While domesticated, well-trained horses are usually obedient, docile, and affectionate, it is critical for all practitioners and clients to understand that working with horses always involves some degree of risk. As prey animals, their minds are generally safety-focused. This instinct means they can be quick to act and sometimes unpredictable by nature. All those working with horses, particularly in the professional context of Equine Facilitated Interactions, must know how to act in a way that ensures they can remain safe, and hold a safe-space for clients and service users, while also respecting the needs and wellbeing of the horse(s) at all times.

Creating a safe environment requires both common sense and a comprehensive understanding of horses. Practitioners will often be working with service users who have little or no experience of being around these powerful animals. As such, practitioners are obliged to be able to create and hold a safe space for all parties engaged in the interaction: their clients, themselves, and the horses. This requires that practitioners have a solid grounding in the knowledge and understanding of equine behaviour. They must have a clear recognition of the characters of the individual horses they are working with, as well as a complete understanding of their social dynamics when working in the herd.

Before any interaction, service-users and/or clients must be provided with a clear written (or illustrated) outline detailing the key safety aspects of being around horses. This document must be confirmed as understood by the client's signature, or if appropriate, signed on their behalf by a guardian or carer. In addition to this written guide, a clear verbal briefing on how to behave around horses must be provided at the start of the session. This briefing should include a recognition that horses can be very responsive to a person's energy and emotions, and therefore should emphasise the need for clients to be aware of how they are feeling.

Given the sensitivity of horses to human emotional states, we strongly recommend that practitioners who work with horses develop and maintain routines and practices that help them to manage their own energy when around them. Implementing personal strategies such as mindfulness exercises, meditation, or grounding routines before a session can be highly effective in helping to create a calm and safe environment for both the client and the horse.

Sensible and appropriate clothing and footwear must always be worn around horses by practitioners and clients alike. This includes:

• Footwear: Hard-soled, fully enclosed shoes or boots must be worn with socks to adequately protect the feet.
   
• Trousers: Long trousers are required to protect the legs.
   
• Gloves: It is recommended to wear gloves when leading horses on a rope.
   
• Headwear: Even though Equine Facilitated Interactions are generally ground-based exercises, a protective riding hat that meets current safety standards should always be made available for clients to wear during sessions if they choose to do so.
   
• Jewellery: The wearing of jewellery should be avoided. Earrings, other piercings, and finger rings are easily caught and can either break or cause significant injury.
   
• Other Items: It is also recommended that people have empty pockets and do not carry food with them while they are interacting with horses.

On all yards where sessions are conducted, both human and equine first aid kits must be readily available, fully stocked, and their locations clearly marked. The Register expects that Practitioners are either trained first aiders themselves or work in locations where there is a nominated, trained first-aider present and on-site at all times when clients are present. Furthermore, all visitors to the site must be made familiar with general hazards, on-site risks, and official accident procedures, and they must know what action to take in the event of an emergency.

As stated above, horses can be highly sensitive to humans’ energetic and emotional states. For this reason, from both general safety and equine-sensitivity perspectives, the consumption of stimulants such as alcohol or recreational drugs must be avoided at all times when around horses. Practitioners are strongly encouraged to implement and enforce a zero-tolerance policy for such situations. For similar reasons, clients should also be encouraged to declare whether they are taking any form of prescription medication, particularly those of a mood-altering nature, so that risks can be appropriately managed. While general stimulants such as caffeine are a part of everyday life, their consumption should be kept to a minimum immediately before engaging in equine interactions.

In addition to the direct safety protocols outlined above, all registrants are expected to commit to the Register’s Ethical Treatment of Horses policy. These ethical standards are built on a holistic framework known as the "five domains," which focuses not just on the physical wellbeing and care of the horses, but also on their emotional and mental states. This foundational commitment to comprehensive animal wellbeing makes an important and direct contribution to general safety when we are working around them. A well-cared-for horse is a safer horse.