Animal welfare: accusations against NRW state stud farm
Warendorf (fn-press).
Accusations are circulating in various media about training methods at the North Rhine-Westphalian State Stud in Warendorf that are detrimental to animal welfare. The German Equestrian Federation (FN) classifies the role of the federation and comments on an incident of April 13, 2021, concerning the riding of two stallions in a too tight head and neck position, which is not appropriate for horses. The FN is not aware of any other incidents at the NRW State Stud.
During a horse management course at the German Riding School at the NRW State Stud, an employee of the State Stud rode a four-year-old and a five-year-old stallion in the indoor arena on April 13, 2021, under the guidance of the head of the NRW State Stud, Kristina Ankerhold. At the same time, twelve to fourteen participants of the master class were in the indoor riding arena. These judged the training methods with the two stallions as unacceptable and relevant to animal welfare. The two training sequences were filmed by some people.
An employee of the FN, who was also on site, also witnessed the incident and informed the head of the FN's training department, Thies Kaspareit. The FN has footage of the incident. After extensive examination of the footage and based on the descriptions of the FN employee, the association confronted the stud manager with the accusations. On April 15, a meeting took place between Thies Kaspareit, Kristina Ankerhold and the rider. The stud manager acknowledged that the situations were unfortunate and also professionally incorrect. From her point of view, however, the riding was not relevant to animal welfare. In contrast, Thies Kaspareit classified the training from the FN point of view as not appropriate for horses. The basis for this is, among other things, the criteria catalog for the assessment of training situations. It was agreed that the technical discussion would be continued in a practical session. In order not to burden the continuation of the discussions, Thies Kaspareit initially showed himself amenable to the request to delete the footage available to the FN. After further consultation, the federation decided to preserve this material until further notice. Independently of this, the FN initially informed the responsible Westphalia State Commission verbally on May 6 about the incidents so that the State Commission can examine whether a regulatory procedure should be initiated.
