For Peta, which takes the view that “animals are not ours”, any control, suffering or exploitation is unacceptable. “We know that whenever animals are treated as commodities and exploited for human gain, their best interests go out of the window,” says White.
It is particularly egregious in the case of the Olympic Games, she adds, intended as they are as a celebration of human athletic excellence. “At the end of the day, these horses don’t care about gold medals, they don’t choose to participate … There’s just no reason for it.”
The organisation has been emboldened by the removal of the horse event from modern pentathlon, after a German coach punched a horse during the Tokyo Games, causing outrage. That the sport’s governing body voted to replace horse riding with cycling, after 109 years, is proof that “change is possible”, says White.
Kay Willoughby, a registered equine behavioural consultant based in Northampton, says best practice centres the relationship between horse and rider: “A horse has got a mind of its own.”
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