"Obesity is one of the biggest problems facing equine welfare in the UK" - Lucy Grieve.

Lucy Grieve will lead work on weight management and equine obesity.

The British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) has appointed Lucy Grieve, an ambulatory assistant at Rossdales Veterinary Surgeons, as its new president.

Lucy, who succeeds the role from Tim Mair, will oversee the organisation for 2020/21. She was virtually inaugurated at the BEVA Congress AGM on Thursday (10 September), where she received the presidential chains.

Lucy's areas of interest are diagnostic imaging, lameness and poor performance. After qualifying from the University of Cambridge in 2007, she became the first diagnostic imaging intern at Rossdales.

Following this, Lucy spent seven years in Newmarket at an in-house vet for Darley's pre-training facility. Here she worked on yearlings, horses in training and rehabilitation, before returning to Rossdales in 2015 as an ambulatory assistant.

Lucy became a member of BEVA Council in 2012, first serving as chair of the Ethics and Welfare Committee and sitting on the Equestrian Sports Committee, liaising with the BHA and FEI. She is also co-opted onto the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) Thoroughbred Research Consultation Group.

Weight management and equine obesity are special areas of interest for Lucy, and she was recently instrumental in setting up a pilot project to help owners positively recognise and address weight issues. Commenting on her presidency, Lucy explained that building on this project will be central to her new role:

“Obesity is one of the biggest problems facing equine welfare in the UK but a significant proportion of owners still don’t recognise that their horse is overweight or feel motivated to take action,” she said. “We have been looking at new ways to engage with horse owners and are currently assessing the results of our pilot project which revolved around careful veterinary interaction with clients on the topic during vaccination visits."

Image (C) David Boughey.