Is excessive bending of the neck harmful to eventing horses? A look at Rollkur practice.

Dressage, the Olympic sport of equestrianism, requires horses to perform dance-like steps and exert great strength and control over their entire body and legs. But at the 2024 Paris Olympics, there’s more focus on the horse’s head position. Brazilian rider Carlos Paro was given a warning. The horse behaved during a warm-up session in a way that “might have caused unnecessary discomfort to the horse,” according to a statement from the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), the sport’s governing body.

This warning was related to…