A newly founded initiative for the well-being of sport horses

The well-being of sport horses is the focus of the work of the newly founded “CHIO Aachen Scientist Circle” initiative. The project brings horse experts and leading scientists from Germany, Belgium and Switzerland together.

They travel round the world and impress everyone with their absolute outstanding performances all year: International competition horses are true top athletes. “We all love the equestrian sport,” said CHIO Aachen’s Head of Sport, Birgit Rosenberg. “However, at the same time this enthusiasm is closely linked with a large degree of responsibility for ensuring that the well-being of the horse takes top priority at all times.” And this is precisely the subject matter of the project. Primarily, of course, for the protection of the horses, nevertheless the project also deals with the transparency and acceptance of the equestrian sport within society. “It requires the long-term commitment of all those people, who want the equestrian sport to have a positive future,” stated Birgit Rosenberg, who can fall back on the support of a team of top-class scientists in the scope of the “CHIO Aachen Scientist Circle”, including first and foremost Prof. Dr. Dirk Winter from the Technical College for Economics and the Environment in Nürtingen. “Together we will examine how sport horses feel during competitions and what they need to ensure their well-being can be sustainably safeguarded,” explained Prof. Dr. Winter. This involves questions like: What needs do they have? How can they travel comfortably? What type of stabling do they find pleasant? When and in which situations do they experience stress? Since, of course, horses can’t communicate verbally what they feel, high-level experts with new methods of measurement come into play here to achieve scientifically founded results and thus secure the well-being of the sports partner horse long-term. An exciting project, for which Birgit Rosenberg and Prof. Dr. Dirk Winter have been able to win over further competent experts.

These are:

• Dr. med. vet. Miriam Baumgartner, expert for equine management, horse behaviour, animal and environmentally-sound methods of equine management – Swiss National Stud Avenches, Agroscope
• PD Dr. med. vet. Dominik Burger, expert for performance physiology and sports medicine – Swiss Institute for Horse Medicine of the Bern University in Avenches
• Prof. Dr. med. vet. Konstanze Krueger-Farrouj, Professor for Equine Management at the Technical College for Economics and the Environment in Nürtingen-Geislingen
• Dr. rer. nat. Arne- Rasmus Dräger, expert for Artificial Intelligence and developer of AI-based camera systems for the monitoring of equine health
• Prof. Dr. Guy Chéron, Professor for Neurophysiology and Biomechanics of Movement, Brussels University, expert in the area of recording the brain waves of the horse

An initial exchange between the members of the “CHIO Aachen Scientist Circle” has already taken place. “I am proud that we have come together in this form and am looking forward to further discussions and the exciting tasks that lie ahead of us,” said Birgit Rosenberg. Because we want the horse, our sports partner, to feel good and carry on impressing us with its outstanding performances in future too – at the CHIO Aachen and everywhere else in the world as well.