Hillydale Horse Welfare and Research

Ethicist Professor Madeleine Campbell is 100% on the money here at the recent FEI Global Sports Forum during which the FEI Ethics and Wellbeing Commission presented its draft report on welfare issues in equestrian sport. Professor Campbell, in responding to a question about risk in horse sport, noted that it was unethical to know about avoidable risks in horse sport and not take steps to reduce those risks. However, she also noted that there are unavoidable risks in both human and animal sport. On the surface this is true. But is it sound to simply compare the two as though they are the same? They are fundamentally different because humans consent to participate in sport and to the risks to their health and even lives that it might entail. Whereas animals can't and don't consent. They are required to participate as a result of training. They can't consent to being exposed to and experiencing pain, injury or death from the sport their rider requires them to participate in. There's another reason why it is a false equivalence. Because unlike human sports, in horse sport, the horse is actually exposed to far greater risks to their wellbeing and health than their riders. Which is why there is such a big industry in patching them up via medication, surgery, supplements and equipment. Sure the riders are always at risks of life changing injury and death, but they choose to expose themselves to these risks. The horses do not. So back to Professor Campbell's comments about it being unethical to expose horses to avoidable risks. It could be argued that many, if not the majority of horse sports expose horses to avoidable risks because there is no requirement that horses jump enormous fences, perform piaffe, chase after a polo ball, do repeated sliding stops or travel 160kms in a day These activities and many others expose horses to avoidable risks of injury, death and poor welfare during training, husbandry and competition. We could eliminate

Cantering up for their evening carrots. Wait till the end...

Ollie and Freckle

Ollie (cremello stallion) and Freckle (chestnut gelding) working out where they stand in the group. It is interesting that threats and ritual gestures do most of the work rather than actual aggressive contacts. Safer for all.

Clinton bugging his dad

An experience I am sure many of my friends with young kids can relate to. Clinton bugging his dad while he's trying to take a nap. Ollie lay down and then stretched out only to be approached by his son who thought it was the best time to start a game. The vid shows the end of the interaction when Ollie realised he wasn't going to get any shut eye with cheeky Clinton on the scene. I love how gentle Ollie is, if a little annoyed with his son's antics. Taken with my phone from a long way away so not the best quality.

Neopobia in action. The horses meeting a stationary horse ball for the first time.

A short snippet of video that is representative of one of the contestants in the Way of the Horse competition

George practicing canter-trot transitions in the rain today

My two black beauties. One is Chiara, a seven year old mare who is currently in oestrus. The other is Inka, newly arrived today, a 3YO filly who only met Chiara 15 minutes before this video was taken. I'd fed out twice as many hay piles as there were horses to reduce the likelihood of aggression, but Inka was intent on sharing! She tried sharing with the other three mares in the paddock but Chiara was the only one who tolerated her presence. Quite unusual behaviour given they were unfamiliar with each other.

Neil's first canter under saddle today. Didn't quite go according to plan at first but Alistair quickly deleted the unwanted response. The second and third requests went a lot more smoothly. Had a fantastic jumping lesson riding Vinnie- a stunning (and very fat) warmblood. Confidently jumped higher than I've attempted for the past 20 years. Lots of fun and could have gone all day. Learned some very useful tips from Alistair which I will try out on the babies when I introduce them to jumps (at a much lower height). Flatwork lesson a bit challenging- 3rd day blues as I'm a bit tired and the difficulty of what we were doing was increased. Moments of feeling like a beginner but when I got the cues and my position right the horse responded. That's why I am here and I took away some more good tools to add to the kit when I am riding back at home.

Tubby today. Thanks to Georgie for the vid,

Video of Neil today. The stops are mostly initiated by him. Evidence we've got work to do on his rhythm. He's also a bit busy in his mouth given I'm trying to leave it alone except when I cue a turn. I suspect as he settles and develops straightness and rhythm this will change as the experience of being ridden becomes more predictable and controllable. Its a bit wonky, but I was content with his progress. The go, stop and turn work at basic attempt level and his mounting issue is on the road to being deleted.

A snippet of video taken today that has got my future planning into overdrive- Neil calmly under saddle in a new environment with Alistair McLean on board. The combination of the foundation work with the breaker and the recent sessions I've been doing really paid off today. Despite Neil having not previously been ridden in anything larger than a roundyard and being somewhere he'd never been before, his training kicked in and Alistair was quickly able to start finessing his basic responses. The sessions I'd given him recently had focussed on calmness and relaxation and it was very gratifying to see how far he's progressed. He coped amazingly well with the indoor, including meeting the initially scary (though handsome!) horse in the mirror. He exceeded my expectations by a large margin and although there's a long road ahead its heading in the right direction. Going to have my first ride tomorrow. A bit excited.