The British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) honoured several equine veterinary professionals at its annual awards ceremony which took place during its four-day BEVA Congress in Liverpool last week.
The presentation party included outgoing BEVA President Roger Smith and Olympic champion Sally Gunnell.
The Horse Trust’s Jan Rogers received the Blue Cross-sponsored BEVA Equine Welfare Award for her work on the ‘Weigh to Win’ project, which is designed to reward and raise awareness of a healthy weight and body condition in show horses.
The initiative provides support, advice and guidance to owners, riders and producers at events and during online webinars.
A vet assesses horses participating in certain classes on their body condition and special rosettes are awarded to those with the healthiest body condition.
Jan received a trophy and a cash prize.
Vet nurse driving change
Phillippa Pritchard, an equine veterinary nurse at Liphook Equine Hospital, was presented with the Nurse Empowerment Award for her research into owners’ perceptions of registered veterinary nurses.
Her work has driven significant changes in the industry, such as unaccompanied nurse visits.
Francesco Comino won the BEVA Richard Hartley Clinical Award for his contribution to the paper ‘A novel tension. relief technique to aid the primary closure of traumatic equine wounds under excessive tension’.
The award, which is given in memory of BEVA founder and former president Richard Hartley, is presented to the first author of the best paper published in the Equine Veterinary Journal (EVJ) or Equine Veterinary Education with direct clinical application.
£1,000 prize
Brooke Boger took home the Peter Rossdale Equine Veterinary Journal Open Award for the paper ‘Intra-articular triamcinolone acetonide injection results in increases in systemic insulin and glucose concentrations in horses without insulin dysregulation’.
The award, which includes a £1000 prize, recognises the paper that best achieves EVJ’s mission to “publish articles which influence and improve clinical practice and/or add significantly to the scientific knowledge that underpins and supports veterinary medicine in relation to the horse”.
The Peter Rossdale EVE Literary Award was presented to Camilla Lydiksen for the paper ‘Equine dental sinusitis — A statistical analysis of the effect of antibiotics on dental sinusitis following dental extraction’.
The Rossdale Award was introduced in 2022 in memory of Peter Rossdale and is sponsored by Rossdales Ltd. It recognises the best clinical research paper published in Equine Veterinary Education (EVE).
Main image: (from left) Sally Gunnell, a representative of Phillippa Pritchard and Roger Smith
