Roly Owers

30 Apr 2024

Roly joined World Horse Welfare as Chief Executive in January 2008. He already knew the charity well, having led its fundraising and communication teams from 1999 to 2003.

Roly qualified as a veterinary surgeon from Cambridge University in 1992. Having spent a short time with the Blue Cross, he joined the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, which included a posting as the Veterinary Officer at the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment in London. After the army, he initially joined the ILPH (now World Horse Welfare) until 2003, when he left to take up the post of Development Director at the Perse School in Cambridge. He returned to World Horse Welfare as Chief Executive in 2008.

Since then Roly has played an active role on the steering group of the British Horse Council and helped establish the Equine Disease Coalition, of which he is Chair. He is currently the Treasurer for the British Equine Veterinary Association, Chair of the International Coalition for Animal Welfare (ICFAW) and on the Management Board of the European Horse Network. He regularly represents the charity at national and international events.

In this keynote talk, Roly will review the latest research findings regarding the public perception of the involvement of horses in sport and will explore the evolution of societal expectation and its relationship to social licence.