For the first time since the Fédération Équestre Internationale’s Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission presented its landmark report at the 2023 FEI General Assembly, the organization’s veterinary regulations are up for a full review. Some of the most notable rule revisions and proposals were presented during the “Veterinary Matters: Advancing Rules, Research and Responsibility” session on Day 2 of the FEI Sports Forum in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the impact of the FEI’s Equine Welfare Strategy Action Plan was evident throughout.
“As we go through the proposals, you’ll see, I believe, some of the impact of that work [from the Ethics and Wellbeing Commission], but we also must not forget the constant endeavor to protect equine health … and therefore to never have a repeat of the tragic events of the 2021 Iberian Peninsula EHV outbreak,” said Dr. Jenny Hall, MRCVS, chair of the FEI Veterinary Committee.
“We also recognize that horse health and welfare is a subject that all of you national federations are very focused on and are subject to different national legislation,” she added. “As we go forward with using the Equipass, the FEI’s digital equine passport that we are very proud of, there will certainly be scope for more bespoke regulation, such as mandatory EHV vaccination, limited to the geographical regions and disciplines where it is of highest risk because of the stabling practices. But don’t panic. We’re not suggesting anything along those lines this time.”
Dr. Caterina Termine, BSc(Hons), BVSc, CertAVP, MRCVS, the FEI’s senior veterinary advisor, also noted the work done at the FEI’s Fitness to Compete Forum in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) in January 2025.
“The meeting was absolutely pivotal and has really shaped where we are today and prepared us well for the task that we are undertaking at the moment. We gathered a group of very prominent vets from all around the world, and we asked them for their opinion,” Termine said. “We asked them to look at the existing text of the veterinary regulations as it was, and identify any subjects that they considered needed a much greater review ahead of the rules revision process.”
Based on the discussion at that forum, a number of subject-specific workshops were later held to further flesh out ideas, Termine said. The topics included medications and prohibited substances, supportive therapies and equine behavior.
In July, the FEI will provide national federations and stakeholders with a first draft of the proposed rules for feedback. Final versions of the rules will be voted on at the FEI General Assembly on Dec. 5.
Fitness To Compete
Dr. Jenny Hall, chair of the FEI Veterinary Committee, addressed proposed revisions to the veterinary rules at the FEI Sports Forum.
© FEI/Germain Arias-Schreiber
“There’s one element that goes through these rules in a very clear way, and that is fitness to compete,” FEI Director of Veterinary and Equine Welfare Dr. Göran Åkerström, DVM, said as he began ticking through some of the most notable proposed revisions.
Included in those are a revision to the FEI code of conduct to meet the requirements of the FEI’s equine welfare strategy and action plan, and the addition of a general rule regarding fitness to compete.
“We actually don’t have a general rule on that, even [though] it’s such an important concept: fitness to compete,” he said.
While the FEI codes of conduct regarding horse welfare touch on the topic, they don’t mention equine behavior—an area the FEI wants to address more clearly.
“We have a very important objective here, and that is, we need to consider horse behavior,” Åkerström said. “Our proposal is to introduce to Chapter II, that is horses’ eligibility to complete, a special article on fitness to compete that also includes the mental aspects to just have more clarity. We will also introduce a behavioral assessment protocol that will guide FEI stakeholders on what [actually constitutes] mental fitness to compete.”
François Mathy Jr. of Belgium, president of the International Jumping Riders Club, asked for clarification on what that would look like in practice. “I’m a little bit confused when I read words like ‘mental fitness to compete,’ ” he said, using as an example a horse that is wild in the warm-up ring but an experienced rider can manage it and get into the competition ring. “When I see the FEI just trying to make a very easy rule to apply for the stewards, who’s going to decide, even with vets, that the horse is mentally fit to compete, and say, ‘Well, you cannot go in the ring. Your horse is not mentally fit to compete.’ I mean, this seems so abstract to me in the horse sport that I really have a big problem to understand it.”
Hall, the FEI Veterinary Committee chair, acknowledged that there’s a need to define aspects of horsemanship that were previously an unwritten part of the rules.
