A Horse & Hound Podcast advertisement feature with CVS Equine
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.
You can listen online here or via your favourite podcast app.
An introduction to this podcast…
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.
“Her lecture made me realise that the reason these horses behave in such a way is because they are fearful – they’re not trying to hurt us, they are just trying to do what they can to manage that situation. And that is why I began to pursue a career path within my job that related to horses and ponies who have a phobia of vets and needles.”