With such a busy past 12 months, BEVA CEO David Mountford gives us a rundown of important developments and news from the industry...
Q3 of 2021 has seen COVID restrictions start to relax and other issues take centre stage… Across the UK’s horse industry, the price of horses remains strong; VDS have recorded a record number of PPEs so far this year, and we’ve just seen the end of a record-breaking Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale. Anecdotally most practices seem to be run off their feet with the sheer volume of work…
For the small BEVA Office team, Congress (the face-to-face version, the live channel, and the Colic Symposium) produced a previously unseen level of stress, but we’ve returned to Fordham with the feeling that it was “a job well done” and with the knowledge that we’ll never again try to run a Congress, which normally takes 12 months to prepare, if we only have 12 weeks… We’ve also returned home with some new Council members, a new President, and revised Committees to drive the Association’s representative work.
On the health and medicines front we’ve been involved with the steering group that helped to rehome the AHT’s equine work and we’re now engaged with the group that is overseeing the supported lab work (now based at Rossdales) and Richard Newton’s disease surveillance team (heading to Cambridge University). The hope is that future disease protection will be funded from across the equine sector and not just by the Thoroughbred world.
Horse ID developments continue to move forwards, albeit at a snail’s pace. Former BEVA Council member, Neil Hudson MP, was part of the EFRA select committee on “Moving animals across borders” and current BEVA Treasurer, Roly Owers, gave evidence. The committee gave very clear recommendations promoting the full digitisation of equine ID and the need for simplified cross-border movements for high health status horses.
Racing’s Horse Welfare Board has also pushed forward with its whip review and consideration of aftercare provision. BEVA’s input to the whip review reflected the different opinions held within the Association but noted that racing’s retention of a social licence was essential to the continuation of the sport. On aftercare, BEVA has two representatives on the steering group and sees this project as a unique opportunity to build a system that will ensure that the UK continues to be a global leader in this field.