Ten members of The FEEVA Welfare WG met up at 8th of March at Equitana in Essen for a whole day packed with current topics regarding welfare in horses. We also has another 4 people joining us on line.
Lucy Grieve, UK started of addressing the complexity of dealing with obesity in horses. It is often not a case of just feeding less and increasing exercise. It is also often associated with shame and affected by various factors such as genetics, and the life style.
The main topic of the day; modern reproductive techniques,OPU/ICSI, was excellently presented by Mirela Tripon, RO, who was accompanied by Dr Niamh Lewis, IR, who presented her results from her OPU/ICSI survey (the survey has been sent to breeders, reproductive vets and FEEVA members). We also had the honour of Dr Karin Hendriks, NL, telling us about a white paper for recommended guidelines for using OPU/ICSI. FEEVA Welfare WG will continue to monitor the development in this area.
Michael Köhler then gave us a very detailed background and present position with regards til Transport Regulation.
After lunch Fenna Westerduin, NL, talked about social licence, how we people like to live in ”bubbles” and being very protective of our own bubble. Fenna also described how the Equestrian Federation in Netherlands dealt with extremists and protesters, how it sometimes involve inviting them and at other times ignoring them. Two surveys that has been carried out in the NL show a decrease in public’s interest in using horses in sport.
Anette Graf gave a short update on the joint (with FEEVA Medicines WG) position paper on chronic medication in competition horses. The aim is to work on a 2nd version for a 2nd consultation coming up soon.
The last presentation of the day was done by Boglárka Köböl, HU, who told us about the Hungarian Horse Welfare Group and her project about how different husbandry systems affect the welfare of horses in Hungary.
After the meeting we had a chance to explore the huge exhibition area in Equitana.
We also like to thank Dr Stefan Wachtarz for providing the meeting room at Equitana.
