Australian Olympian Heath Ryan has been handed an 18-month suspension and financial penalties by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) following an investigation into animal abuse.
FEI Tribunal Ruling and Penalties
The Swiss-based global governing body announced the disciplinary decision on Saturday, August 29. According to the FEI, the tribunal concluded that Ryan breached Article 142.1 of the FEI General Regulations regarding horse abuse and brought both the organization and the sport into serious disrepute.
The suspension officially commenced on June 12, 2025, aligning with the start of his earlier provisional suspension. The penalty is scheduled to conclude on December 12, 2026.
Context and Prior Suspensions
The disciplinary proceedings stem from a video that circulated widely online last year, prompting Equestrian Australia to suspend Ryan before the international governing body initiated its own formal probe. Ryan, who represented Australia in dressage at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, faced immediate backlash when social media users and a narrator on the footage described his actions as savage whipping.
Following the initial national suspension in June 2025, Ryan issued a detailed public statement on social media defending his actions.
“The most awful video of me on a young horse has just surfaced. This horse was dropped off at my place on his way to the knackery,” Ryan wrote in his defense last year, adding that he felt obligated to check if the animal was salvageable. Ryan also attributed the online leak of the footage to an unhappy former employee and subsequently published alternative media showing the horse thriving in a new environment, as detailed by jang.com.pk.
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