British Eventing’s Equine Welfare Panel - another talking shop?

 British Eventing press release

As part of British Eventing’s ongoing focus to deliver the Gold Standard of Eventing, a sport specific Equine Welfare Panel (EWP) has been created to ensure that the well-being of our equine athletes is always paramount.

Alison (Ali) Gill, who has accepted the role of Chair for the panel, is a former Chair of BE’s Sport Committee. She has competed as an amateur up to FEI 3* in addition to being a former triple Olympian for Rowing.

In respect of the EWP and her appointment Ali said, “As with human athletes, in order to perform, horses must be cared for so that they are in excellent mental and physical condition. This is true for horses competing at BE80 and for horses who compete on the international stage. The needs of our equine athletes must always be at the forefront of our minds when training and running at events. As a panel, we will be focusing on bringing to our sport evidence based research and education to help our riders, grooms, coaches, event organisers and the rest of our equestrian community to continue to do the very best we can to ensure the health and welfare of each individual horse and pony participating in our sport.

“Our objective is to ensure that we are looking after our horses in the same way that we do our human athletes. We have considerable knowledge and expertise across the panel, all of whom I hold in the highest regard, and I look forward to working with them to continue delivering to the standard that we are so highly respected for.”

Joining Ali is a panel that represents multiple stakeholder groups across the sport. The panel consists of:

Ali Butler, BE Chief Veterinary Officer
Jan Cottam, BE Non-Executive Director and Official
Pippa Funnell, Elite Rider
Bryony Lewis, Grassroots Rider
Isabel McKeeman, Groom
Harry Meade, Elite Rider
Debbie Pritchard, BE Sport Manager

The EWP looks forward to working with other experts in the field such as the British Equestrian (BEF) Equine Welfare and Ethics Advisory Group that was launched in December 2022 with a remit to provide guidance and recommendations in the key strategic area of equine wellbeing and standards.

Mark Sartori, Chair of British Eventing said, “I am extremely proud to be announcing the newly formed panel and all they stand for.  As the national governing body for the sport of Eventing we must always continue to strive for excellence and I have full confidence that Ali and her panel will deliver exactly that in this critical area.”

"we will be focusing on bringing to our sport evidence based research and education"

Comment

It is always hard to challenge unquestionable good intent, but it is equally hard to understand how this panel will bring "evidence based research" into the sport as it stands. is it designed to be an eventing specific conduit for the work of the British Equestrian (BEF) Equine Welfare and Ethics Advisory Group (from which we haven't heard very much recently?) or is it intended that the panel will be commissioning its own research? - we'll have to wait to see.