The Horse Trust and Lantra Awards launch first qualification for people dealing with equine welfare concerns

The Horse Trust and Lantra Awards have launched an exciting new qualification for the equine welfare sector.

The Level 3 Diploma in Equine Legislation, Welfare and Field Skills is aimed at people employed by or volunteering for organisations that play a role in: investigating allegations of welfare compromise; enforcing welfare and other equine specific legislation; responding to situations where equids are found in distress or straying, abandoned or fly-grazed; and caring for and rehabilitating equids experiencing welfare compromise.

The Diploma has been jointly developed by The Horse Trust and Lantra Awards in response to requests for a more standardised approach to training across the equine welfare sector. Until now, people undertaking these roles could not achieve a regulated qualification relevant to their role. This qualification enables those achieving it to demonstrate that they are able to perform their role professionally, safely and to the required industry standard.

It covers three core subject areas: legislation, welfare assessment and handling. There are four pathways to choose from, each containing a number of optional units, which enables the learner to tailor the qualification to their role.

Liane Preshaw, Director of Knowledge and Skills at The Horse Trust, said “We are thrilled that the qualification has been now been launched. This represents the hard work of not just The Horse Trust and Lantra Awards, but the whole sector. The qualification was developed in consultation with statutory organisations, veterinary surgeons, nutritionists, equine behaviourists, and animal and equine welfare charities and we are extremely grateful to those individuals who gave up their valuable time to contribute to its development.”

She added, “The Diploma units are structured to reflect current evidence, not only on subjects such as worming and the nutritional management of severely malnourished equids, but also behaviour and how horse’s learn, and how this influences how we should handle them.”

To support organisations that may struggle to find the funding needed to put their employees or volunteers through the qualification, The Horse Trust will also be providing bursaries as one of its charitable outputs.

Vicky Alford, Horse Unit Manager at the Blue Cross, said “Today’s launch of the Level 3 diploma in Equine Legislation, Welfare and Field Skills has been an inspiration to all of us working in the welfare sector. A tremendous amount of work and dedication has gone into producing what looks to be a great step forward in upskilling our current teams and those for the future to enable us to keep pushing forward with promoting great welfare and ultimately enhancing the lives of more horses.”

Carolyn Madgwick, Senior Trading Standards Officer (Animal Health) at Hampshire County Council said, “This qualification will be a huge step forward to ensure that Local Authority Officers have the knowledge and confidence to approach equine welfare issues, an area where training has in the past been very limited. It will also ensure that the numerous agencies that may be jointly involved in cases concerning large numbers of equines are aware of their responsibilities, which in turn will result in precise, consistent and comprehensive prosecution reports.”