IN APRIL 2026, a German public broadcaster travelled to Ireland to document the issue of sulky racing. The resulting documentary, broadcast as part of Tiere suchen ein Zuhause, showed horses being struck, driven at speed through busy urban streets and raced on public roads. The footage caused international outcry.

Ireland’s debate around sulky racing has too often become polarised. Discussions quickly turn into arguments about tradition versus welfare, insiders versus outsiders and personal experience versus scientific evidence. People understandably feel strongly about horses, culture and animal welfare. But when the conversation becomes a culture war, the animal at the centre of it can easily disappear from view. And ultimately, it is the horse that should be at the centre of this discussion.

What follows is an attempt to do something different: to ask the questions the evidence demands without ignoring the cultural complexity that makes them difficult.

To explore those questions, I spoke with Barbara J. Hardman of Bright Horse, a Clinical Animal and Equine Behaviourist with nearly two decades of experience in equine behaviour science. Her expertise helps bring the focus back to the horse and to what behaviour and welfare science can tell us about its experience:

Not all sulky racing is the same

It is important to begin with a distinction that repeatedly gets lost in public debate. Sulky racing, known internationally as harness racing, is a legitimate and formally regulated equestrian sport in countries including France, Sweden, Norway, Australia, Canada and the United States. These industries operate within systems of veterinary oversight, stewards, welfare rules, controlled racing surfaces and anti-doping regulation. They are not perfect. No form of racing is. But there are systems in place to monitor what happens, ask questions when things go wrong and, importantly, hold people accountable.

What generates much of the controversy in Ireland is fundamentally different: informal, high-speed racing on public roads without an equivalent regulatory structure. There is no mandatory veterinary oversight specific to the activity. There is no equivalent system of stewards, mandatory fitness assessments or structured injury monitoring. Some horses involved will undoubtedly be well-fed, well-handled, and deeply valued by their owners. It would be both unfair and inaccurate to suggest that everyone involved does not care about their horse. The difficulty is that an unregulated system cannot rely on individual goodwill as its primary welfare safeguard. 

Unregulated sulky racing in Dublin. Rolling News Rolling News

In 2026, an exhausted horse collapsed and died in Clonmel following an illegal sulky race on a public road. A year earlier, a race on a busy road in Co Limerick ended in a violent collision that injured multiple horses. The ISPCA has documented further cases of ponies abandoned with serious injuries linked to trotting.

The same welfare and safety concerns have surfaced repeatedly. Something has to change.

Irish law already restricts racing on public roads without authorisation, and some local authorities have introduced specific controls around horse-drawn vehicle racing. But road traffic legislation is not the same thing as a comprehensive welfare framework for horses used in informal racing.

The problem with roads

Public roads are designed for vehicles, not horses travelling at racing speeds. Tarmac is a........

© TheJournal