For many years now, animal abuse in the equestrian world has been a hot topic when it comes to upper-level competition. Mainly because the upper-level competitions in any equestrian sport require a lot from any horse, and the level of athleticism must be learned (for the most part). Most upper-level riders know their horses in and out and thus know just how much their horse can take. But some riders, such as Marylin Little, have nothing but winning on their minds and thus force the horse to compete. In this photo, you can see that Little’s horse has blood coming out of her mouth, along with an extremely harsh bit and tight bridle fixtures around her nose. This is not the way to make your horse submit to competing.

Little’s most recent blood incident at Kentucky 2018

Little has been in the spotlight for horse abuse for many years now. Beginning in 2015 at Fair Hill, Little’s blood controversy has been a hot topic amongst other riders, but not her. There has been blood spotted on her horses once in 2015, twice in 2016 and now twice in 2018. It took equestrian associations almost three years to say anything about her blood, but finally, in 2018 the FEI stated: “At the warm-up Marilyn and the groom went to official veterinarian Duncan Peters to have it checked because there had been some blood that was wiped clean. The vet noticed a small cut inside the lip away from the bit. It had stopped bleeding, which said to the vet that the horse had bitten herself. The bleeding stopped, the ground jury was informed, and there was no report of blood at the finish.”

A very large bit, such as this one, shouldn’t cause this much blood

The horse community took to the internet after this year’s blood spotting and made it their goal to get Little dethroned. They went to her sponsors and high up equestrian associations to bring to their attention what kind of rider they were sponsoring. While the companies made statements, they didn’t take any actions about the fact that they were sponsoring an abusive rider. Some companies and associations even tried to back her up as a rider and pin the blood on natural causes.

After all of this, the United States Equestrian Federation chose Marilyn Little to be on a US team after every controversy that she had dragged along with her name. This caused so much outrage within the equestrian community that Little did not end up competing on the team.

One accidental blood spotting on a horse’s mouth is one thing, but five times has to mean that there is a common factor. No matter how many times Marilyn and her team tried to hide the blood, or tried to blame it on the horse, there was visible evidence that the horse was being treated in a way that was completely unacceptable. But I believe that the equestrian community will continue to fight for justice until Little is put in her place.