Horse riding has long been celebrated as a harmonious partnership between humans and horses, but beneath the surface of this age-old practice lies a troubling reality: the physical toll it takes on the animals. Despite the romanticized image of horse riding, evidence suggests that it often inflicts painful deformities and long-term health issues on these majestic creatures. Vegans and animal rights advocates have raised concerns about the ethical implications of riding horses, highlighting the discomfort and distress caused by the weight of a rider, the use of metal bits, and spurs. These elements, combined with the natural anatomy of horses, which has not evolved to carry human weight, contribute to a range of serious health problems. This article delves into the most common deformities induced by riding, shedding light on the often-overlooked suffering of horses in equestrian activities.
Horse riding is not good for horses as it often causes them painful physical deformities.
There are many reasons why vegans don’t ride horses, but one of them has to do with how riding physically affects horses, causing them discomfort, pain, and long-term health problems.
Having a human on their back, in addition to painful metal bars (the “bit”) in their mouth (a very sensitive area) and metal spurs poked into their flanks, is not only directly distressing and painful to horses but can cause severe health problems to them.
Since first being ridden about 5,000 years ago, horses have been suffering specific deformities from having the weight of a person on their back — which their bodies have never evolved to accept. The weight of a person on a horse for a long time will compromise circulation by closing the blood flow in the back, which over time can cause tissue damage, often starting close to the bone.
However, there is considerable controversy over the diagnosis and treatment of back problems in horses. The equestrian industry is not keen on accepting that riding causes deformities, so it is not surprising there is controversy on this issue, especially considering many vets work for this industry. Nevertheless, here are the most common deformities on horses’ bodies that can be caused by riding:
Kissing Spines Syndrome. This is a serious problem caused by riding, where the spines of the horse’s vertebrae start to touch each other and sometimes fuse. An equine vet website has this to say about it: “Back pain in horses is fairly common. It can either be primary, associated with the bones in the spine, or secondary, i.e. muscular pain secondary to a poorly fitting saddle, low-grade lameness causing muscle tension and a restricted gait or lack of top line. Primary back pain is most commonly caused by over-riding/impinging dorsal spinous processes (or Kissing Spines). In this condition, the normal spaces between the spinous processes of the horse’s vertebral column are reduced. In some horses, pain can arise from the bone-to-bone contact and disruption to the ligament between the processes.”
A May 2024 Facebook post from an equine expert showing two images of bones of a dead horse that was exploited, not just for leisure riding, but also for the “sport” of polo, reads the following: “Peggy is the skeletal remains of a polo pony mare that was euthanized due to dangerous behaviour. It was said that she, and I quote, ‘was trying to kill people.’ The first image is of Peggy’s thoracic spine. The spinous processes of her vertebrae directly under where the saddle would be not only have no space between them but have rubbed so hard against each other that they wore holes in the adjacent bones. Attachment points for tendons and ligaments further down on the vertebrae are spiky and sharp and feature errant bony deposits where her body was trying to support soft tissue structures that were under tremendous abnormal strain. The second picture is of the ventral aspect of Peggy’s lumbar spine… Not only does she have areas where the vertebrae are trying to fuse to stabilize her back, she has an enormous 1.5″ bony growth jutting out, right into a channel where long muscles of the back run and attach… She is not unusual, she is the norm.”
Popped Splints. Splint bones are rudimentary metacarpal (forelimb) or metatarsal (hindlimb) bones that are the evolutionary relics of fingers in the horses’ limbs. These bony growths can grow bigger than usual or deformed due to stress on the legs. The majority of the horse’s weight load is placed on the front legs, which is an estimated 60-65%, with the remaining on the hind legs, so when adding the weight of a person on the horse’s back, this generates a lot of stress on a relatively small surface. Popped splints, technically known as exostosis of the metacarpal or metatarsal (splint) bones, are common in ridden horses. Popped splints can be formed by mineral imbalance in the diet, the weight of the horse, the weight of the rider, and concussions associated with being ridden on hard and uneven surfaces.
Angular Limb Deformities (ALDs). These include conditions like carpal valgus (knock knees), an outward deviation of the limb, and fetlock varus (toe-in), an inward deviation of the limb. ALDs can be congenital (premature birth, twin pregnancy, placentitis, perinatal soft tissue trauma and flaccidity or laxity of the soft tissue structures surrounding the joints), but they can also be acquired because of unbalanced nutrition, excessive exercise, trauma, or riding when the horse is too young.
Degenerative Joint Disease (DJD). Riding on hard surfaces or jumping with a person on the back can lead to the development of degenerative joint disease (or osteoarthritis), which results from wear and tear on the joints, leading to chronic pain and lameness in horses. In the UK, more than 41% of all lameness was reported to be the result of DJD in 2016 and it was the second most common cause of lameness in horses used for leisure riding. The more the horse is ridden, the higher the chances of developing this condition, so this is why it is very common in older horses.
There are other health problems caused by riding (from injuries to muscle and ligament strains) that do not necessarily cause any deformities but are also good animal welfare arguments to oppose horse riding.
Ridden horses’ suffering starts from the first time humans try to ride them. Horses are sentient beings who only allow people to ride them after having undergone a process traditionally called “breaking in the horse”, where extreme coercion techniques override their instinct of rejecting the rider. Breaking in horses is not only a bad thing because the result is a horse who has lost some of their “integrity”, but it is also wrong as it causes distress to the horse while it is done. Once the horses are broken in, people will jump on their backs and the horses will carry them to wherever they are instructed to go, beginning the long process that can eventually lead to the deformities mentioned in this article.
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Notice: This content was initially published on VeganFTA.com and may not necessarily reflect the views of the Humane Foundation.
