A timely Welfare Wednesday Webinar topic to greet the New Year: Cutting costs, not care

Join us on Wednesday 4th January at 7pm as we look at how we can reduce costs whilst still maintaining high standards of care for our horses. We welcome BEVA (British Equestrian Veterinary Association) Veterinary Projects Officer Lucy Grieve, Blue Cross Horse Welfare Manager Ruth Court, and World Horse Welfare Field Officer Rachel Andrews to discuss this topic – one that is very much at the forefront of our minds part way through the winter and with the cost-of-living crisis.

We are all very aware of how expensive horses are to keep and we, as owners, often feel that the costs associated with their care spiral constantly upwards – more so than ever with the increasing costs of feed, bedding, and services we are currently experiencing. Lucy, Ruth and Rachel will guide us through areas where we can look to save money as well as highlighting where scrimping could impact the health and welfare of our horses. As always, the team will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have at the end of the webinar.

By registering for the webinars through Zoom, you will be able to take part in the various polls, ask questions during the Q&A and enjoy an interactive experience.

The webinars are free to attend and if you are unable to attend via Zoom they can be viewed as a Facebook Live session. If you have missed any of the previous webinars – which have tackled subjects as fascinating and diverse as keeping horses fit, weight management, euthanasia, biosecurity, horse mental wellbeing and travelling – they are all available to watch on the World Horse Welfare YouTube channel.

More about the presenters: Lucy Grieve worked for 15 years as an equine vet in Newmarket, caring for all types of horses from happy hackers and amateur sports horses, to elite racehorses. In 2012 she became a member of the British Equestrian Veterinary Association (BEVA) Council, where she chaired the Ethics and Welfare Committee and sat on the Equestrian Sports Committee. In 2020 Lucy was elected as President of BEVA and has since moved into a permanent role for them as Veterinary Projects Officer.

Ruth Court is the Horse Welfare Manager at Blue Cross and her experience within the Equine Industry is in education, management and welfare. She has a BSc (Hons) degree in Equine Management, Cert Ed (H&FE) as well as the BHS II certificate. Ruth’s main role with Blue Cross is managing the team responsible for supporting the horses the charity has out on loan. Ruth and her team constantly look for innovative and cost-effective ways of working to ensure the charity remains able to continue to help those horses that most need it while maintaining healthy horses in happy homes. Ruth became a Director of NEWC in 2017 and is the current Vice-Chair. Her main areas of responsibility are the Rehoming Network, member accreditation and she is currently working on the new member standards.

Rachel Andrews is one of World Horse Welfare’s team of 17 Field Officers. Based all over the UK, our Field Officers make over 2,500 initial and follow-up visits to welfare concerns every year as well as checking on our rehomed horses. Rachael is also a seasoned competitor.