How to help a vet-shy horse, with CVS Equine

The Horse & Hound Podcast — (Image credit: Ti Media)

Welcome to this Horse & Hound Podcast advertisement feature with CVS Equine, in which our podcast host Gemma Redrup chats to vet Alex Wood of B&W Equine Vets, which is part of the CVS Equine family. Alex talks about the challenges of dealing with vet-shy horses, and has some useful advice on how to retrain a horse who demonstrates undesirable behaviour to make the experience less stressful for all involved.

H&H’s podcast host Gemma Redrup explains: “CVS Equine is a large veterinary group with 22 equine-specific practices that are trying to push the boundaries of equine veterinary medicine. Our guest on this podcast is Alex Wood, who talks around the topic of horses and ponies who might struggle behaviourally while in the presence of a vet, and this is something that Alex specialises in during her day-to-day work at B&W Equine Vets.

Alex Wood explains: “I’ve been working as an equine vet for the best part of 20 years and what prompted my interest in behaviour was when about 10 years ago I attended a talk by Gemma Pearson, who is a very well-respected equine clinical animal behaviourist. She gave a lecture on managing needle-shy horses and it was a real light bulb moment for me, because I think, up until that point, equine behavioural medicine just didn’t exist in the first part of my career.

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Gemma is an experienced journalist, who was a member of H&H staff from 2014 to September 2025. She is passionate about all equestrian sports, including racing and point-to-pointing. She has enjoyed riding out for top trainers Nicky Henderson and Charlie Appleby and took part in a charity Flat race at Epsom in August 2018. Gemma’s has reported from numerous five-star events around Britain and Europe, as well as European championships.