Livery Yard Survey exposes worrying welfare concerns

Livery Yard Survey exposes worrying welfare concerns One in four respondents reported serious welfare problems at livery yards, according to a pioneering survey released today by World Horse Welfare. The survey results demonstrate an alarming number of serious welfare concerns reported by the public, including 13% who said there had been injuries at their livery yard in the past 12 months, 10% reported no access to fresh water in grazing or turnout areas, 21% recorded problems with poisonous plants especially ragwort, at least 20%

reported physical dangers in grazing or turnout areas, 11% reported inadequate food or water provision in this time period, 10% cited poor foot management and a shocking 6% reported actual physical abuse. 

7% of the 622 respondents said that they were aware that welfare reports had been made to the authorities in the last 12 months.

The online survey was conducted between April 2008 and April 2009 and asked those involved with livery yards to answer a number of specific questions about the management and welfare of horses in livery yards.

With 1.2 million* privately-owned horses in Britain, more than half of which are not kept on the owner's land, these results are massively concerning, demonstrating the wide range of problems expressed by those who completed the survey. The survey was undertaken to aid the Livery Yard Working Group (which includes BEVA, NEWC, ABRS, The Equine Insurance Forum, World Horse Welfare, BHS, Redwings and LACORS) in examining how to resolve the welfare issues that main charities have been dealing with.

World Horse Welfare's Director of Campaigns and Communications, Jo White, comments: "This survey was designed to find out more about livery yards across the UK and whether there are any worrying trends which may compromise a horse's welfare. Clearly, with such a significant proportion of respondents being aware of serious welfare concerns within a livery yard, we must look at how we can introduce measures to eliminate them.

"I am delighted that World Horse Welfare's survey will be able to help the Livery Yard Working Group to identify ways of tackling these concerns."

President of BEVA and Chair of the Livery Yard Working Party, Chris House commented:  "This survey has confirmed the presence of a wide variety of welfare related problems not only in the construction of premises, but as important is the way livery businesses are supervised and run. Problems are surprisingly widespread; action needs to be taken to address this to ensure that good yards are recognised and encouraged, and the bad ones improved."

"The Working Party is compiling evidence of problems at livery yards in order to confirm the concerns that have been expressed over many years. A proposal will be released in the coming months to address the welfare issues that have been raised."

*BETA National Equestrian Survey 2005/2006

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