Happy Hour, Popworld and the BEVA Ball – equine vets know how to party!

On the lighter side of being an equine vet, BEVA Congress is not only the place for serious learning, it also involves some serious partying. Stamina and a strong constitution are required to stay the full length of the BEVA social programme, and equine vets are certainly fit for the task!

The BEVA Ball held on the Friday night, hosts the formal hand over from the outgoing President to the new incoming President. As David Rendle’s tenure came to an end he handed over to Professor Roger Smith. Known to many horse owners as the equine orthopaedics genius, Roger is Professor of Equine Orthopaedics at the Royal Veterinary College.

Building careers

Looking forward to the coming year, Roger’s remit will focus on encouraging young people to join the equine veterinary industry and to support newly qualified vets when joining practice for the first time. Helping them to structure a career plan and to appreciate, ‘what a great job being an equine vet is’, is his aim.

Roger is keen to build on and continue to support the international equine veterinary community and said: ‘BEVA has the resources and the impact to make a difference, especially for those countries which have less access to high quality educational material.’

Equine veterinary nurses also feature in his sights: “I have been so impressed by the engagement and passion of our equine veterinary nurses.

“Getting nurses more involved in the care of our patients, similar to the way in which nurses work in the medical profession, could provide part of the solution to the current shortage of qualified equine vets, and I am keen to support the ongoing discussions in this respect.”

HRH The Princess Royal attends BEVA Congress

This year Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal attended BEVA Congress on the first morning, Thursday 14th September. HRH, who has been Patron of BEVA since 2003, a position previously held by HRH’s Grandmother, The Queen Mother, gave a short speech and presented BEVA’s Annual Awards.

The awards included, The BEVA Equine Welfare Award, sponsored by the Blue Cross, which was presented to Jim Green, who received an exclusive Irish bog oak trophy together with a cash prize.

For 12 years fire fighter Jim, has been the driving force behind local and national campaigns to improve knowledge and skills in animal rescue; organising teams, and training rescue team leaders and vets.

Any horse owner who has had the misfortune to call the fire brigade to rescue their horse will be eternally grateful for his knowledge, and the procedures he has been instrumental in developing. 

Jim co-founded the British Animal Rescue and Trauma Association (BARTA), which supports and trains vets and emergency responders in resolving emergency situations involving animals.

Since Jan 2022 BARTA has trained over 100 vet responders, over 250 emergency responders (including vets and ground staff) for racecourses and British Eventing, members of the local authorities and the police.

The inaugural Nurse Empowerment Award was presented to Marie Rippingale, for her  work in developing, promoting and advocating the role of the equine veterinary nurse.

Marie has been involved in all areas of curriculum development, lecturing and examining for multiple awarding bodies. She is an active member of BEVA and has volunteered in Gambia, helping improve welfare for working donkeys and provide education to their owners.

Prior to lecturing Marie worked as a head nurse in an equine practice where she provided many desperately needed CPD opportunities for equine nurses. She has been a champion in encouraging vets to allow and encourage equine veterinary nurses work to their full ability. 

The value of behavioural science

Alongside the scientific lectures and practical workshops, the value of behavioural science was in the spotlight at BEVA Congress as Gemma Pearson and Sarah Freeman shared their knowledge and experience on how embracing learning theory and, changing hearts and minds, can improve equine health and welfare, as well as human safety.

Dr Gemma Pearson, Director of Equine Behaviour for the Horse Trust, presented ‘Equine Behaviour, the good, the bad and the downright dangerous’. She discussed how learning theory can be applied to make horse–vet  interactions safer and less stressful for all concerned and, explored the new discipline of equine behavioural medicine.

“We need to remember that the dangerous behavioural responses horses employ to avoid veterinary care, are perfectly normal responses for this species to an acute stressor,” said Gemma. “So perhaps, rather than trying to physically prevent them, we instead need to train horses to stand calmly during veterinary care. Modifying a horse’s behaviour relies on an understanding of the processes through which they learn, known as learning theory.”

“Vets have traditionally focused on the physical health of horses,” she said. “But there is an increasing body of research focused on their emotional health. Moreover, pain from physical disease will have a negative impact on how a horse feels, and at the same time, how a horse feels will impact their perception of pain. Approaching more complex cases from a biopsychosocial approach that includes biological psychological and social perspectives provides a more holistic perspective.”

Sarah Freeman, Professor of Veterinary Surgery, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at the University of Nottingham, discussed the challenge of ‘Changing hearts and minds’.

Sarah spoke about the main issues in equine health and welfare, and how the key challenge is to improve understanding and compliance by horse owners/carers. She outlined a three-step approach to helping horse owners understand the welfare needs of their animals.

“The first step is ensuring that we provide accurate evidence-based information to horse owner as the foundation of decision-making,” she said.

“The second step is to explore any factors that may affect an owner’s decision making. These can form a significant barrier to an owner implementing treatment or changing their approach to managing and preventing disease.

“Non-judgmental listening and shared decision-making are key to adapting evidence-based medicine into an individual plan that an owner is willing and able to adopt for their horse.”

The third step Sarah discussed was around sharing information with horse owners. She highlighted that helping owners to recognise problems, think about and make plans in advance is key to tackling issues such as obesity, biosecurity and delayed euthanasia. She spoke about how veterinary practices and organisations can effectively share information to help horse owners prepare for and prevent problems in the future.

 

Look out for more on understanding equine behaviour and, some exciting new products and treatment protocols, coming to The Horse Hub soon.