Dear USEF:

As a competing USEF member and horse welfare advocate, I’m concerned that you have not had a strong, immediate response to horse abuse in our sport. And I am asking you to do better.

Our sport has a horse abuse problem. And we, collectively as equestrian stakeholders, are the only ones who can fix it.

But for meaningful change to happen, we need assurance from you—through consistent action—that you are authentically committed to enforcing horse welfare violations. Because your past practices do not align with your current horse welfare messaging:

• You have insufficiently acknowledged or enforced horse abuse incidents before and after your GR838 revision, despite significant horse abuse documentation and membership outcry. 

• Your lack of responsiveness to extend your jurisdiction to off competition grounds prior to December 2024 has led to preventable oversight concerns, which include unnecessary horse suffering and an unwelcome environment for reporting.

In “See Something, Say Something: We Need A Strong, Immediate Response To Abuse,” DiAnn Langer wrote about the systemic problem of horse abuse and doping in the hunter jumper community, and urged all participants to take responsibility in stopping horse abuse by immediately reporting welfare incidents to USEF.

But members—including myself—have pushed you for years to address horse welfare concerns, only to be met with barriers you have had the authority to break.

And while I wholeheartedly support Langer’s position, your chronic inaction against horse abuse in equestrian sport is the missing piece of the broader horse welfare conversation happening in our community—and what I’d like to discuss here in an effort to hold us all accountable as equestrian stakeholders.

I’m a competing USEF member and founder of Horse Welfare Collective, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that researches horse industry practices and their impacts on horse welfare. Like many of us, I’ve been in love with horses for as long as I can remember. 

I’ve had the privilege of participating in the sport for over half my life, both as an owner, with horses competing at the grand prix and international hunter derby levels, and as a rider, now competing in the adult amateurs.

I’ve also had the privilege of consulting with individuals across various disciplines and industries to study how we can help competing and noncompeting horses avoid dire welfare outcomes during all phases of their lives.

But with that privilege also comes heartbreak.

A significant portion of my work includes tracing sport horses’ paths to the slaughter pipeline, where I regularly witness horse abuse that is devastating in both practice and in scope. I never imagined, however, that I would also see this level of abuse in our community.

Over the past several years, I have researched horse abuse cases associated with our sport that meet or exceed any level of suffering and mistreatment I have seen studying horse welfare outcomes, even in the underbelly of the U.S. horse slaughter pipeline.

Horses have suffered significant abuse—with some horses even dying—at the hands of competing USEF participants. Yet this abuse—specifically non-FEI abuse incidents occurring off competition grounds—has gone largely unregulated for years. 

Not because it wasn’t reported, but because you waited. You waited until December 2024—approximately 20 years after you were designated as the national governing body for equestrian sport—to extend your jurisdiction past show grounds, even though:

• You have the absolute authority to change your rules at any time.
• The other 23 hours of the day is when horses are most vulnerable to abuse—and when equestrian stakeholders are most concerned about sport horse welfare. 
• The FEI standardized protecting our equine partners from abuse “at an Event or any other time” when it implemented GR 142 years prior.

But your inaction was not limited to self-imposed jurisdictional limitations. In situations where your rules paved a path to taking disciplinary action against horse abuse occurring outside of competition grounds, you still waited years to respond. 

This was the case for the well-documented deaths of Cobain and Allie involving USEF competing members, which have haunted our community and caused significant membership outrage. 

And while I am firmly against community harassment of any kind, this membership outrage is a response to your perceived indifference to oversee the welfare of our equine partners during any time of day.

As equestrian sport’s NGB, you have the profound responsibility to create and enforce an oversight framework that ensures the safety and development of human and equine athletes, to responsibly grow the sport, and to ensure a fair competition environment.

But despite investing over $7.2 million in “Fairness, Safety, and Welfare” staff salaries and benefits from 2021 to 2023, participants—not USEF—have led the conversations around the systemic horse abuse and doping in our sport.

You have been silent when the sport has needed your leadership most. Our social license to operate has rightfully been under scrutiny. And our community remains frustrated with a culture of persistent lack of accountability—one that has been fueled by fickle horse welfare oversight.

The horses, the human participants who do it right, and the sustainability of our sport continue to pay the price.

I’m going to share several stories to illustrate how your inaction to promptly address horse abuse has had dire consequences for our equine partners, our sport, and participant trust in your commitment to enforcing horse welfare violations.

My intention in writing to you publicly, is that through transparency, we can acknowledge the reasons for community frustration and confusion around your past inaction, and move forward collectively to authentically do right by our horses—and the sport.

We can’t grow from our mistakes or understand the seriousness of the horse welfare issues confronting the sustainability of our sport if we don’t talk about them.

Cobain’s Story

On July 31, 2021, court documents allege that a horse named Cobain was punitively tied to the highest rail in his stall by a rope halter for not loading onto a trailer. He was scheduled to compete locally that morning at a nearby USEF-licensed show, where he was entered in a 0.90-meter open jumper class. 

