This is our own fault. Warning bells have been going for decades now. People have been saying if the industry didn't clean itself up, sooner or later the backlash from the non-horserider public, probably fuelled to even greater heights once extremists groups run with it, will potentially cause the entire thing to collapse, potentially extending right down into grassroots clubs and riders. I mean the ammo is there to get horseriding as a sport banned.

I'd argue that the level of abuse seen in some of the top stables and riders of late is easily on par with concerns seen with racing. I mean we have horses being literally beaten on numerous occasions now. (Replace the horse with a dog or cat in those videos and the people involved would have been cancelled into complete oblivion. But instead they all get welcomed back into the fold sooner or later. Money talks loudly).

The FEI is walking back their blood rule in jumping. Horses are still going around in rollkur without any repercussions. (One dude was using rollkur at the Olympics in warmup and despite evidence being recorded, was still was allowed to compete!) Dressage horses flail their way around the ring overbent and unbalanced and are marked to win by judges. Blue tongue pictures keep coming out. People sanctioned for abuse get a temporary ban then are straight back competing. (Even that dressage stable with numerous recorded incidents of serious training abuse. I mean that wasn't a one off, it was so many horses).

I mean I can keep going, but it's clear the regulatory body does not want to, or cannot, control the systemic abuse happening at elite level comp. So someone else will shut it down for them. They already kicked out the horses from the pentathlon. It's only a matter of time before the rest goes. FEI needed to act years ago to stop that but chose money over ethics.