Equestrian Sport Launches “Horse Welfare-Reporting 2026” – Maximum Transparency Combined with Total Ignorance

​LAUSANNE – The reformist zeal of the Global Equestrian Federation (GEF) knows no bounds. The presidium, led by Dr. h.c. Justus P. Saddleback, has now presented the next milestone in horse welfare.

The motto of this new major offensive is: “We aren't sure what we’re doing, but we are doing it with great transparency.”

​With the groundbreaking “Horse Welfare-Reporting 2026,” the federation is responding to mounting pressure from animal welfare advocates and the general public. The solution: Instead of solving actual problems, they will now be documented in real-time using beautifully animated graphics.

​The New Data Offensive: “The Naked Numbers of Ignorance”

“People demanded transparency, and we are delivering it in abundance,” Saddleback declared proudly at the unveiling of the new online dashboard. “Previously, we didn’t know exactly at what point hyperflexion [Rollkur] harms a horse or whether tight nosebands restrict airflow. And you know what? We still don’t know! But from today on, everyone can watch live on the internet just how much we don’t know.”

​During horse shows, the new reporting system captures millions of data points, which are streamed unfiltered directly to the public. The unique feature: No one in the federation has any intention of interpreting the data or drawing consequences from it.

​The Dashboard at a Glance: What fans can now see “transparently”

• ​The “Rein-Tension Oscillator”: A curve showing how many kilograms of force a rider is exerting on the horse’s mouth. At peak values over 40 kg, the display does not turn red, but glows a soothing “Welfare-Green,” accompanied by the text: “Dynamic impulse to promote attention.”

• ​The “Tail-Rotation Matrix”: An algorithm measures the restless tail-swishing of stressed horses and calculates it in real-time into “generated wind energy for arena cooling.”

• ​The “Spur-Hematoma Barometer”: A transparent counter on the scoreboard keeps track of how many milliliters of blood flow on the warm-up arena per day. The federation’s slogan: “Transparency means not looking away, even when you’re in the red!”

  
  

​“We are still researching live before your very eyes”

When asked by a journalist why the federation doesn’t simply ban controversial training methods instead of just filming them, the GEF Welfare Officer appeared visibly piqued:

“A ban would be completely unscientific. We must document the mechanisms of pain transparently over the next ten years to establish a valid database. If we simply ‘fix’ the riding now, we won’t have a control group anymore! Our riders are essentially sacrificing themselves in the service of science. They apply pressure to the horse so that we can map this pressure in beautiful bar charts. That is horse welfare in action.”

​The Community’s Reaction

The equestrian scene is relieved.

“It’s a great feeling,” admits an international dressage rider on condition of anonymity. “I used to have to hide when I rode my horse behind the vertical. Today I know: The sensors on my saddle transmit the bending angle of my horse’s neck directly to the GEF Cloud. So, I’m not doing anything illegitimate anymore; I’m simply generating content for the welfare report. It really takes the pressure off.”

​The GEF is already planning its next step: Starting in the autumn of 2026, spectators will be able to vote via an app on which color the weekend’s misconduct statistics should be exported in. Because one thing is certain for Justus P. Saddleback:

“As long as the PDF of the report is accessible and beautifully designed, horse welfare has truly arrived in the 21st century.”