The Nordic Network for Communicating Animal Welfare (NordCAW) hosted a seminar on horse welfare in equestrian sports on 29 November. There were seven talks, on topics such as ‘Conflict behaviour in horses used in equestrian sport’ by Prof Elke Hartmann (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences); ‘Is rein tension associated with horse behaviour and mouth lesions in harness racing trotters?’ by Dr Kati Tuomola, University of Helsinki and ‘Welfare parameters in horse sport; oral lesions as an example’ by Mette Uldahl, National Head Veterinarian at the FEI in Denmark.

In her first talk on ‘Society and governance of horse welfare; use of intrinsic value as a starting point’, Mette Uldahl stated that  “a horse is still a horse, irrespective of the intended use”, reflecting the nature of the horse, and their behavioural priorities and welfare needs. In her second talk, data were presented from a published study on ‘Lesions associated with the use of bits, nosebands, spurs and whips in Danish competition horses’.  For more information on this study go to: https://beva.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/evj.12827…