The International Forum for the Aftercare of Racehorses (IFAR) hosted a webinar on the role of behaviour change in equine welfare on 24 October, and the video replay can now be found on the IFAR website and its YouTube channel.
Led by applied behavioural scientist Dr. Denise Goodwin and moderated by renowned media personality Caroline Searcy, the webinar focused on who needs to do what differently in horse racing and how to achieve those goals.
“Have a think about what types of behaviours you want your target audience to be doing,” said Denise. “If you have a smaller group and a very targeted behaviour, you are a more likely to get a larger behaviour change effect than if you have a very general behaviour across a much larger population or a number of groups you are targeting.”
Co-Director of Health & Social Programs at BehaviourWorks Australia, at Monash University, Denise specialises in translating research evidence into policy and practice. She also serves as a member of Racing Victoria’s Equine Welfare Committee, where she applies her skills to help promote the safety and welfare of the racehorse at all stages of the horse’s life.
Denise’s presentation examined why behaviour change is necessary, three common mistakes in changing behaviour, the importance of problem definition, and drivers of behaviour. She also reviewed some practical examples of what is happening in the aftercare of racehorses before taking part in a question-and-answer session.
“We are grateful to Denise for sharing her expertise in this very important field of study,” said IFAR Chair Di Arbuthnot. “We are also pleased by the number of viewers who took part in the webinar, and we hope everyone can take what they learned from this presentation and apply it going forward.”
International Forum for the Aftercare of Racehorses