February 2010 - New Equestrian Sport - The Horse Agility Club of Great Britain!

Horse Agility is a fast exciting way to have fun with your horse without riding. So it's appeal as a new National Equestrian Sport ranges from horse riders who want to develop a better partnership and rapport with their horse or pony, to people who either can't or don't want to ride but want to enjoy a challenge with their equines.

So if you have a young horse (or ridden horse) who needs to learn and build confidence, a horse or pony that can't be ridden for behavioural or physical reasons, a pony that's too small for you, or you simply fancy doing something completely different that is fun and will challenge you and your horse - Horse Agility gives everyone the chance to compete. All ages, types, sizes and levels.

Horse Agility comprises a variety of obstacles for the horse (or pony) to complete - at the higher levels this is against the clock, which makes it a great spectator sport! Horse Agility tests your horse’s physical as well as his emotional fitness and tests your ability as a trainer to keep your horse travelling safely over the course effectively and with style.

At some venues horses will even be available to borrow or hire.

Visit: www.horseagilitygb.com and also see the Horse Agility Section on Equinetourism.co.uk

"Equinetourism.co.uk is helping to promote the new equestrian sport of Horse Agility because we believe this is a fantastic development in horse training which encourages people to build better partnerships with their horses and ponies. It is a sport which is accessible for everyone, yet challenging enough to be supremely appealing for top competitors and intelligent, trainable equines.

It is a wonderful sport for people with ponies who are perhaps too small to ride, or horses which are healthy and fit but who can’t be ridden. It is also an outstanding training opportunity for young horses and ridden horses, where horse and handler can learn to work as a team and develop better rapport and partnership on the ground. This can only enhance ridden partnerships." EQUINETOURISM.CO.UK

Even before the Government's draft Animal Health Bill was published yesterday afternoon it had drawn criticism from the horse sector unhappy that the Government is pressing ahead with the plans despite overwhelming opposition from horse owners. Campaigners have been logging on to the 10 Downing Street website since September to have their say on the proposals, which would see every horse owner in the country hit with a 'tax in all but name' on each of their animals to help pay for a new Government agency to oversee animal health.

Yet despite Minister for the Horse Jim Fitzpatrick telling MPs last week that the Government is "keen for there to be as much scrutiny as possible", the publication of the Bill comes well before a cross-sector Advisory Group set up to examine the proposals has had a chance to have its say. Horse owners have been highly critical of the plans since they were published last year, with many angry that the proposed new system of charges would place a heavy burden on the horse sector without offering any clear benefits to riders, breeders and trainers in return. Critics have also pointed to the poor value for money which taxpayers would receive from such a move, arguing that any new body would spend much of its time collecting charges from people who own just a single horse; a group who make up 65% of all owners. With the administrative cost of collecting the charge almost outweighing the charge itself in these cases, an estimated £2.3m would need to be spent to collect just £4.5m, says Rethink the Horse Tax, the campaign behind the petition. Veterinarians, too, have warned that creating a new layer of bureaucracy will complicate the process of responding to animal disease outbreaks. Welfare groups have also joined animal keepers and vets in expressing opposition to the plans, as they artificially separate animal health and welfare.

A spokesperson for the British Horse Industry Confederation, Tim Morris, said:"The horse sector has said it will work with the government to achieve the benefits of reduced risk of disease and enhanced animal welfare. But all we are seeing the extra cost and complexity of an expensive new quango, which will be an unnecessary burden to both the taxpayer and horse owner, with none of these benefits. We have been assured by the Ministers that the contents of the Bill are still wide open to debate, but publishing a draft Bill without saying what it will cost and with no visible benefits make this a very hard sell to horse owners. The Government need only look at the response that this petition, even before horse owner saw the details, to see that there is a great deal of opposition to this Bill. The Bill in its current form is expensive and unworkable and we urge the Government to now wait until its own Advisory Group has fully considered and costed these proposals."

If you haven't already signed the petition, please do: The Rethink the Horse Tax petition: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Horse-Rethink/
The petition opened on 11th September 2009 and will run to 11th September 2010 (The petition is currently the 15th most popular on the 10 Downing Street website, out of a total of 4,766).