Left unattended and alone, he struggled to break free, fracturing his cervical spine and knocking out his lower incisors in the process. The walls inside and outside of his stall were covered with his blood. Scratches from his teeth and hooves were carved into the wood.

It took until May 2022 for Cobain’s owner to get the alleged truth about what happened to her horse. And after competing for 11 years as a USEF-covered horse in USEF-licensed competitions, Cobain suffered a fate worse than a horse in a Mexican abattoir hanging from a slaughter hook.

In May 2025, you expelled the USEF participant allegedly responsible for Cobain’s death. But Cobain’s story was reported to you in January 2023. 

On August 27, 2023, I sent my first email to the USEF Board and Committee Members detailing Cobain’s case and included links to public photographs (caution: disturbing images) and documents submitted to the Court of Common Pleas Second Judicial Circuit in Aiken County, South Carolina in May 2023.

I received the following statement from your Regulation Department:

“We are currently monitoring the [Cobain] case and will look to determine if action is appropriate following the outcome of the pending cases. The Federation does not typically make a determination or take temporary measures on these types of matters as we will wait until a decision has been rendered” (USEF Disputes Mailbox, August 28, 2023).”

I sent a follow-up email four days later that led to several zoom meetings with three senior USEF employees. From those meetings, I learned that you were first made aware of Cobain’s story in January 2023, and that you would not take disciplinary action because the abuse occurred off show grounds. 

But you could have taken disciplinary action when you first found out about Cobain’s death. 

During our first meeting on September 7, 2023, I argued that you had jurisdiction over Cobain’s case because he allegedly was abused and died while he was entered in a USEF-licensed competition. 

I also argued that since Cobain was being trailered in locally, the USEF participant responsible for his care should be held to the same level of USEF scrutiny and oversight as an exhibitor stabling at the same show. If not, it could create an unfair competition environment. 

I sent a follow-up email on September 17, 2023, summarizing these arguments again in writing. But no immediate action came from our meetings or email exchanges. 

Instead, you waited. 

You waited two years after you first found out about Cobain’s story to extend your jurisdiction past show grounds. And you waited over two years to expel the USEF participant allegedly responsible for Cobain’s death, allowing this participant to compete at USEF-licensed competitions until May 2025—almost four years after Cobain died.

This is despite the fact that Aiken County Code Enforcement consulted an equine veterinarian who confirmed the manner in which Cobain was tied constituted abuse (Aiken County Code Enforcement Case Report, No. C70022848).

This was not a strong, immediate response to abuse.

Allie’s Story

A successful USEF amateur dressage rider and equine veterinarian was indicted in October 2021 by a Texas grand jury for felony animal abuse against a horse in her professional medical care.

From 2021 to 2023, Texas courts and the Texas Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners issued four disciplinary actions against the USEF participant for prodding and electrocuting a mare called Allie over 1,000 times with a cattle prod, reportedly in an effort to get her to stand after leg surgery. Those disciplinary actions included a grand jury indictment (October 2021) and a provisionally revoked veterinary license (November 2021). 

Your rules and bylaws allow you to reciprocally sanction a member “when disciplinary action has been taken against a person,” but despite five administrative and criminal disciplinary actions against the USEF participant, 80 pages of statements, and video of the entire incident, she remained in good USEF standing until 2024 and was able to compete almost monthly at USEF-licensed competitions from 2020 to 2023—including three U.S. Dressage Finals. In fact, she won the Prix St. Georges adult amateur championship at the 2021 U.S. Dressage Finals—one month after her indictment—and earned her USDF gold medal the following year. 

It wasn’t until October 2024, when this USEF participant was criminally convicted, that you issued a suspension, even though you acknowledged you were aware of the case since at least 2023.

This was not a strong, immediate response to abuse.

An Unwelcome Environment For Reporting

Your inaction to extend your jurisdiction until December 2024 not only hindered your ability to appropriately oversee the safety of our equine partners when they are most vulnerable to abuse, it also could have had a significant impact on welfare reporting. 

I’ve interviewed participants close to abuse cases to understand why they were hesitant to report welfare incidents to USEF. The most common responses were: (1) the abuse occurred off show grounds, and therefore wasn’t under USEF jurisdiction, (2) they were afraid of being wrong, and/or (3) they were afraid of retaliation.

It’s fair to argue that some participants didn’t report off-competition grounds abuse because you didn’t grant yourself the authority to oversee it. It’s also fair to argue that, if inaction and lack of oversight affected participant confidence in reporting, we don’t even know the full extent of horse abuse in our sport. 

Participants who report abuse are also afraid to risk their reputation, and they receive little perceived support from the guardrails put in place to protect them.

In March 2024, Olympic show jumper Erynn Ballard was filmed striking her horse five times on the right flank while in the ring, with one specific instance showing three strong, consecutive strikes to the right flank while simultaneously pulling on the reins.

A participant reported the incident to USEF and received the following response: “Following an investigation and review of the reported allegation, USEF is declining to proceed with disciplinary action…In this instance, based on the totality of the evidence available, the Federation could not meet the burden of proof necessary to take this matter to a hearing or to proceed with disciplinary action” (USEF Letter to Ballard Reporter, Feb. 3, 2025).

