We've achieved much - but 2025 must be a year of transformative change for a sport with welfare at its heart

As chairman of British racing's Horse Welfare Board, reflecting on our progress over the last year gives me great pride but also a sense of urgency. While we’ve achieved much, the pace of action on key decisions often feels too slow. The welfare of our equine athletes demands both commitment and speed, and 2025 must be the year we deliver transformative change.

Historically, the racing industry has been very divided. To some extent it still is. The major achievement of the Horse Welfare Board has been to become a catalyst working with the industry to bring it together with a single purpose of improving horse welfare. 

Everyone pulling together in the same direction rarely happens in racing but one of the most encouraging signs in the sport is that the industry is increasingly aligned in its belief that horses deserve the best possible quality of life, both during and after their careers. 

All stakeholders are trying to do their bit, but a lot of measures are expensive and some of them involve change. It's not always easy to accept and address new practices but no change is not an option. I call on all stakeholders to join hands and come together to make 2025 the best yet for the equine athletes that power this sport. 

Society will no longer entertain delays. If you look at any of the surveys into views about horseracing, most people support and enjoy racing provided that continuous steps are taken to improve the welfare. Younger people are even more strident in their views that welfare has to keep improving.

I have been a practising vet for 50 years and I know that horses are regularly prone to accidents and disasters. We are never going to be able to eradicate these. What we are now doing is to look at every fatality in racing to see if there is anything we can learn from it and prevent it happening again in the future. The owner, trainer, jockey and vets are all asked for their views, so we can identify the risks and try to reduce them. This input is vital. It’s not about apportioning blame, but about learning from each incident to make racing the safest it can be. We have to be honest and explain to the public that we will not be able to stop all accidents, but we are doing everything we can to prevent them happening. We have to build their trust.

The HorsePWR website launched in the spring and has been effective in addressing the facts. It’s a wonderful initiative but we need to become more transparent on welfare through other means too. Traceability, for instance, is crucial. We must extend our efforts to ensure every horse is accounted for and cared for, even after their racing career ends. This is not just a welfare issue – it’s a moral imperative.

This coming year, I’m keen that we should examine what goes on away from the track. We've done an enormous amount of work on the racecourses and will continue to do so, but a horse only spends a few minutes racing whereas they spend the rest of their time in the trainer’s yard. That is where we need to turn our attention to try to improve welfare on the gallops and schooling grounds.

Encouragingly, trainers are very much behind improvements in welfare and have been highly cooperative in supporting us with welfare projects and sharing insights and data thus far. There is just no point putting your finger in the air and hoping to get it right in a data-driven society.

Horses are at the soul of this sport. Let’s make 2025 the year we prove to the world that British racing is a leader in equine welfare. Together, we can ensure that racing not only survives but thrives, with the horses’ welfare at its heart.

Barry Johnson is the independent chair of the Horse Welfare Board

Read these next:

BHA director of welfare James Given: how racing is harnessing data to reduce the inherent risk in the sport 

'The facts matter' - British racing launches new campaign to communicate welfare standards  

'It's not just the social licence, it's morally the right thing to do' - how racing is raising its game for horses in retirement  

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