When does use become abuse with horses? World-class gathering tackle complex question

Society’s values are changing, animal welfare is becoming an ever-higher priority and some aspects of the horse-human relationship have recently come under the spotlight.

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, World Horse Welfare President and participant at all 25 of the charity’s conferences, summed up the event by highlighting the complexity of the topic, but also reminded the audience that horses and humans had been together for thousands of years, and horses have been bred during that time to exist with us, working together.

The first session illustrated the diverse range of uses that horses have around the world. Mark Wentein, Chair of the European Horse Network, began with an exploration of the roles of the more than seven million equids in Europe. He highlighted the Bruges horse cab service as an example where welfare of the horses has been central to the industry’s development.

Tamara Tadich, Associate Professor at Universidad Austral de Chile examined working horses and their relationship with the many millions of people globally who rely on them. Despite many peoples’ assumptions:

Tamara also pointed out that the welfare of working equids and their caretakers are interlinked and animal welfare cannot be considered on its own or from a single point of view. Despite not being explicitly identified in any of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, working horses are integral to at least six of them.

Matt Brown, US five-star eventer, tackled an area that may be more familiar to many in the audience: training and riding horses for sport and leisure. He likened the current social licence movement in horse sport to the #MeToo movement:

After the morning break, two talks from outside the equestrian world gave a different perspective and proved food for thought. Lee Cain, Founder of Charlesbye Strategy and previously Director of Communications at No. 10 Downing Street for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, emphasised the importance of understanding what the wider public believes.

Claire Bessant, former CEO of International Cat Care then explored use versus abuse in a different species. With some species-specific differences there was a significant overlap in issues and perception and Claire pointed at the tendency to anthropomorphise animals:

A discussion panel consisting of Dr Sarah Coombs, Vet and World Horse Welfare Trustee; Dr Amber Batson, Vet; Professor Christine Middlemiss MRCVS, Chief Veterinary Officer; Bluebell Brown, Royal Veterinary College and Lee Mottershead, Senior Writer, Racing Post and chaired by Nick Powell, Sports Editor, Sky News considered a number of questions with wide-ranging discussions touching on all the topics raised during the morning’s talks. Bluebell Brown brought the discussions together by saying:

Summing up the conference, Roly Owers acknowledged that this is a complex topic and that there are no clear-cut answers: less black and white but more shades of grey. Traditional equestrian practices had been mentioned several times and Roly cautioned:

World Horse Welfare would like to thank the headline sponsor of the Conference, The Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust, and the event’s other supporters, the Horseracing Betting Levy Board and Equine Register for their pivotal involvement in helping make the Conference possible. 

The conference was also broadcast with Spanish and French subtitles and the entire conference is available to watch at any time.