The reporter is then offered an option to continue to pursue the matter, by paying a $250 filing fee. This fee to appeal your decision not only incentivizes you to initially not enforce welfare violations, it discourages participants from challenging your findings, regardless of how obvious a violation might be.

And I would argue this finding would be one to challenge. It’s unclear why this video from a USEF-licensed competition venue does not meet the burden of proof needed to proceed with disciplinary action. Equestrian Canada felt this video was credible enough—and Ballard’s whip usage concerning enough—to pause awarding Ballard its 2024 Equestrian of the Year Award. It’s also unclear why Ballard’s whip usage does not fall under GR838’s “excessive use or misuse of a whip” definition, which includes using the whip “for punishment, rather than as a training aid used properly to provide encouragement.” 

Participants are reluctant to report horse abuse and speak up about concerns. But that’s a symptom—not a cause—of your inaction to adequately address horse abuse in our sport. 

The health of our community and our sport is deeply connected to the welfare of our horses.  

I applaud you for revising GR838 to extend your jurisdiction past show grounds in December 2024. And I applaud you for adding non-therapeutic injectable medications and substances to GR414 in April 2025. These jurisdictional revisions are critical steps in the right direction.

But Cobain’s and Allie’s stories show why these actions are tragically late.

And while no one is perfect—myself included—we must hold you to a different standard. Because you are the authority for equestrian sport in the United States. And while credibility is inherently built into that title, you must prioritize leading through practice—not just perception—to keep it. 

Enforcing the big and small violations matter.

When abuse—whether misuse of aids, doping, or a horse’s death—is reported but not immediately addressed, it allows these behaviors to be normalized: at home, in the competition ring, and from an oversight level.

And while the participants committing abuses are likely a small percentage of the approximately 83,000 competing USEF members, some of these participants are trainers, national and international riders, and successful amateurs. Their actions have the capacity to influence riding and training styles, and to standardize abusive practices. Your actions do too.

The Big Picture: Our Actions Extend Past Sport

How we treat our sport horses sets welfare standards and markers for all U.S. horses—whether domestic or wild. Yet, 92% of U.S. equestrian stakeholders surveyed have concerns about the well-being of sport horses during the competition phase of their lives.

Our actions together—as a governing and membership body—have larger implications for horse welfare in and outside of sport. And it’s our profound responsibility as equestrian stakeholders to do everything in our power to support an unapologetic and consistent dedication to strong horse welfare standards.

Because no one else will if we don’t.

Not federal, state, or local governments. Not law enforcement. Not policymakers. Public institutions look to our community—as an authority in equestrianism and horses in industry—to help them understand and define what constitutes abuse. And if we as a community have a difficult time identifying, reporting, and enforcing horse abuse, how can we expect those outside of the industry to do it?

As equestrians, there will always be times when we wished we had handled a situation differently. We will never be perfect. But we have a responsibility to our horses to try our best, even if our best looks different every day.

Small changes and adjustments can lead to big impact. Extra time outside, a looser noseband, a milder bit, all make a difference to a horse. Transparency, empathy and respect all make a difference to a community. These small improvements can eventually start to set a new standard.

It is on us to self-regulate. It’s on us to commit to protecting the very animal that brings us together and gives us so much, yet has fewer protections than cows, pigs, sheep or goats in the United States. And that commitment starts with constantly reminding ourselves, collectively, as a membership body and governing entity, of our common ground: our love for the horse, and our genuine desire to do by right by them with the resources we have.

And while there are times when we might feel short on resources or success, we should never be short on goodness—or humanity for our fellow horses and competitors.

No matter the pressures we feel in our sport, there is always a different path forward with horses—one that doesn’t involve punishing or harming our equine partners for our shortcomings, or for not perceiving the world the same way we do. 

And that different path forward involves embracing our humanity. It’s leading collectively with empathy and humility. It’s listening to our hearts and to our guts. It’s the long way home. Sometimes, it’s even going against the grain. 

But there’s always success in doing what’s right. 

USEF, I am asking you in this moment to do the hard work. And to take the uncomfortable actions required to do what’s right for our horses and for our sport. 

Tradition, paired with how horses are viewed ideologically across different membership segments, poses a challenge to defining and enforcing strict welfare standards that we can all agree on. But tradition and human ideological differences don’t change a horse’s physical and psychological needs. Or what causes them pain, stress, and discontentment. Our traditions, biases and sport must not supersede horse welfare.

Thank you for considering a different perspective. 

-Caroline Howe, USEF member and horse welfare advocate 

Editor’s Note: On May 27, the USEF sent to its membership “The Role Of The Equestrian Community: A Call To Unite As Guardians Of The Horse And Horse Sport,” an open letter by organization CEO Bill Moroney and COO and general counsel Sonja Keating addressing “recent opinion pieces.” You can read that here.

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Caroline Howe is an amateur hunter/jumper rider and founder of the North Carolina-based Horse Welfare Collective, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that researches horse industry practices and their impacts on horse welfare.

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The views expressed in opinion pieces are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of The Chronicle of the Horse.