British Horse Foundation

Preventing suffering and cruelty to horses and ponies is a major objective of the British Horse Foundation.
The Foundation, established in 1991, aims to improve education in the breeding of horses and ponies by supporting a number of programmes designed to reduce indiscriminate breeding.

One of these has been to support the National Equine Database, NED, which is now live and encourages public use and participation. NED shows every horse with a passport, together with its identification, pedigree and performance data, where it is available. This data will clearly indicate bloodlines to be followed to avoid producing inferior, low value horses – the type often predisposed to physical problems or subject to welfare investigations. NED is also invaluable in the tracing of abandoned or stolen animals by providing a central location for microchip numbers and freeze marks, which the public can use. This can help reduce the number of horses which find their way into abattoirs for slaughter or human consumption overseas or are subject to fraudulent sales.

Other programmes supported by the Foundation include a quality mark scheme for studs which gives reassurance that those establishments have met the specific standards of horse care.

The Foundation also supports the BEF Futurity, identifying and developing outstanding equine talent from a young age to help make Britain the world leader in the production of sport horses and ponies. The Trustees, chaired by triple Olympic gold medallist Richard Meade OBE, believe that these are some long term solutions to reduce cruelty to horses.