Photo: Photos.com

An upper-level dressage horse lost his bridle at a competition in Aachen, Germany, due to his groom’s error, not because of an official noseband check, as was “strongly implied” during a recent international horse welfare conference, equitation scientists say.

Generally speaking, noseband checks at equestrian events do not present safety risks to horses or humans, they said, and the science is clear on the point that noseband tightness affects equine health and welfare—the best place to measure tightness is on the nasal bone along the top. These were the main themes in an open letter to World Horse Welfare (WHW) penned last week by Janne Winther Christensen, PhD, of Aarhus University, in Tjele Denmark, and honorary president of the International Society for Equitation Science (ISES), on behalf of ISES.

The letter was in reaction to statements given during a presentation about ethical riding in high-level events by four-time Olympian Richard Davidson of the U.K. Davidson presented his talk, “Equestrian Sport: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” during the WHW annual conference held Oct. 31 in London