“Nowadays we need to be able to articulate it and show it and spell it out. But I also completely resonate with your point about mental fitness to compete. We have struggled with what is the right word to use,” she said. “Is it mental fitness? Is it behavioral fitness? How do we really articulate it? So again, we are looking to you. I know that some national federations are further ahead. You’ve done more with this. You’ve got language around it. You’re using assessment tools. Where do we need to position it? We have got time now to discuss.”
Other “fitness to compete” proposals include:
• Changing the current rule on neurectomies (i.e. horses that have been “nerved”), which is ambiguous and difficult to enforce, Åkerström said. Neurectomies pose a welfare risk to the horse, and it’s an issue that draws public scrutiny, he added. A national federation has proposed banning neurectomies, or possibly just palmar nerve neurectomies. Also under consideration is future registration of neurectomies in Equipass.
• A proposal from the FEI Endurance Technical Committee and the Veterinary Committee would add the Henneke equine body condition score to the veterinary regulations, providing a tool for officials to use when assessing horses that are either very thin or very obese.
• A proposed rule would require endurance horses to have one open, unobstructed and functioning jugular vein in order to be considered fit to compete. Competition veterinarians provide treatment via the jugular vein, and it’s also where blood is drawn for testing, Åkerström said. “Sadly, there’s been reports of horses not having any functional jugular veins competing, and we just have to put a stop on that,” he added.
Allowing Pergolide And Banning Non-Emergency Injections
There are two proposals under the umbrella of clean sport that would mark significant shifts in current FEI rules—one considers allowing therapeutic use exemptions for certain medications, and the other would forbid non-emergency injections.
While not a new concept in the world of sport, a therapeutic use exemption—permission for an athlete to use an otherwise-prohibited substance to treat a diagnosed medical condition—does not currently exist in the FEI veterinary regulations. A proposed rule would change that, specifically for the use of pergolide to treat pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction in competing horses.
“[Pergolide is] a controlled medication, but in order to compete and not test positive, they stop administering this treatment to the horses a few days in advance of competition. This might lead to health issues because the clinical signs may return, or they can worsen when you make this pause,” Åkerström said. “Is a horse that requires medication to maintain its health, is it fit to compete [at the] FEI level? That’s a key question, and if so, should TUE be allowed in all disciplines, because questions around enhanced performance have been raised [if pergolide is given to horses that don’t have PPID].”
Åkerström said the FEI will be conducting an ethical evaluation on the issue later this spring. Hall also noted that the U.S. Equestrian Federation already has such a rule in place and has several years of experience with it.
The proposal for banning non-emergency injections was put forth by one of the national federations.
“This is also a major shift in policies that we [understand] is not an easy task, but it’s a very important one,” Åkerström said. “Currently, injections of substances that either completely lack or have a weak scientific support are allowed to be injected at FEI events. This poses indemnity challenges for treating veterinarians, because grooms and riders bring little bottles with things to be injected in horses that the veterinarians sometimes don’t have a clue what it is.”
There are also legal issues in countries like Sweden, where the practice is illegal, so the FEI has to obtain an exemption to run its competitions, Åkerström said, and it might not be able to do that in the future. It’s also a matter of public perception, he added.
Åkerström said there are numerous questions and challenges and that input will be needed from national federations and stakeholders. The current proposal would remove article 1060.6, which allows injectable joint support, amino acids and homeopathics.
Other proposals related to clean sport, welfare and safety include:
• Prohibiting the possession of certain controlled medications at FEI competitions, similar to the ban USEF put in place in 2025.
• Updating rules regarding the administration of intravenous fluid therapy to ensure it’s only used when clinically indicated.
• Strengthening rules regarding overnight stable closures to ensure horses and grooms get adequate rest.
• Limiting where bikes and scooters can be stored near stables.
• Introducing a rule regarding horses that are dangerous to other horses or people, to allow them to be eliminated from a competition if they pose safety issues.
• Prohibiting ice therapy 30 minutes prior to a horse inspection or re-inspection, in order to prevent it from temporarily masking lameness.
• Limits on the types of pulsed electromagnetic field therapy machines that can be used.
• Allowing the FEI to take DNA samples for identification purposes.
