With Dead Thoroughbreds Piling Up, US Equestrian Makes a Positive Stride to “Better Mitigate Risk”

Equestrianism and other horse riding events have been a staple of sports for more than a hundred years now. They have hardly ever turned out to be completely injury-free or even fatality-free for the horses or the riders. However, after all these years, the US Equestrian decided that it needed to step up its game and take better management of its riders as well as thoroughbreds. Yet, this development wasn’t out of the blue, instead, it needed some sort of a shakedown to make it happen.

The galore of injuries and subsequent deaths of horses this year caused a massive uproar in equestrian society. Just days before this year’s Kentucky Derby, 5 horses had died. Then, just hours before, 2 more were added to that list. Many more have been put down since.

The equestrian community finally comes together for a great initiative

A tweet by Evening Nation went, “With the safety of both horse and rider paramount to stakeholders of all equestrian sports, US Equestrian has announced efforts in data tracking to better mitigate risk in the sport.” The US Equestrian Federation has been in place since 1917, and only after 106 years has a measure of this kind been taken.

From here on, any fall, leg injury, or any other kind of injury of a horse, no matter how minuscule it may seem, will be strictly reported to the apex body of the USA. They will then analyze the data collected, find a pattern behind such instances, and then finally figure out a solution to prevent them in the future.

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The Evening Nation article reported, “To inform change, evaluate risk, and implement risk mitigation strategies in our sport, accurate data pertaining to falls is needed”. It will be a slow and arduous process but with time an effective one.

The vast number of deaths might just reduce in future

The program is scheduled to begin by 1st December 2023 and will look to minimize the deaths of horses in the future. Unfortunately, though, the slew of horses that either died on track or were put down due to injury beyond repair, cannot be accounted for. The deaths of 7 horses at Churchill Downs didn’t pause this horrific streak. Belmont Stakes and Preakness Stakes were also rocked by the deaths of thoroughbreds, as this year’s American Triple Crown Racing went deep into controversies.

A silver lining did come up after all these unfortunate events. Sensor-based technology could help reduce the number in the future, as proposed by a company. This update on top of the initiative taken by US Equestrian could definitely help reduce the number of gelding deaths in the future.

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