This year’s prestigious awards ceremony at BEVA Congress (11th-14th September 2024) recognised a variety of professionals for their considerable talents within the equine veterinary sector. The awards were presented by BEVA President Roger Smith, together with Olympic Gold Medallist Sally Gunnell who gave the opening address at Congress, on Thursday 12th September 2024.
The BEVA Equine Welfare Award, sponsored by the Blue Cross was presented to Jan Rogers for her work on the Weigh to Win project. She received the distinctive Irish bog oak trophy together with a cash prize.
Jan is a psychology graduate who spent 15 years with British Equestrian before joining The Horse Trust to look after research grants and policy for the horse world. The role involves sharing the knowledge learned from funded projects as well as understanding regulations and the political environment in the horse world, to ensure that funded research work is relevant and directly applicable to the wellbeing of horses.
The Weigh To Win project, set up by The Horse Trust in 2022, rewards healthy equine body condition and raises awareness of healthy body condition in show horses, with the aim of challenging and educating on what is an ideal body condition. The programme runs at events throughout the Showing season, providing friendly, supportive advice and guidance to owners, riders and producers, both at the events and during online training sessions and webinars. Selected show classes in participating shows have horses assessed for body condition by a vet. The horses who have the healthiest body condition score are awarded a special rosette.
The Nurse Empowerment Award was introduced last year to commend any member of the practice team or wider profession who has empowered equine nurses and championed their role within the profession, either through leading by example or through championing the role of the equine nurse.
Phillippa Pritchard EVN at Liphook Equine Hospital, won this year’s award, which was received by Rosina Lilywhite on her behalf. Phillippa has been a passionate advocate for clinical excellence in equine veterinary nursing for more than 20 years. She supports the nursing team, supervises trainee EVNs, and teaches within the hospital, introducing initiatives like clicker training for better horse care. Phillippa’s research on horse owners' perceptions of RVNs, funded by an MSD Animal Health bursary and published in Vet Record, has driven significant changes, such as unaccompanied nurse visits. As lead of the VetPartners Equine Nurse Clinical Interest Group, she fosters collaboration among RVNs and SVNs. Her work through BEVA, VetPartners, and ProjectNurse continues to elevate the role of nurses.
The BEVA Richard Hartley Clinical Award was presented to Francesco Comino for the paper ‘A novel tension relief technique to aid the primary closure of traumatic equine wounds under excessive tension’ by Francesco Comino, Patrick J. Pollock, Ian Fulton, Charlotte Hewitt-Dedman, Ian Handel and Dylan A. Gorvey, published in the August 2023 edition of the Equine Veterinary Journal.
The award is given in memory of Richard Hartley, a founder member of BEVA and President from 1974-1975. It is awarded to the first author of the best paper published in Equine Veterinary Journal or Equine Veterinary Education with direct clinical application. The £1000 prize is intended to support travel of the first author and/or co-authors.
The Peter Rossdale Equine Veterinary Journal (EVJ) Open Award was given to Brooke Boger for the paper ‘Intra-articular triamcinolone acetonide injection results in increases in systemic insulin and glucose concentrations in horses without insulin dysregulation’ by Brooke A. Boger, Jane M. Manfredi, Abigail R. Loucks, Maya Z. Salamey, Lydia E. Kapeller, Allie G. Fricano, Ani Winkler and Chelsey Yob, Aimee C. Colbath, published in the September 2023 issue of the Equine Veterinary Journal.
This award and £1000 prize is given for 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 new 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’ by Camilla Vestergaard Lydiksen, Jonathan Ingerslev Christensen, Jesper Grud Rosenmeier, Dan Borge Jensen and Casper Lindegaard, published in the November 2023 issue of Equine Veterinary Education.
The award was introduced in 2022 in memory of Peter Rossdale and is sponsored by Rossdales Ltd who provided the £1000 prize. The award is presented to the best clinical research paper published in Equine Veterinary Education (EVE). Peter Rossdale, a true pioneer in the profession, established EVE in 1989 recognising the need to encourage education of clinicians and to encourage clinicians to publish clinical papers.
The Sam Hignett Award All Clinical Research presentations from general equine practice are eligible for the Sam Hignett Award. A continuous process of assessment will take place throughout the Clinical Research Sessions and the winner of the award will be announced after Congress through the BEVA website and newsletter.
Find out more about the BEVA Awards.