Why all Competitions need the same Welfare Noseband Tightness Rule
As a whole, there isn't any measurable standard when it comes to competition rules around noseband tightness in Ireland. The closest, is the FEI dressage rule, as they have to check “as per stewards manual noseband protocol”
The noseband protocol is this:
"The tightness check must be done with the Stewards index finger between the horses’ cheek and the noseband. The steward must wear gloves during this check. Ideally the finger size of stewards appointed for the noseband check at different competitions throughout the event shall be of similar size"
Even though this is a step in the right direction, the noseband tightness shouldn’t be checked at the cheek. This is because of the horses skull shape, there is always more of a gap between the noseband and the skull, below the cheek bone than at the frontal nasal plane. It's clear the FEI have ignored the studies that say it should be checked at the front. If a horse has a noseband of 0 fingers tightness at the front, you can still get a finger in at the cheek. The rule doesn't really do much for horses welfare.
Furthermore, the FEI do not use a universal tool to check the tightness, so every hand that is used to check will be different. There needs to be one standard level of checking.
Competitions
In 2016 a survey was conducted checking the nosebands of competition horses in Ireland, UK & Belgium (Doherty et al., 2017). The competitions were Dressage, Eventing and Performance Hunter with a total of 750 horses. The nosebands were checked using the ISES noseband taper at the front of the horses head. Out of the horses checked, 44% had a noseband tightness of 0 fingers tightness, or no space underneath. 7% of the horses had a spacing of 2 fingers under the noseband and only one horse with a spacing of more than 2 fingers.
Seeing that almost half of the horses checked had a tightness of no space under the noseband, lets look at what pressures and physiological changes occur when nosebands are less than 2 fingers in tightness.
Noseband tightness of 0.5 fingers has been found to have a force of 9.7kg (Doherty et al., 2017)
Horses heart rate and eye temperature increase with a noseband tightness of no space underneath (Fenner et al., 2016)
Below is the current competition rules regarding noseband tightness within each discipline in Ireland:
The survey shows us that there is a high amount of horses with less than a 2 fingers spacing under the noseband. The competition rules clearly have no measurable way of determining, or an agreed rule regarding, what is “too tight”.
The Irish competition rules say the noseband “must not cause discomfort”
Who decides if a horse is in discomfort?
Where in the competition day is someone checking if the horse is in pain?
Nobody
Horse welfare should be across the board, all standing together to ensure our equine partners are not in pain due to over tightened tack. All competitions should be actively implementing a rule for a measurable noseband tightness along with creating an equine welfare officer role.
Nosebands should be checked, prior to warm-up are at two finger tightness using the ISES noseband taper, to ensure a standard level of tightness for all horses.
There needs to be a change.
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References
Doherty, O. et al. (2017) ‘Noseband use in Equestrian Sports – an international study’, PLOS ONE, 12(1). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0169060.
Doherty, O., Conway, T., et al. (2017) ‘An objective measure of noseband tightness and its measurement using a novel digital tightness gauge’, PLOS ONE, 12(1). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0168996.
Fenner, K. et al. (2016) ‘The effect of noseband tightening on horses’ behavior, eye temperature, and cardiac responses’, PLOS ONE, 11(5). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0154179.