Australian Olympian Heath Ryan suspended for 18 months over horse abuse

Australian Olympian Heath Ryan has been suspended for 18 months and fined by equestrian’s global governing body following an investigation into allegations of horse abuse.

The dressage and eventing rider had already been suspended by Equestrian Australia last year after a video appearing to show Ryan whipping a horse repeatedly surfaced on social media.

International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) on Friday (Saturday AEST) handed down the suspension to the 68-year-old, saying he had brought the sport into disrepute and breached the FEI code of conduct for the welfare of the horse.

“The FEI Tribunal concluded that Ryan engaged in horse abuse pursuant to Article 142.1 of the FEI General Regulations, bringing both the FEI and equestrian sport into disrepute,” the Swiss-based governing body wrote in a statement.

The ban is retrospective, starting the date of the provisional suspension which was June 12 2025. This means his suspension will end on December 12 2026.

Ryan, who rode for Australia in dressage at the 2008 Beijing Games, was also fined 3000 Swiss francs ($5,174) and ordered to pay the same amount towards FEI’s legal costs.

When the Equestrian Australia ban was invoked in June 2025, Ryan released a lengthy statement on social media defending his actions, saying he had saved the six-year-old horse from being destroyed after it attacked its owner.

“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,” he wrote last year.

“I felt obliged to the horse to just have a look and see if it was possibly salvageable ... and had never ridden anything like it. I am so sad this was caught on video.”

Ryan said the video had been placed online by an “unhappy ex-employee” and posted another which he said showed the horse thriving in a new home.