Welfare Stewarding Team

We are an independent group of volunteers who strongly believe that employing prevention through education, we can make a difference. We are extremely grateful to the BHS (British Horse Society) who have provided online training with motivational interviewing techniques on how to broach those difficult conversations along with other training that included training on healthy bodyweight scoring, as equine obesity is an ongoing welfare issue.

Our aim is to educate and to encourage better horsemanship, understanding and consideration for all horses and ponies at our events. We like to reward where possible, even if it's just a message of “well done”, “good handling” or “great combination”, this always seems to be very well accepted. In some cases, the event has provided a rosette/memento of some sort which could be awarded to those that demonstrate any of the above. We have been told that this has meant more than a class placing, demonstrating that welfare is really important to the competitors.

With social licence to operate in mind we are keen to protect shows and events from the possible implications of the poor horsemanship and/or welfare issues often going on behind the scenes at shows and events. More often than not, the competitor is unaware of how they are treating their animal as they are often too stressed and/or completely caught up in the moment, and do not consider how their behaviour is portrayed to the general public watching from the sidelines. There is a high percentage of the public that think that horses should not be ridden at all, so it's of the utmost importance that we all look to protect the longevity of riding and showing within equestrianism.

Other events have commented that bringing in independent stewards has worked really well for them and takes away the issue of asking your own stewards to have potentially difficult conversations. Our team of 40 something which is growing all the time, includes a wide range of volunteers including veterinary surgeons, saddlers, chiropractors, physiotherapists and many other equine professionals.