An FEI grant is helping World Horse Welfare with its work in Cambodia.
A grant from the FEI will help the British-based charity World Horse Welfare train farriers and harness-makers in Cambodia.
The charity said it was excited to be working in partnership with the
Cambodia Pony Welfare Organisation after being awarded the grant, part
of the FEI Solidarity development programme to support national
federations by creating, supporting and expanding projects and
programmes from “grass roots” to elite level.
World Horse Welfare says it is the first time it has worked in
partnership with another welfare organisation in this way, and the first
time it has worked in this part of Southeast Asia.
The first module has now been completed, where World Horse Welfare
representatives Tom Burch and Stuart Russell shared their knowledge and
skills with local farriery and harness-makers in the country.
The training course is taking place in the country’s capital, Phnom
Penh, where 10 students will be taught the sort of advanced farrier
techniques that will allow them to work with horses used in
international sport and then train local farriers.
A further four students will study saddlery and harness-making
techniques, with the intention that they pass on their new skills to
other service providers and horse owners in Cambodia.
The head of programme development at World Horse Welfare, Karen
O’Malley, said: “Although the Cambodia Pony Welfare Organisation is
carrying out farriery training, it was felt that with this funding we
could complement the work of the organisation and further advance the
skills and knowledge of the trained service providers.
“It should be an exciting project as we haven’t been involved in something quite like this before.
“During our initial farriery research visit in January we found that
the local horse owners and existing farriers are lacking in basic
handling skills and knowledge regarding the anatomy of the horse.
However, it seems that they are desperate to learn new skills and very
much welcome what we have to offer.”
Another objective is to develop good quality farriers and
harness-makers in order that future Cambodian horses can be used to
compete in equestrian sport, with the end goal of taking part in the
2013 Asian Games.
The
director of FEI Solidarity, Jacqueline Braissant, said: “We are
extremely pleased to be able to offer the grant to World Horse Welfare
and we are confident that the new skills gained will make a positive
impact and contribution to the future sustainability of the area.
“The hope is to really engage local horse owners in Cambodia and
create a solid foundation for equestrian sport which can be built on in
the future. These are exciting times – over the coming weeks, we will be
announcing a series of FEI Solidarity grants to support wide-ranging
projects around the world. ”
World Horse Welfare chief executive Roly Owers said: “We have decided
to take our international work in a different direction in order to
make our training programmes more sustainable in the countries we are
operating in.
“Therefore, the focus is more on creating in-house service providers
so that local people can transfer their skills on to other local people.
We are also turning our attention to providing cost-effective
solutions.
“This means that our international team will be sourcing locally-made
tools to make them more affordable as and when the people in a
particular country need them.”
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