We Must Choose Who We Want to Be: An Op-Ed and a Rant

Love the sport. Frustrated by the mess. Here’s my truth.

This article contains the opinions of the author and should be read as such.

Equestrian sport is built on a fragile contract. We ride and compete only because our horses allow us to. Yet year after year, case after case, the sport confronts an ugly truth… some riders put the horse first, and some clearly do not.

The FEI Tribunal’s recent decision in the Andrew McConnon case once again forced the industry to face its own shadows. Facts were examined. Actions were evaluated. Consequences followed. Those consequences serve as a reminder of our moral responsibility to our horses. It is the difference between partnership and exploitation. It is the difference between an athlete and an abuser.

Unfortunately, the McConnon case is far from an isolated incident. Because when you look across the landscape of our sport, you see a troubling pattern: the pressure to win has become so tantalizing that people forget the only reason they can win stands on four legs beside them.

_{Image by Alisa Dyson from Pixabay}

There are many top riders who handle pressure without compromising their horses. Many of them will never trend on social media precisely because responsibility is not scandalous. It’s just good horsemanship.

But riders, trainers, governing bodies, and even journalists are no longer allowed to decide which stories get told. Social media platforms force transparency with every viral thread or leaked barn message. We are witnessing real-time public outrage, armed with screenshots, videos, and testimonies that spread faster than any press release.

And we’ve all seen them. I recently came across a video that, literally, turned my stomach. I won’t name names, but I will say the owner is already under investigation by the FEI — accusations tied to another horse — and the particular video I watched showed severe medical neglect of a broodmare. Nobody wakes up wanting to be the rider associated with a horse whose foot literally falls off. Yet these are the kinds of outcomes that keep happening when ambition outpaces care, when horses are treated like disposable items instead of sentient beings.

_{Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay}

We whisper about the barn where horses are ridden too early, too hard, or too long.

We whisper about trainers who “manage” lameness the way someone manages an inconvenient pimple.

We whisper about riders who break down horses, replace them, and break the next one too.

Enough whispering.

The sport can continue pretending that isolated cases are anomalies, or it can confront the truth that these cases are a product of the environment we’ve created.

We can keep glamorizing medals, or we can celebrate the riders who refuse to compromise their ethics, even if that means they don’t have a glossy resume full of wins.

The horse world has a choice. Become a culture where ethical stewardship is the bare minimum or watch the sport lose the moral right to exist.

I’d like to leave you with one last thought. We were all horse-crazy kids once, dreaming of victory laps, whether around an Olympic stadium or a rodeo arena. But when does that tireless pursuit of a dream at any cost cross the line and become a nightmare?

_{Image by Susanne Jutzeler, Schweiz 🇨🇭 suju-foto from Pixabay}

Go riding.

Amanda Uechi Ronan is an equestrian, author, and wanna be race car driver. Follow her on Instagram @au_ronan.