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Key takeaway messages from Equine Health Week 2026

Friday, 27 March 2026

All of this week, we've been running our annual Equine Health Week campaign in partnership with Agria. Under this year's banner of ‘equine health essentials’, the packed seven-day programme has included podcast episodes, explainer videos, social media infographics and signposting to useful resources.

As the week draws to a close, we wanted to reflect on some of the advice that's been shared by the experts who joined us for the podcast series. We've collated their key takeaway messages below, as well as embedded the full podcast episode for each topic so you can listen to any that you've missed. Episodes are also available to stream from your chosen podcast platform. 

Equine first aid

Sam Cutts from Hook Norton Equine Vets recommends: 

1. Buy a thermometer and learn how to use it.
2. If you’re not sure, speak to your vet – we’re nice people, we’re here to help and it doesn’t mean there’s going to be a bill associated.

 

Vaccinations and biosecurity

Hattie Bell from Equine Infectious Disease Surveillance recommends:

1. If you’re thinking of breeding a horse, make sure you have a good chat with your vet about what vaccines are available, which include EHV to maintain the pregnancy, then rotavirus and lawsonia to support your foal’s health in the long-run.
2. In terms of biosecurity, you can be so used to being on your own yard and things being done in a certain way. If you went onto someone else’s yard with open eyes, would you say they were doing it right? Recheck your own plans and processes with this fresh prespective in mind.

Tegan McGilvray from Equine Infectious Disease Surveillance recommends:

1. Make sure your horse is up to date with their vaccinations. 
2. Have a discussion with your vet about what is the most appropriate programme for your horse and whether you need anything beyond the core vaccines so you can ensure they have the best cover.

 

lameness diagnosis

Rob Oulton from the World Class Programme and Scott Dunn's Equine Clinic recommends: 

Don’t ignore what could be early signs of lameness, even you don’t think you want to get the vet out straight away. Keep a journal and log the things you notice, which will help you identify any issues that keep cropping up and allow you to build a bigger picture of what might be going on.

 

Colic

Professor Sarah Freeman from the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Equine Research recommends: 

Have an emergency plan in place. People don’t want to think about what would happen if their horse had colic and needed surgery to survive – that’s a really uncomfortable thing to think about – but it’s so, so important because it could save your horse’s life or affect their welfare. Even if you choose euthanasia, you could prevent hours or even minutes of pain for that horse by knowing in advance what you’d choose to do. It will also give you peace of mind that you’ve made the right decision at a time when you’re feeling logical and rational, rather than when your horse is in horrendous pain. Sitting down, making that plan and sharing it with people is so important.

 

Nutrition for digestive health

Dr. Marga Mas from Dodson & Horrell recommends: 

Try to be more tailored and targeted in your parasite control as part of managing gut health. Check out the CANTER guidelines, which give advice to help combat the rising problem of wormer resistance in this country. 

Kate Hore from NAF recommends:

Most feed and supplement companies will have an advice line, so use this. Look for someone who’s accredited to BETA ENFAR and they should be able to give you some good advice.

 

Equine gastric ulcer syndrome

Leading researcher and consulant Ben Sykes recommends:

1. Listen to your horse – horses are trying to tell us things with their behaviour, so we need to be better at listening and understanding this as their language of pain. Then, we need to be better at working collaboratively to treat those sources of pain and prevent them from coming back.
2. The stomach is a mirror of the horse’s overall wellbeing. It’s very hard to get good gastric health without good wellbeing, so don’t just treat the stomach – treat the whole horse.   

 

The other 23 hours

World Horse Welfare CEO and vet Roly Owers recommends:

It’s all about listening to our horses and their behaviour. Your horse will be able to tell you how they’re feeling – they always have done, but we’re not always so good at working out what they’re trying to tell us. Spend time with your horse and try to learn what ‘normal’ is for them – evolve your understanding of what they’re trying to communicate to you. If you can take that away, it will help you as a building block to understanding if your horse is happy and, if they’re not, what you can do to improve things.

World Horse Welfare Research and Education Advisor and vet Janet Douglas recommends: 

Look for things you can do that provide positives for your horse – things that will actively give them engagement, enrichment and happiness. It’s about more than not doing the negatives, but about actively providing the positives. This is a burgeoning school of thought with lots of resources and ideas online, so see what you can find.

 

All content shared for Equine Health Week 2026 has been collated in an online hub, where it will be a lasting resource for the future.