Citation: Williams, J.M.; Berg, L.C.; Clayton, H.M.; Kirsch, K.; Marlin, D.; Randle, H.; Roepstroff, L.; Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaan, M.S.v.; Weishaupt, M.A.; Munsters, C. A Delphi Study to Determine International and National Equestrian Expert Opinions on Domains and Sub-Domains Essential to Managing Sporthorse Health and Welfare in the Olympic Disciplines. Animals 2023, 13, 3404. https:// doi.org/10.3390/ani13213404 Academic Editors: Gemma Pearson and Inga A. Wolframm Received: 19 September 2023 Revised: 29 October 2023 Accepted: 30 October 2023 Published: 2 November 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). animals Article A Delphi Study to Determine International and National Equestrian Expert Opinions on Domains and Sub-Domains Essential to Managing Sporthorse Health and Welfare in the Olympic Disciplines Jane M. Williams 1, * ,† , Lise C. Berg 2,† , Hilary M. Clayton 3,† , Katharina Kirsch 4,† , David Marlin 5,† , Hayley Randle 6,† , Lars Roepstroff 7,† , Marianne Sloet van Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaan 8,† , Michael A. Weishaupt 9,† and Carolien Munsters 10,† 1 Equine Department, Hartpury University, Gloucester GL19 3BE, UK 2 Department of Veterinary Clinical Science, University of Copenhagen, Hoejbakkegaards Alle 5, 2630 Taastrup, Denmark; lcb@sund.ku.dk 3 Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA; claytonh@msu.edu 4 Department Sensors and Modeling, Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Max-Eyth Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany; kkirsch@atb-potsdam.de 5 AnimalWeb Ltd., Tennyson House, Cambridge CB4 0WZ, UK; dm@davidmarlin.co.uk 6 School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia; hrandle@csu.edu.au 7 Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden; lars.roepstorff@slu.se 8 Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, 3584 CM Utrecht, The Netherlands; m.sloet@uu.nl 9 Equine Department, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland; weishaupt@vetclinics.uzh.ch 10 Equine Integration B.V., Groenstraat 2c, 5528 NS Hoogeloon, The Netherlands; carolien@munsters.nl * Correspondence: info@sporthorsewelfarefoundation.com or jane.williams@hartpury.ac.uk; Tel.: +44-1452-702640 † Sporthorse Welfare Foundation, https://sporthorsewelfarefoundation.com, accessed on 1 January 2023; info@sporthorsewelfarefoundation.com. Simple Summary: Horse sports are popular worldwide, providing spectator enjoyment, benefiting human health, and contributing substantially to national economies. Training and management practices used to care for sporthorses are generally based on tradition rather than science; this combined with the high-risk nature of equestrian activities led to the public questioning if sporthorse health and welfare are being compromised. To understand better how sporthorses are being managed, experts, actively involved with national and international horse sports (dressage, showjumping, and eventing) were consulted across four rounds of a Delphi study. This approach allowed participants to interact to reach a point where everyone agreed on core areas (or domains) that they felt were essential to sporthorse management. Five areas were rated as essential: training management, competition management, young horse management, health status and veterinary management, and the horse–human relationship. Stable and environmental management, and welfare assessment were rated as important but not essential, as most experts felt that these areas were already managed well. Experts called for increased education and research to support riders, trainers, and federations. A welfare charter and evidence-based guidelines to inform management practices were advised to ensure sporthorses have a good life and to safeguard the future of equestrian sports. Abstract: The public is increasingly questioning equestrianism’s social license to operate. While the focus historically centered on horseracing, increased scrutiny is now being placed on how dressage, showjumping, and eventing are addressing equine management and welfare concerns. Nominated equestrian federation and equestrian organization experts (n = 104) directly involved in international and/or national-level horse sports took part in a four-stage, iterative Delphi to obtain consensus Animals 2023, 13, 3404. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13213404 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/animals