Overview

• The FEI found Parra repeatedly and intentionally subjected most of his horses to severe mistreatment over several years based on extensive video and photographic evidence submitted by US Equestrian.
• Parra is banned from FEI and national competitions until February 2039 and must pay a 15,000-franc fine plus 10,000 francs in legal costs.
• He remains provisionally suspended since February 2024 and has 21 days to lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
• The ruling comes after a similar Helgstrand scandal and an open letter led by Isabell Werth warning that lax welfare standards threaten dressage’s Olympic future.
• Parra’s international career—which included riding for Colombia at the 2004 Athens Olympics and for the United States at the 2011 Pan American Games—is effectively ended by the long-term ban.