White fences are definitely better for horses - the science is irrefutable

Cheltenham and Aintree are almost upon us and this year will be the first time the fences and hurdles jumped at these key meetings have white markings on the frames, guard rails and take-off boards. The traditional orange colourings on the obstacles were changed last year at every British racecourse following advanced scientific research into horse vision carried out for the BHA by experts at Exeter University and I helped drive the project to completion.

My role as the Horse Welfare Board’s equine safety adviser is pretty simple. It is to work with everyone across racing to improve equine safety and help the horses do what we’re asking them to do. The evidence from the ‘orange to white’ project is irrefutable. There’s no question that on a dark, late afternoon the white stands out better but it’s not just on gloomy days that the obstacles are now more visible to horses.

Mike Etherington-Smith: Horse Welfare Board equine safety adviserCredit: Steven Cargill

This is nothing radical. I’ve been designing eventing cross-country courses all around the world for 40 years and we’re very mindful of the use of colour, contrast and background.

Horses see in contrast, and definition is also very important. If you’ve got a fence with orange on it, we can see it very clearly, but research has shown that horses have a very different spectrum of colours. They see white, fluorescent yellow and light blue very clearly. The reds and dark blues can disappear, so if you’ve got an orange rail or take-off board against the birch or a green background it’s not nearly as clear as white. There’s a clever app, CV Simulator, which can give side-by-side comparisons of what we see and what a horse sees. We use this a lot when I’m giving seminars around the world to help people understand how horses see things differently to us.

Everybody has a responsibility to look at how we can reduce risk in the sport. It’s not easy and there’s no silver bullet. It’s going to be lots of pieces of a jigsaw that fit together to hopefully create an improved picture.

The ‘orange to white’ project is just one of those jigsaw pieces. If, over time, we can reduce the number of fallers by a certain percentage then that’s fantastic. This is about racing making reasoned, well-researched and evidence-based changes which can help reduce risk and improve safety for our horses. It’s simple: if we don’t look after the horses to the highest possible level, eventually we could have no sport.

Mike Etherington-Smith is equine safety adviser to the Horse Welfare Board

This column is exclusive to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Read more Members' Club content here:

Don't get ahead of yourself - Constitution Hill has a way to go to join the Champion Hurdle greats 

What a difference a year makes - Cheveley Park 33-1 to be leading owner at Cheltenham 

Win at all costs: how Lorcan Williams' defence made a heavy punishment inevitable 

Ted Walsh is absolutely fuming - and he has every right to be  

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.