Show Secretaries & Staff Hub
Healthiest Equine Body Condition Awards
Promote Equine Welfare at your Show: Join the WeighToWin Programme!
The Horse Trust, in tandem with the British Equine Veterinary Association, (BEVA), considers equine obesity to be one of the highest-ranking equine health risks today. We are working with many equine welfare and showing societies to come up with practical solutions to enable human behaviour around equine obesity to be changed for the better.
The University of Liverpool, with The Horse Trust, created and piloted the WeighToWin programme to spread the word on equine obesity and to recognise and reward those that keep their horses and ponies at a healthy weight.
People get very upset by seeing underweight horses, but in reality, far more horses are obese. This is very worrying for vets who are finding that they must frequently treat horses with serious, and avoidable, health conditions such as EMS and laminitis.
Perceptions of what is a healthy weight have become skewed towards the higher body condition scores. We would like to reset this balance with your help.
How it works
Within a showing class, there is a vet or a suitably qualified person (SQP) who will carry out body condition scoring (BCS) and will present the healthiest equine in the class with a gorgeous rosette in recognition of their achievement. Assessing is concurrent, but independent, of the normal judging of the class and does not interfere with the show timetable. Our BCS assessors will not interfere with the judging of the class, but will engage with the class judge(s) if invited to do so.
Our approach is non-confrontational, providing access to advice if required and encouragement for owners, riders and producers going forward. Consistently, our winners are delighted with their rosette and will share their success with The Horse Trust and your show on social media platforms thus spreading the WeighToWin message.
FAQs
- WeighToWin does not cost the Show any fees.
- The Horse Trust will arrange for an SQP to BCS if you don’t already have one attending.
- Rosettes are posted to the show organiser with score sheets for the vets and Commentary Notes. We endeavour to provide lots of positive PR before and after your Show.
Your next move…
Download the show pack below to give you the straightforward information that you need and then email rachael@holdsworthpr.co.uk to register your interest in running Weigh to Win awards at your show or to ask any further questions you may have.
Thank you!
