14 May 2021
All staff at VetPartners practices to be provided hard hats when working with horses as part of a company-wide Hat Hair – Don’t Care campaign (17 to 21 May).
Joshua Silverwood
Job Title
A new campaign by VetPartners is encouraging all vets and VNs at its practices to wear hard hats when handling horses.
Staff at all VetPartners equine or mixed practice sites will now be provided with hard hats to keep their skulls safe when working alongside horses as part of the company’s Hat Hair – Don’t Care campaign.
From 17 to 21 May, the company-owned practices will be running the campaign to get vets and VNs to wear the hard hats, produced specially for the firm by hat manufacturer Charles Owen.
Anyone handling a horse at a VetPartners equine or mixed practice is encouraged to wear the protection in a range of horse interactions, from leading and grooming to holding horses for procedures.
VetPartners’ equine executive member Carrie Goodbourn said: “Head injuries are sadly a high risk for vets and nurses in practices, and they occur in all sorts of circumstances.
“People can be seriously hurt and, in some cases, suffer life-threatening injuries, so the health and safety of our colleagues has to be top of our agenda.”
Ms Goodbourn added: “In other professions and disciplines within the equine industry, the wearing of hard hats has, for a long while, been accepted as the norm and a mandatory safety requirement.
“In taking those steps, we are aligning ourselves with leading, respected organisations like the British Horse Society, which have been active in advocating the wearing of hard hats for many years.”
