30/03/2026
The European equine sector has officially returned to the institutional agenda of the European Union. After years of marginalisation in official agricultural statistics, the sector — estimated at an annual value of 110 billion euros — is the subject of renewed attention from the European Commission, which is expanding its monitoring tools to include it in analyses related to rural development, sustainability and animal welfare. The signal came during a recent meeting of the MEP Horse Group at the European Parliament, attended by more than 34 organisations from the European Horse Network (EHN).
But the most significant news is not the horse's return to the statistics. It is what could happen next.
In 2025, FNRS and EHN presented a foresight study developed with contributions from 33 organisations in 19 European countries. The goal was to map the possible futures of the equine sector by 2040, by crossing two decisive variables: environmental sustainability and the social acceptability of equine activities.
Their intersection produces four distinct scenarios.
The first envisions a new centrality of the horse, integrated into innovative agriculture, sustainable tourism, landscape management and social services. The second describes a precarious role, constrained by resource scarcity and regulatory pressures. The third hypothesises a progressive marginalisation, with significant restrictions on the use of horses in society. The fourth, finally, outlines an elitist sector, reserved for the few and subject to growing social criticism.
The study makes no predictions. It builds analytical tools. And its cross-cutting conclusion is clear: the survival and growth of the sector will depend on its ability to engage seriously with sustainability, transparency, animal welfare and social consensus.
IHP follows this debate closely, and with a clear position.
The scenario we support is the first: the new centrality of the horse, integrated into a model where its presence in society is not synonymous with exploitation, but with respect. A model in which "putting the horse at the centre" is not a marketing slogan, but means finally acknowledging the horse's ethological needs, ceasing to treat it as a tool, and building policies that protect its welfare throughout its entire life — not only while it generates economic value.
This is not a foregone conclusion. And that is precisely why it needs to be stated plainly.
Because what is emerging at the European level bears a resemblance, at least in part, to a script already seen in Italy with horse racing: when a sector senses a decline in its social acceptability, the prevailing response is not ethical reconsideration, but a search for new arguments to justify and expand the use of animals. Sustainable tourism, multifunctional agriculture, social services: these are all legitimate frameworks, but they risk becoming new labels for unchanged practices, if they are not accompanied by real welfare obligations.
There is, however, one structural fact that no foresight study can afford to ignore: public sensitivity — especially among younger generations — towards the exploitation of animals has changed significantly in recent years, and continues to change. Young people are increasingly aware of the suffering and the unnatural lives imposed on horses used for the most varied human purposes. They demand transparency, consistency and accountability.
This cultural transformation is real, it is documented and, unlike many trends, it has deep roots. It is not a passing phenomenon.
IHP hopes this process will continue, unstoppably. And that the renewed European attention to the equine sector will become an opportunity to finally build a regulatory and cultural framework equal to the challenge: not to exploit horses more efficiently, but to stop treating them as objects to be disposed of at will.
The future of the horse in Europe is being decided now. And the direction it takes will depend, in decisive measure, on how much society is willing to demand consistency from those who govern the sector.