Are you sick of talking about or hearing about social license to operate? If your answer is yes, the U.S. Equestrian Federation Annual Meeting, held. Jan. 12-14 in Louisville, Kentucky, was here to reply with a gentle but certain, “Too bad.” The concept of social license to operate—the idea that an activity needs to have a certain level of acceptance from the public to exist—is here to stay, and how equestrian sport responds to that challenge will dictate its level of survival (or not) in the future. And now, USEF Chief of Sport David O’Connor stressed, is the time to respond with more than just continued conversations.

“Though some of these ideas are happening in faraway lands,” said O’Connor, referring to the recent Helgstrand Dressage controversy, “there really aren’t any faraway lands anymore because of instant pictures and communication. The topics that we all previously discussed here this last January are becoming more intense. We believe the time is now to start the necessary actions to preserve, yes, but more importantly promote equestrian activities here in the U.S. and all over the world.” 

Much of USEF’s annual meeting was devoted to social license to operate again this year, with meetings on the topic dominating the first and second days, including an all-day session Saturday on “A Good Life For Horses” that was solely focused on SLO issues. USEF has become a leader in this area, O’Connor said, noting that the U.S. Army reached out last year for feedback to help restructure their troubled Caisson Platoon in Washington, D.C., and he hopes the organization can increase that leadership role in the greater equine sports landscape.

“It’s time to lead and not follow,” he said. “It’s time to take the role of establishing a philosophy for others in the equine industry to emulate. If we set an attitude then others will have something that they can hold up to study. Without that leadership, the USEF can consider itself just another organization. 

“We are now asking that the affiliates, who have an immediate feel on the ground for what is happening, to also become a larger part of the equine welfare process,” he continued. “We already know there is tremendous work being done by officials and managers on the ground during a competition, but the questions are: Do they have enough guidelines? Do they have enough tools? Does the USEF have enough tools?”

One such tool O’Connor referred to is the USEF’s ability to respond to abuse that occurs outside of sanctioned competitions, which it doesn’t currently have. A rule change proposal (GR702) from USEF CEO Bill Moroney seeks to give USEF jurisdiction over abuse or cruelty perpetrated by members outside of licensed competitions, “regardless of any action taken in a civil or criminal court.”

“Ensuring jurisdiction in this context aids in protecting the social license to operate and … supports USEF’s no tolerance of equine cruelty or abuse by its members,” the proposal states. 

This rule change will be voted on by the USEF at its mid-year meeting in June, and it’s been controversial thus far when presented at places such as the USHJA Annual Meeting. But the response at the USEF Annual Meeting was largely positive.  

“SafeSport changed the dynamic a little bit,” said Marnye Langer, managing director of show management company the Langer Equestrian Group. “It doesn’t end at just competitions, so we feel there is a role for USEF to extended beyond competitions. 

“It does have to stay at the USEF member level,” she added. “If USEF wanted to do something like this, it needs to look at some of its larger language models, a sportsman’s charter maybe needs to get expanded and modernized. Our consensus is there is a role for USEF to extend beyond competitions, because what happens before and after affects horses at competitions. It’s a complicated issue, but one that shouldn’t be shied from.”

U.S. Eventing Association CEO Rob Burk presented another perspective after the concept of a USEF professional license (which could be revoked for actions outside of competitions) was suggested, stating that his organization has been involved in litigation for six years now for a similar reason.

“As an affiliate, we are not equipped to do investigations on animal welfare,” he said. “We do have a trainer certification program, and we have removed certification [from individuals] in the past, and that’s what led to the litigation. Whether or not the evidence we have is sufficient, you have to realize you are inevitably going to be sued by someone. You have to be prepared.” 

Burk also noted the challenge of having local agencies—which can be a sheriff’s office, humane society or welfare group, depending on the location in the United States—investigate abuse issues.

“These investigators go into a relatively nice facility with horses that look healthy, and it’s very hard for them to take action,” he said. “You have to have a pretty clear system for how you’ll investigate and follow up and proceed. But at the end of the day, we probably do need something like a national SafeSport for horse welfare.” 

Sally Ike, former managing director of the USEF Licensed Officials Committee, referred specifically to GR702 and stated that she is in favor of the concept. 

“The fact that there is already a proposal about this is a huge step forward,” she said. “Yes, it needs to pass. That’s only the first step, and it gets complicated after that, but for me it’s an important first step.”

