Charlotte Thornycroft was awarded the BEVA Equine Welfare Award for her work to support horses and their carers affected by the war in Ukraine.

President Huw Griffiths leads award ceremony at BEVA Congress in Liverpool. 

Equine veterinary professionals gathered in Liverpool on Thursday (8 September) to celebrate excellence in the sector and honour the diversity of individuals working towards a brighter future for horses.

The event took place at BEVA Congress (7-10 September), during which BEVA president Huw Griffiths and special guests presented awards to professionals working in the fields of equine welfare and clinical research. 

There was also a new literary award in memory of the late Peter Rossdale, who passed away in 2021 following a short illness. 

The BEVA Equine Welfare Award
The Blue Cross-sponsored BEVA Equine Welfare Award was bestowed to Charlotte “Charlie” Thornycroft for her work to implement the UK’s equestrian support initiative in Ukraine. 

Since the start of the crisis, Charlotte has voluntarily been on the ground in Poland and the UK, working in exceptionally challenging circumstances. BEVA said the level of support provided by the UK together with the Ukrainian Equestrian Federation would not have been possible without Charlotte's selfless efforts.

BEVA added: “Charlie worked long hours, frequently going multiple nights without sleep. She endured trying and distressing conditions and never uttered a word of complaint. She was resourceful, patient, and compassionate throughout and never lost sight of her primary goal of alleviating the suffering of horses in Ukraine.” 

The BEVA Richard Hartley Clinical Award
The BEVA Richard Hartley Clinical Award - presented in honour of BEVA's founding member of president (1974-1975) - was awarded to Emily Floyd for the paper ‘Systemic antimicrobial therapy in foals’ published in the January 2022 issue of Equine Veterinary Education. 

The award is given to the first author of the best paper published in Equine Veterinary Journal or Equine Veterinary Education with direct clinical application. The award winner receives a prize of £1,000 to support travel of themselves and/or their co-authors. 

The Peter Rossdale Equine Veterinary Journal (EVJ) Open Award
The Peter Rossdale award was presented to Rebecca Bishop for the paper ‘Effect of omeprazole and sucralfate on gastrointestinal injury in a fasting/NSAID model’, published in the July 2022 issue of Equine Veterinary Journal. 

The award pays tribute to the paper that best achieves EVJ’s mission to publish articles which influence and improve clinical practice and/or add significantly to equine scientific knowledge. Ms Bishop also received a £1,000 prize for the paper.

The Voorjaarsdagen and BEVA Awards
Frédérique A. Schless DVM scooped this year's BEVA Award for her abstract ‘Development of a new survival prognosticator model for hospitalized neonatal foals in a European Warmblood Population’. Frédérique’s presentation won the award at the Voorjaarsdagen Congress in April 2022; she will present it again during the Clinical Research Sessions at BEVA Congress 2022. 

The new Peter Rossdale EVE Literary Award
This new award was presented by Professor Sidney Ricketts to Nazaré Storms, lead author for the paper ‘Strangulating lesions of the small intestine associated with the greater omentum in horses: 32 cases’. The paper was published as an EVE Early View article in August 2021. 

This award was introduced in 2022 in memory of Peter Rossdale and is sponsored by Rossdales Veterinary Surgeons who provided the £1000 prize. The award is presented to the best clinical research paper published in Equine Veterinary Education (EVE). 

BEVA said: “Peter Rossdale, a true pioneer in the profession, established EVE in 1989 recognising the need to encourage education of clinicians and to encourage clinicians to publish clinical papers.”

Image (C) BEVA.