Equine fatalities in equestrian eventing

Equine fatalities in equestrian eventing

Equine Vet J. 2025 May 15. doi: 10.1111/evj.14529. Online ahead of print.
Authors
Heather A Cameron-Whytock 1 , Denzil O’Brien 2 , Victoria Lewis 3 , Tim Parkin 4 , Euan D Bennet 5
Affiliations

1 School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK.
2 PO Box 1167, Balhannah, South Australia, Australia.
3 Equestrian Performance Research and Knowledge Exchange Arena, Hartpury University, Hartpury, UK.
4 Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
5 School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK.

PMID: 40371753
DOI: 10.1111/evj.14529

Abstract

Background: To date, industry and research outputs that have aimed to improve safety in equestrian eventing have tended to focus on identifying risk factors for horse falls during cross-country, which have been identified as the greatest risk of injury and fatality for riders. There is an absence of research that investigates fatalities of horses within the sport of eventing.

Objectives: To use a combination of media reports and eventing federation databases to describe and document equine fatalities in equestrian eventing, including their context, location and a basic pathology.

Study design: Descriptive study.

Methods: A study describing equine fatalities that occurred between 1998 and 2023. Study data were taken from a combination of media reports (to identify occurrences of equine fatalities) and federation databases (to confirm a fatality did indeed occur and validate data).

Results: One hundred and ten equine fatality records were included. Median horse age was 12 years. 62.7% of equine fatalities were not associated with a report of a horse fall during the cross-country phase. Of all fatalities, 36.4% involved a musculoskeletal (MSK) injury, 36.4% were considered sudden death and 27.3% did not report the pathology (unknown). A total of 47.5% of MSK-related fatalities and 90% of sudden death fatalities occurred during cross-country but were unrelated to horse falls at cross-country fences.

Main limitations: The data presented within this study do not provide a complete picture of global equine eventing fatalities during the study period. Details around the context/pathology of fatalities are also limited because of the sources they are derived from.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that equine fatalities in eventing occur in contexts other than horse falls, including as a result of MSK injury and sudden death. Future research and risk management work in eventing should include work that investigates sudden death and MSK injury in eventing horses and their causative/associative factors.

Keywords: cross‐country; eventing; fatality; horse; safety; sudden death.

© 2025 The Author(s). Equine Veterinary Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of EVJ Ltd.