FEReq) Journal of Veterinary Behaviour [e-journal] 18 pp 7–12 DOI 10.1016/j.jveb.2016.11.005
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