Virtual Education Seminar – 5 evenings in January 2024

The Education Committee of LH in Iceland together with Horses of Iceland, is organizing a 2^nd virtual Conference in January 2024 with the main theme of “Social Licence to Operate”.

Here below we introduce the four main speakers of this very relevant theme that touches all of us. Seldom if ever has this topic been as important and while the horse world glows in discussion of what is acceptable we want to dig deeper, with the help of science.

Do you want to participate in the discussion with leading experts in their fields?

The conference will be held via Teams, over 5 evenings in January 2024, with one lecturer at the time the first 4 evenings, starting at 7pm GMT, followed by the fifth evening (on January 23rd) where we´ll have conclusions and panel discussion with fantastic representatives from various fields of our horse world. The panel composition will be introduced later this month.

Each lecture will be recorded and available on a closed platform (Vimeo probably -that will be open for about 4 weeks) for participants of the seminar to view afterwards and even send in questions and discussions there. During the lectures, questions can also be sent in through Teams and our speakers will do their best to answer them at the end of their talk.

Everyone is welcome to participate but the seminar is specially aimed at trainers and instructors within the FEIF Matrix as well as judges within our Icelandic horse world and is valid as CPD in Iceland (16Units), please check with your national organisation if they also acknowledge it as CPD. If you are not part of these groups but would still like to attend, that is of course possible, just send in a request to LH via the email below.

lh@lhhestar.is

First speaker, jan. 9^th : Prof. Dr.med.vet., PhD Michael Weishaupt

Michael Weishaupt is a well-known and highly credited senior researcher and lecturer in the field of sports medicine and biomechanics of horses. He graduated in Veterinary Medicine in 1989 at the University of Berne, Switzerland. Since 1993 he has worked at the University of Zürich, School of Veterinary Medicine and is in charge of the Equine Performance Centre, a clinical as well as research division of the Equine Department. His special interests are equine sports medicine and rehabilitation, exercise physiology, diseases of the upper airways, equine orthopaedics, shoeing and biomechanics. Weishaupt has over 100 scientific publications and both as a researcher but also as a keen horseman himself he is well aware of the changing atmosphere when it comes to humans using animals.

His lecture will talk about the Social Licence to Operate, what it is, the effect it can have on the horse world and what role science can have in the whole dialogue.

Weishaupt has done some studies with Icelandic horses, like the hoof study that FEIF supported some years back and led to clearer limitations on the hoof length in our competitions and breeding shows. He is a very good speaker and an enthusiastic teacher and we really look forward to the 9^th of January when Professor Michael Weishaupt will open our virtual conference with his talk.

Second speaker, jan.11^th: DVM, PhD, Assoc. Prof., Dipl. ACVSMR/ECVSMR Marie Rhodin

Marie Rhodin is a well-known and respected researcher and lecturer in the field of Equine biomechanics. She graduated in 2003 at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and is an associate Professor in equine clinical biomechanics at the department of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Rhodin has over 100 academic publications and her main research focus is orthopaedic pain and objective motion analysis in horses. In her presentation Marie will tell us about her recent studies in objective lameness detection and analysis where the question rises whether our human eyes are always adequate in deciding how fit or sound our horses are. Gaited horses might be even trickier in this aspect. It is an important factor in the of horse welfare discussion which again comes into the issue of Social Licence to Operate.

Marie Rhodin has been cooperating with Icelandic researchers like Sigríður Björnsdóttir Guðrún Stefánsdóttir and Víkingur Gunnarsson for some years and is an active horse woman and rider herself.

Third speaker, jan.16^th : Associate Professor dr. Guðrún Stefánsdóttir

How heavy can a rider on a horse be? We have all heard about this discussion and it has become louder and more important in the last few years. Our 3^rd speaker in this Virtual Education Seminar will talk about what influence various riders weight has on the horse. It is dr. Guðrún Stefánsdóttir, associate professor in Equine Science department in Hólar University. She is a horse rider herself, breeder and loves traveling with horses and has been studying horses´ physical response to exercise for many years.

A few years ago, Guðrún studied the physical effect of breeding shows on young horses and last few years she has been researching how different rider weight influences the horses while ridden. Guðrún will tell us about what we know about this topic, how these studies are conducted and what is being studied in this field right now.

Forth speaker, jan.18^th : Professor dr. Sveinn Ragnarsson

Have you thought about why humans are attracted to horses? Is it possible that communication with horses have some special influence on people and might it also go the other way around? What are core values and how do they connect our community, our horsemanship, general well-being and welfare?

Dr. Sveinn Ragnarsson, professor at the Equine Science department of Hólar will talk about these topics and more. Sveinn has published several scientific papers about the Icelandic horse, and is also a horse breeder, a rider, breeding judge and is a board member of various organisations and projects within the Icelandic horse world. Sveinn was also the dean of the Equine department at Hólar for ten years.

We are all looking very much forward to each and every lecture as well as the last night with the panel discussion on January 23^rd.

All this for only €85!

Don´t miss out! - register here