World number one Tim Price yellow carded for "Abuse of Horse" - what happened?

New Zealand’s Tim Price is not only one of the best event riders in the world, or rather the best again as of this month, he and his wife Jonelle are also regarded as real “horsemen”.

So it was all the more surprising that Tim Price received a yellow card last weekend in Kronenberg at the “Grandorse Eventing”. We spoke to him about what actually happened there.

The accusation

Tim Price had three horses at the start in the CCI4*-S from Kronenberg. He won the competition with the nine-year-old Hanoverian The Highlander by Diacontinus (breeder: Nicole Nehm). He came eleventh with the ten-year-old Eldorado de Hus son Garcon.

The third horse he had with him was also the most experienced: the KWPN gelding Happy Boy, who was World Champion of young eventing horses in 2019, won the four-star competitions in Blenheim and Boekelo and finished the 2025 season in fourth place in Pau. Happy Boy was eliminated at obstacle 23a due to refusals.

This situation was the bone of contention, which is why Price received a yellow card. The charge: “Abuse of Horse – Excessive use of whip, bit and/or spurs (Eventing Rules Art. 526.1.3)”.

The FEI declined to comment on the details of the incident, as did the stewards. Instead, they referred to the clause that Price violated, which states that there was an “excessive use of the whip, bit, and/or spurs.” But what does “excessive” mean? As mentioned, neither the FEI nor the stewards contacted were willing to disclose any details here. Tim Price’s own statement reads as follows.

What exactly had happened?

When asked by EQUI PAGES, Tim Price explained that the main issue was that there is a new rule he wasn’t familiar with. According to this rule, the whip may only be used in cross-country before or at the jump as encouragement, but not after the obstacle.

However, the experienced Happy Boy was really “naughty” at this jump. Knowing the old rules, according to which a horse may only be hit with the whip a maximum of three times, he hit the gelding once with the whip as a reaction to him running past. That would not have been a problem under the old rules, but it is under the new ones.

“The judges have said that they absolutely understood my actions but that they have no choice but to act in accordance with the new rule and caution me,” Price said.

At the same time, he emphasizes that his reaction was by no means emotional, but very well-considered. Only that the new rule did not play a role in this consideration. “It’s obviously my fault that I wasn’t aware of the rule,” says Price. “I am probably one of the riders with the most international starts who is currently active. I have never received a warning. I’m just not like that,” he emphasizes.

Two five-star tournaments despite broken collarbone

In fact, Tim Price is actually known as a rider whose horses have been healthy in the sport for an exceptionally long time, such as his Luhmühlen winner and Olympic partner Wesko, who was retired from the sport at the age of 17 when he finished third in Pau. Or the current two-time World Championship bronze medal winner and Olympic sixth-placed Falco. He is now also 17 years old and is as fit as ever.

The special partnership between Price and Falco became clear in Badminton, among other things. When the pair finished second there, Tim Price had just undergone a second operation for a broken collarbone – after coming fourth with the 16-year-old Vitali at the CCI5*-L in Kentucky a week after falling off his bike and breaking his collarbone.

Price: “I don’t think I’m a tough guy, but sometimes you have to go through it: If you fall and break your collarbone, right at the time the horses land in America, your options are limited. I owed it to the owners and the situation to at least compete there and see what I could achieve.

(…) I was very lucky to have Falco at my side, an old friend who I know inside out. If it had been a horse that Badminton didn’t know yet, the story might have turned out differently and the goal would not have been achievable. But because of the special connection with this horse and because I know him so well, I was able to master these tasks (Kentucky and Badminton).”