Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael will reveal his plans for the equine industry at this year’s National Equine Forum, which will take place at The Royal Veterinary College, London on Thursday (25 March).
Alun Michael will be presenting “a government overview of the industry” at the independent conference, which will be attended by Princess Anne as well as many of the industry’s most influential individuals.
Other speakers at the forum include:
- Haydn Price DipWCF
- Dr Josh Slater MRCVS
- Twink Allen CBE, MRCVS
- Graham Suggett OBE, DL, consultant director of breeding for the British Equestrian Federation
- Tristram Ricketts, secretary general of the British Horseracing Board
- David Pritchard, head of animal welfare veterinary division at DEFRA
- Catherine Burdock, general secretary of Sport Horse Breeding of GB
Hannah Haskew, the winner of this year’s prestigious Eqvalan Equine Thesis of the Year competition, will also be speaking at the conference about her winning research, which demonstrated that horses were more suspicious of black ramp matting than any other colour.
The invitation-only forum was set up in 1993 to identify important topics and provide an opportunity to hear all sides of complex issues.
Issues that have been successfully brought to the equestrian world’s attention through the forum previously, include the need to recognise the efforts of elite grooms to encourage more people to remain in the industry. Following discussion at the forum, a number of special awards for grooms were introduced to combat this problem.
