Grants

Most research grants are undertaken in collaboration with veterinary schools and institutes.

If you would like to know more about World Horse Welfare grants, please email info@worldhorsewelfare.org

Previous successful grants

• Educational resources for veterinary, equine and agricultural students on the recognition and management of colic in the horse, developed by the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham. Find out more.
• A review of equine welfare in England and Wales: Survey of leisure horse movements between owners in Great Britain.
• Validation and application of a routine methodology for the accurate assessment of pony body composition in vivo.
• Evaluation of training and competition surfaces in equestrian sport, and the consequences for improved welfare and orthopaedic health of horses that use them.
• Equine laminitis in the new millennium: frequency, risk factors and assessing a potential new therapy (pdf to come).
• Interactive educational workshops supporting owners to improve working horse health in Lesotho.
• A project to look at the prevalence of helminth infection in working equids.
• A programme looking at the transmission of disease at equestrian events.
• Research to evaluate training and competition surfaces for riding horses, in order that the likelihood of injury can be reduced. Read more on the construction, use and maintenance of riding arena surfaces.
• A study in Soweto to assess the impact of inadequate horse husbandry, with a focus on the prevalence of preventable musculoskeletal disorders as a consequence of overwork, limited farriery and ill-fitting harness.
• An investigation into the bond between handlers and their working horses.
• A project looking at the management of equine obesity.
• Equine grass sickness (EGS) is a potentially deadly disease and for many years we sponsored horse carers working with chronic cases of this disease. The cause is still unclear but some horses survive, usually only with intensive nursing. Thanks to the dedicated team at the University of Edinburgh and with World Horse Welfare’s support, a guide on the management of horses with chronic grass sickness is now available.

World Horse Welfare only supports research that it commissions and an annual series of undergraduate bursaries that are only available to veterinary undergraduates in the UK and Ireland (see here). The veterinary schools in UK and Ireland are notified when the Undergraduate Bursaries are open to applicants and the schools are invited to circulate the information to relevant students.