The Horse Trust Attends SEVA Congress as Lead Sponsor

For the 3^rd year running, The Horse Trust was the head sponsor of the Student Equine Veterinary Association (SEVA) Congress, which took place at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Medicine in Edinburgh in February. The organising committee of SEVA arranged an action pack weekend of lectures, demonstrations, and interactive practical sessions for the vet students, even including a night of traditional Scottish Ceili dancing to close out the event!! The student delegates got the chance to be taught by leading experts in a range of subjects including Colic Surgery, Opthalmology, Neurology, Horse rescue, Foaling, Equine Behaviour, Dentistry, and Veterinary Involvement in Welfare Cases.

The Horse Trust was able to use the event to highlight their involvement in ongoing veterinary research, with many of our funded projects being showcased over the weekend, such as research into Equine Grass Sickness, Osteoarthritis, and Equine Behaviour, and with the opportunity for the students to chat to the researchers and lecturers during the “meet the experts” sessions, which we hosted at our stand. The event was the perfect opportunity for us to show the future of equine veterinary how committed we are to supporting veterinary medicine and to collaborating with the veterinary industry to improve the overall health and welfare of horses in the UK.

As well as sponsoring talks by our funded researches, THT also delivered our own bespoke session for the students, with Carolyn Madgwick, our Head of Field Skills, delivering a lecture on applying animal welfare legislation within the role of a veterinary surgeon. The talk included many real-life scenarios that veterinary surgeons may face in practice and prompted the students to discuss what they would do if they came across these situations in their job. The engagement and interest from the students was overwhelming, and showed the value in the online courses currently delivered by the Trust on this issue. SEVA also gave us the opportunity to promote our partnership with The British Animal Rescue and Trauma Care Association (BARTA), by sponsoring Jim Green’s talk on veterinary involvement in animal rescue, and by assisting with the practical sessions that BARTA ran throughout the weekend. Big shoutout to Jim, Patrick Pollock of the Royal (Dick) vet school, and all the students who enthusiastically braved the Scottish snow to go into the woods to practice horse rescue techniques!!!

The Horse Trust confirmed it looks forward to continuing their relationship with equine veterinary students and to providing support for the future of the veterinary industry. Susan Mooney, Training Officer at The Horse Trust said:

“The SEVA committee of Edinburgh University were all a pleasure to work with before and during the conference and we, as sponsors, had a really positive experience of the whole event from start to finish. The congress itself was a huge success and credit to the committee for organising such a professional, informative and well-run event. Feedback from the students and speakers was really positive and we had excellent engagement and enthusiasm from all the delegates, and found them all a pleasure to interact with throughout the weekend”

Read about our research funding for equine veterinary research