Horse & Hound
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This was the question asked of all of us at the National Equine Forum yesterday (4 March).
The virtual conference covered topics from Brexit to diversity to road safety, and also returned to the topics of two associated webinars, held in January.
One of these was The Great Weight Debate (Equine), a discussion featuring a horse owner, a vet, a livery yard manager, a nutritionist, an equine welfare officer and Showing Council chairman David Ingle.
Tamzin Furtardo, whose PhD was on equine obesity and owners’ attitudes towards it, and who was also present for that webinar, summed up the issues raised in the discussion, including the prevalence of images of overweight horses, leading to a perception than fat is normal, confusion over what to feed and the challenges of managing horses who need to lose weight.
Horsetalk.co.nz
The Great Weight Debate are available until February 15.
The webinar, presented by Professor Pat Harris, looked at different perspectives on equine weight management from across the equestrian sector, including the views of a horse owner, livery yard owner and coach, an equine welfare officer, an equine vet, a nutritionist and a competition judge.
A panel of speakers including included Lucy Grieve, Helen Gale, Beth Maloney, Liz Bulbrook, David Ingle, Penny Baker and Dr Tamzin Furtado, looked at the issues preventing owners/carers from managing horse, pony and donkey weight effectively, despite many previous and ongoing attempts from industry to effect change. They explored how obstacles may be overcome and the discussions will be supported by a human behaviour change researcher.