17th September, 2015 Transported

A day out of the office which merited a change from my Mountain Horse boots to my Ariats and a necklace. Off to Oxfordshire to meet up with BHS Senior Executive Sheila Hardy and Animal Physiology Researcher, Emma Punt in the company of Jim Green, Animal Rescue Specialist and Co-Founder of the British Animal Rescue and Trauma Association. All those long badges meant that we were getting together for our first meeting on Horse Transport following the survey that was carried out on behalf of BARTA and IH.

The aim was to examine the results, which should be published in October, and which reveal a few surprises. We were also looking at further research that Emma Punt will carry out. She has already been involved in the development of Cargo Sense by Landrover which alerts owners to problems in their horse trailer when travelling along or when the vehicle is stationary through various sensors. Whilst the passenger can continuously monitor the horse on CCTV, the driver can be alerted to a definite problem through a cargo alert which means they can pull over and find out what is wrong. Landrover Cargo Sense

I have rarely been to such a positive meeting where everyone was so enthusiastic about developments in the safety and welfare of horses in horse transport. There are some great developments in design within the industry but many more improvements that could be made, and room for the development of more and better training for horses and for the drivers of transport vehicles themselves.

Top and bottom right, transport incident involving Krissy Serino's pony, Twin, and bottom right, cob, Prince at Romsey Show. Both horses went over the breast partition in a rear facing 3.5 tonne horsebox in separate incidents last week.