As for the next steps, O’Connor made it clear that action, not just conversation, is required. On the first day of meetings, he asked participants to write down some anonymous examples of horse-world practices the general public would find distasteful, and he noted the next day that the majority pertained to longeing. 

“How many years have we been talking about that longeing is a big issue?” he said. “And what’s the change? Are we having someone stand there, having someone with cameras, having [the horses] only in a round pen, so they can’t get loose? So what’s the answer, to not have this same conversation next year, and the next year, and the next year?

“What are we actually going to do about it?” he added, asking each table of workshop participants to come up with solutions to longeing problems, plus the other most-noted issues from his informal survey: poling (which isn’t allowed on competition grounds) and rollkur. “So we don’t have that same conversation again and again. Where is there a solution to some of these things?” 

After attendees presented some of their suggestions—with ideas ranging from hiring specific longeing-ring stewards to introducing equine trackers similar to those runners wear—O’Connor noted the increasing desire of equestrians to address problems.

“Last year was the introduction to this concept,” he said. “We could not have had this conversation last year; this conversation would not have happened. We’ve decided something has to happen, and I think that’s a huge step forward.”

More Tools And Additional Education

Outside experts brought in for the meeting also worked to start providing more tools for those who are interested in solving the problem of social license. 

Dr. Camie Heleski, an equine behavior expert, discussed the results of the recent Fédération Equestre Internationale’s Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission’s final report, which was presented at the FEI General Assembly in Mexico City in December, before launching into discussion about the concept of “A Good Life For Horses,” another project from the FEI commission. 

She brought up one question that many within equestrian sports would answer differently: How many hours of turnout is sufficient for a sport horse? Before equestrians can demonstrate to the public that a horse’s life outside of competition is good—something many are concerned about—we have to define what that means. 

“Do we have anything that’s measurable quantitatively?” she said. “How do we look at the qualitative things?”

Speaker Dr. Jim Heird, an animal behavior expert, explained the concept of habituation—where people within the industry get used to abuses and problems within it so they’re no longer alarming—during his presentation. Like the others before him, he noted how important it is that horse sports solve their own issues before fixes are foisted on the industry from the outside—from people who are much less familiar with horses, and their specific needs and care. But he took it a step further. 

“You guys have talked for two years now about social license to operate,” he said. “Here’s the newest term: social license to thrive. This is the term that’s replacing social license to operate. What it says is that we must be able to show a dedicated effort to address the public’s concerns about our industry. Doing it within our own organizations will not change the public’s concerns. It requires a committed engagement with our detractors to show them we are making progress.”

Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority CEO Lisa Lazarus discussed lessons learned from the racing world, addressing how the organization responded to a difficult year in racing, including when, on the sport’s biggest day, the Kentucky Derby, horses broke down before the feature race.   

“We need to tell the story that the horse is at the center of what we all do,” Lazarus said. “But we do need to make it safer. We measure fatalities by starts; in 2022, there were 1.25 fatalities per 1,000 starts, and we hope we’ll be lower this year. But I get asked if we can get that number to zero, and I say, ‘Probably not, but we’re going to die trying.’ 

“I do also get asked the question, ‘What does success look like?’ ” she continued. “My answer to that is, ‘When you’re not asking about us anymore—when you’re not talking about safety.’ ” 

Other Notable Happenings From The USEF Annual Meeting

• USEF Horse of the Year winners were announced on Saturday night at the SmartPak USEF Horse of the Year Awards Dinner, with HH Azur, Double H Farm and McLain Ward’s 18-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare, earning the 2023 International Horse of the Year title. Paradigm, Meredith Lipke’s 12-year-old warmblood gelding, was voted the 2023 National Horse of the Year by the USEF membership. 

• USEF President Tom O’Mara and CEO Bill Moroney addressed the group during the General Assembly, presenting the organization’s highlights from 2023, which included increased reach from the USEF Network streaming service, now powered by ClipMyHorse.TV. In 2023, the organization streamed 87 live events in 16 different breeds and disciplines, and those events hosted 246,000 unique users, an increase of 254% over 2022. 

O’Mara and Moroney also stated the USEF is in good financial standing, with 2023 as its “biggest year financially” and 2024 “planned to be even bigger.” O’Mara shared that member and fan numbers reached 480,000 in 2023.

• Hunter professional and judge Tom Brennan accepted a four-year term as an independent director to the USEF board during its meeting on Sunday, Jan. 14, and Beezie Madden and Will Faudree have also joined the board as athlete representatives. The group thanked outgoing board members Carol Kozlowski and Matt Brown.