World Horse Welfare Event

We were sent a press release from World Horse Welfare a couple of days ago with some of their official photos of the day (I am waiting on pictures of me meeting and talking with HRH Princess Anne to be approved so fingers crossed we get them soon)

It was a brilliant day and such an honour to be asked to be part of it at the Royal Geographical Society, Kensington.

The team at WHW were all lovely and so supportive, including their Chief Executive Roly Owers, Chairman Micheal Baines and their President HRH Princess Anne who has a keen interest in plant diversity for equines and was great to talk to.

I’ve had such an amazing response from so many people, Companies, Universities, Charities and groups that I’m sure this message is really getting out there and people really want to start making a change.

Lots of exciting requests for next year so let’s see what 2024 brings …

Here is the write up from WHW for the day

FEI president says we should lead by example.

Improving environmental sustainability improves health and welfare of horses.

HRH The Princess Royal urges us to understand the horse’s place in the environment.

Ingmar de Vos, President of FEI, believes awareness of the need for environmental sustainability is increasing in the equestrian world. Considering the impact of keeping, traveling, and competing horses at World Horse Welfare’s recent conference, chaired by Dr Neil Hudson MP exploring whether horses are a friend or foe of the environment, he said a lot of initiatives have already been undertaken and the FEI should lead by example, whilst cautioning against hasty and radical – and invariably unsustainable – changes.

Addressing a global audience of nearly 1,000 people, including the charity’s President Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, FEI leader de Vos said, “The biggest challenge is communicating the ideas and creating the awareness. You can have the solution but not everybody is aware of them. The international sports world is very much aware of the responsibility that they carry. As we always say, lead by example.”

Whilst it could be easy to point the finger at the sport horse industry, Ruth Dancer, Director at environmental sustainability consultancy White Griffin, emphasised that there are already many existing environmental positives in the way we keep horses and that we can all play an individual part in doing more. “The horse IS good for the environment,” she said. “Perhaps where we are going wrong is to forget its job in nature and perhaps instead giving it the name of (an) athlete.” She noted how equestrianism had an opportunity to make a huge difference for the environment as we are “the sport of the land … but just because we are OF the land does not mean we are good FOR the land – we need to look more deeply than that.” Going on to describe how we can all individually help, she described some of the opportunities, “There are fences that could be complemented by hedges, there are large empty paddocks that could be complemented by shady trees. We are the one sport that can make a big difference.”

And with social licence being a hot topic with regards to our relationship with horses and their welfare, Irish Senator Pippa Hackett, Minister of State for Agriculture with responsibility for Land Use and Biodiversity, reminded us that it also obligates us to be environmentally responsible. Cautioning delegates, she said, “Every single one of us working in the equine industry needs to be thinking about our environmental impact. It’s really utterly necessary if the horse sector and horse ownership are to retain that social licence.”

To illustrate the positive effect that more environmentally sustainable ways of keeping horses can have on their health and welfare, Jenny Rogers, Manager and Trustee, Ash Rescue Centre in Devon, described how the environment at the centre had been managed for wildlife and the benefits this had for the horses living there. She pointed out that the elderly horses in her care rarely needed veterinary drugs and they worm counted very frequently but the counts seemed to stay low. “The more we encouraged birds on the farm, the lower our worm counts became.”

However, following questions from the audience and the panel’s subsequent responses it was apparent that there cannot be a one size fits all approach – particularly at an individual horse ownership level where owners can be constrained by their yards, locations and finances.

Acknowledging this in her closing address, Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal summed up the event saying, “These things do sometimes sound simple and at the end of the day they are more complicated. We need to make absolutely sure we do understand the horse’s place in the environment and our ability to support them be as natural as possible while we enjoy their presence and the different ways in which we relate to them.

“Practically everything that we know makes a difference will take more time. It will be less convenient. And practically all of the decisions we’ve made on scale and efficiency are based on taking less time and being more convenient. Scale is something we have to manage better because it can always destroy even the best of ideas. We have to be aware that if we want to make a difference, it will take more time and we have to be prepared to give more time. Keeping horses is not a convenient hobby.”

Recognising the interconnectedness of all the rich tapestry of topics covered, Roly Owers concluded the conference acknowledging that there are no clear-cut answers but “There are small steps that can take us forward to be good land managers as well as being good horse managers. We haven’t inherited the equestrian sector from our predecessors, we’ve borrowed it from our successors.

“We all share one future. One health, one welfare. Animals, humans and the environment are intertwined.”

World Horse Welfare would like to thank the headline sponsor of the Conference, The Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust, and our supporters, the Horseracing Betting Levy Board and Equine Register