It is about a year ago that the German publisher “Hippiatrika” had invited me onto their conference board to contribute to the planning of the German Equine Veterinary Symposium in 2015. It is not often that ‘the industry’ reaches out to animal studies scholars and I greatly appreciated the opportunity to play a part in this event.

Hippiatrika holds their symposia on Equine Veterinary Medicine annually, and last year, the topic was “Business and Ethics of Racing and The Role of the Veterinarian” (Conference Brochure pdf 400KB). I had attended a seminar held by Racing Victoria of the same title in August 2014, and thus this seminar here in Victoria had unexpectedly provided inspiration across the globe to Germany.

The Hippiatrika Symposium was held in English, with participants and presenters coming from Germany, Ireland, the UK, France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. It took place in Baden-Baden, Germany, 28-30 August 2015, and coincided with the races in Iffezheim.

I had been invited to give two talks. The first talk focussed on sustainability as a framework for thoroughbred protection, and the second one on the welfare model espoused by the thoroughbred racing industry, as it emerges from a content analysis of industry websites. The first talk is based on my paper published in the Hippiatrika journal “Pferdeheilkunde”. “Pferdeheilkunde” is the peer-reviewed journal of the Equine Medical Section of the German Veterinary Association. The publisher kindly allowed me to make the article available (pdf 130KB). Abstracts of most of the other talks of the event in Germany are published in the same issue of the journal.

Last edited 16.9.2016