EU horse legislation compromises ecosystem restoration efforts | Science

EU legislation permits and supports the extensive use of domestic horses (Equus ferus caballus) for sport, recreation, and leisure but constrains their existence as free-ranging or rewilded populations (1). This asymmetry reflects a conceptualization of horses as managed property rather than ecological agents. As a result, legislation enables the intensive personal use of horses while limiting their potential participation in ecological restoration opportunities and alternative modes of existence. This contradiction is increasingly salient under the European Nature Restoration Law (2), which calls for large-scale ecosystem recovery but does not accommodate the functional role of horses in ecosystems, where they historically filled an important niche as large herbivore grazers (3).