Hold Your Horses as new patient stress course launches

BEVA members are being given the chance to take a new CPD course that aims to help them minimise patient stress.

The association has worked with Gemma Pearson, an RCVS specialist in equine behavioural medicine, on the six-part programme entitled Hold Your Horses.

The course builds on previous research by Miss Pearson, which found that 95% of equine vets work with “difficult” horses on at least a monthly basis and 81% had sustained at least one injury in the preceding five years.

Themes

Themes covered through the free-to-member course include how horses learn, the reading of emotions and body language, restraint during veterinary care and anthrozoology, the study of animal and human interactions.

Miss Pearson said: “Horses have limited cognitive skills and so we should try to better understand what motivates and reinforces unwanted behaviours, rather than assuming the horse is being wilfully or maliciously disobedient.

“To do this we need to appreciate how horses learn. Better horse handling leads to happier horses and this means happier vets, nurses and owners/clients, with the ultimate knock-on of better safety, better job satisfaction and better retention in the profession.”

BEVA members can sign up for the course at www.beva.org.uk