Royal Visit
HRH The Princess Royal, Patron of The Horse Trust, attended a fundraising seminar at the charity's Home of Rest for Horses on Thursday 15th October.During the seminar, HRH Princess Anne presented a Voluntary Service Award to Pat Audley. Downley-resident Mrs Audley and her late husband Harry, who passed away in May 2009, have volunteered for the charity for over 10 years.
Even after her husband's death, Mrs Audley has continued volunteering every weekend and during school holidays. HRH presented her with a horseshoe from Janus, who had been Harry's favourite horse. Janus, an ex-Household Cavalry drum horse died last month.
The fundraising seminar was aimed at raising the profile of the charity's research programme to an audience of individual donors, charitable trusts and companies in the equine sector.
As well as running The Home of Rest for Horses, which provides lifetime sanctuary for retired horses, ponies and donkeys, The Horse Trust also funds non-invasive research into equine diseases such as African Horse Sickness, Sweet Itch and laminitis, provides grants to equine hospitals and funds specialist training for equine vets.
A reduction in income during the credit crunch has forced The Horse Trust to suspend its grant programme, although it is continuing to fund 16 research and 15 educational grants made in earlier years, using its reserves. The suspension of its grant programme means that urgent research, some of which was expected to lead to the development of ground-breaking vaccines and medicines, cannot be funded.
The goal of the seminar was to address this funding shortfall. During the seminar, a number of scientists who have received funding from The Horse Trust gave presentations on their research.
Professor Andrew Waller, Head of Bacteriology at the Animal Health Trust, announced at the seminar that his research team, in collaboration with other organisations, had made a major breakthrough in the development of a vaccine for Strangles, a highly contagious respiratory tract infection that can be fatal to horses.
The Horse Trust funded Waller's genome sequencing of the bacteria that causes Strangles, which has enabled Waller to develop a safe and effective vaccine. This new vaccine is expected to be commercially available in the near future and has the potential to prevent thousands of horses from needlessly suffering.
Another researcher that spoke at the seminar was Professor Jacqui Matthews from the Moredun Research Institute. The Horse Trust has funded Matthews' research investigating the growing problem of drug-resistant parasitic worms in horses.
Her current research aims to develop new and more efficient tests to screen horses for drug-resistant small redworms. These tests will help vets detect drug resistant worms earlier, allowing them to switch horses to different drugs before full resistance develops and thereby reducing the risk of worms becoming multi-drug resistant.
The Horse Trust needs to raise a total of £250,000 to enable it to restart its research programme.
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