Having made a banana bread (or three) during lockdown, I felt I could cross that off the ‘Things You Must Do In Lockdown’ list, and naturally, the next thing on the trending list was finding a webinar.
I am joking, but webinars do seem to have become the most popular way of education in these strange times we have been living in, and after my recent find I can see why!
A couple of weeks ago, I was suggested webinars produced by the World Horse Welfare on Facebook, and one specifically caught my eye; Buying a Horse – Tips for the Unwary! This seemed particularly relevant as one day I hope that I will be in the market for an equine friend, but also because the sale price of animals seems to have rocketed during lockdown which is fascinating, 1.5-2% for horses I have learnt! As I was at a loose end the evening the webinar went ahead, I signed up to attend – by Zoom call, obviously!
There were three speakers for the event: Vet, Ben Mayes and World Horse Welfare’s Allison Williment and Tony Evans and they each took their turn to talk from the perspective of their speciality.
What was particularly interesting for me, was the veterinary discussion surrounding having a horse vetted, as it was not something that I have needed to consider at this point. From the webinar, I discovered I was not the only one! Ben Mayes spoke through the vetting process, the difference between the two stages, a guide price for each of those vettings and additional costs that may occur, and the importance of something as simple as having a discussion with your vet, preferably an independent vet so that it is an unbiased event, before and after to talk through what may or has come up. When I have previously thought of a vetting, I also hadn’t realised that this event would consist of anything other than the condition of the horse, but it was mentioned that even the suitability of horse and rider is taken into consideration as something to advise on.
The World Horse Welfare’s Allison Williment and Tony Evans spoke of matters such as equine management from a welfare point of view, taking into consideration the time and cost involved in a horse’s care.
The webinar ran for approximately an hour and a half, and gave attendees the chance to ask questions that then became available for discussion, such as the approach to vetting a youngester or unridden horse, which again, was of real interest for me. There was so much information that was made available that I was certainly glad to have made notes, but also to be sent a link for the video in case I wanted to catch up or watch it again… another good lesson learnt, the World Horse Welfare have a YouTube account and post their webinars on there!
I think a good point taken from their webinar ‘Buying a Horse – Tips for the Unwary’ was the statement, ‘There will be a horse of a lifetime out there for you. Buy once, buy for a lifetime’. Whilst this is an incredibly important message for a charity to be putting out there, I also think for anyone like me who falls in love with every horse I meet, it is so important to be as educated as one can be before proceding with a sale.
For anyone interested, I have posted the link to the webinar below 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bni0rbmXig4
Rather Be Wearing Wellies ♥ 