Welfare and vet checks during Horses On Ice 2011

At normal Icelandic horse competitions the organizations checks at random the welfare of the horses.
During Horses On Ice there will be no difference. The organization has mend to considers it even more important and has developed a new way of taking the welfare controls an vet checks (monitoring the wellbeing of the horse).

At random there will be participants (horses) checked.
The inspection after a test means that the horses immediately after leaving the ice will undergo a brief check, checking the legs and body for injuries.

During this inspection the localization an position of the equipment is checked and the protection materials are taken off and weighed.
Protection materials may not weigh more than 250 grams per leg.

If this check has a negative result (no comments), the rider is asked to give his horse a cooling down and come back (with in 1 hour) for a more detailed inspection.

The reason we work with this approach is that the organization believes that it’s not fair and good for a horse to stand still for a detailed inspection after such a great performance.

During the detailed inspection for example the shoeing and mouth is checked.
All these checks are carried out by a judges and if requested there is a veterinarian available. When a horse does not appear at the checks, the combination will be disqualified.

Only when the both checks give a negative result (no comments), the combination is indicated in the results.
In the finals, all participating horses will be checked, after the price giving, in a similar way as described above.

With this way in checking the horses the organization is considered taking a step forward for horse welfare during competitions.