Kontext

/European breeders, riders and horseracing professionals as well as European horses are among the best in the world. They contribute to the global influence of European excellence. European horse breeds are exported all around the world and they perform successfully in the three Olympic disciplines (dressage, eventing and jumping), and racing. Horses play an important role in agriculture and forestry in many Member States. European horse breeding contributes to European competitiveness. With 8 million head in Europe, around 800 000 people employed across the EU and an economic value estimated at over €100 billion per annum, the equine sector contributes to the objectives of achieving public health, social inclusion and creation of new jobs. Representing at least 2.6 million hectares of EU land use, equines also strengthen the link between urban and rural environments offering healthy activities, close to nature and animals, which are open to everybody and inclusive. Horse riding has generated a very rich historical and cultural heritage, and is part of the European identity. For these many benefits, the future of the equine sector needs to be preserved in the EU. 

The structure of European equine farms is very diverse between the different Member States. A large share of the equine farms falls under the category of small to medium size family farms. When compared to other lines of agricultural production, the share of women as a prime farmer and employees, is significantly higher among equine farms (i.e., 50% of female employees in equine farms in France; 58% in Finland and 36% in Germany). Equine farms are often labour intensive and they provide employment opportunities in rural areas especially for young people (around 800,000 people employed across the EU; 66,000 jobs as main activity in France; 300,000 jobs related to equines in Germany; 61,247 jobs in Spain). Many equine farms have diversified to other gainful activities such as farm tourism or green care, or have other agricultural activities on-farm. The use of horses in small-scale farming especially in Eastern Europe is significant: in 2020 there were 390 000 working horses in Romania alone (Romania’s National Institute for Statistics). This fell from 500 000 in 2016. Working horses can make a significant contribution to low-emissions sustainable agriculture, and this project will help to halt their decline. Some sectors, e.g. small-scale breeding, are often run on a part-time basis, whilst other sectors like agricultural uses, horse tourism, livery and riding services are run on a full-time basis. The equine sector contributes to rural development, maintaining jobs in rural areas, attractiveness and access to services (leisure, tourism etc.) and low-carbon sustainable agriculture and forestry.

Sector segmentation: the equine sector is a unique agricultural sector. Although based strongly on agriculture, the new role of horses is in services. Horses can be used for many purposes (breeding, sport, racing, tourism, leisure, food production, agricultural uses, Equitherapy, socialisation, personal development) and the specificity of each activity leads to a sectorization. According to the different purposes, the equine sector can be subdivided into different branches with different national situations. Despite the importance of the sector, it is characterised by a lack of structure that creates difficulties in connecting actors from the different branches at both European and national levels. 

Nevertheless, with climate change, social expectations about animal welfare, changes in consumer habits and impacts of health, economic and political crise on activities, the equine sector is at a turning point and has to handle challenges to ensure its future. There is an urgent need to tackle the following issues to ensure a better performance and a better resilience of the sector: 

1. Improve profitability, work conditions and development of offers in line with consumer expectations;
2. Improve welfare and health of equines to meet social expectations;
3. Improve sustainability of equine farms to preserve natural resources and limit inputs.

These challenges are common to all branches of the equine sector. Equines’ needs and values are independent of their use. 

EUnetHorse will focus on these needs, disseminating knowledge and practices to equine farmers. These urgent issues will be divided in several transversal thematic areas that will be explored/ addressed during the project lifetime and will constitute the basis to assess solutions and best practices. 

Objectives

The overall goal of EUnetHorse is to establish an active multi-actor network across the EU in order to increase the performance and the resilience of equine farms by widely disseminating best practices, tools and solutions that improve (1) their socio-economic performance, (2) the animal welfare and health on farms, and (3) the environmental sustainability of the sector.

To achieve this goal the project will pursue the following specific objectives:

O1. To connect organisations across 8 NH-AKIS at regional, national and European levels in order to foster cross-fertilisation between the main branches (sport/leisure, racing, agriculture and food production) of the equine sector throughout the project lifetime. [linked to WP1]

O2. To identify equine farmers’ needs and make the inventory of grassroots best practicesand scientific solutions organised in at least 8 priorities across 3 thematic areas. [linked to WP2]

O3. To evaluate the best practices and solutions collected on the basis of resilience/performance and cost-benefit analysis criteria, and at the same time ensure their acceptance in the field by means of a multi-actor assessment. [linked to WP3]

O4. To transfer knowledge thanks to trainings and the organisation of field-oriented activities for equine farmers, trainers and advisors across 8 EU countries. [linked to WP4]

O5. To Disseminate and communicate on EUnetHorse results at EU wide scale [linked to WP5]The overall goal of EUnetHorse is to establish an active multi-actor network across the EU in order to increase the performance and the resilience of equine farms by widely disseminating best practices, tools and solutions that improve (1) their socio-economic performance, (2) the animal welfare and health on farms, and (3) the environmental sustainability of the sector.

Activities

/WP1: To structure networks at the regional, national and European levels to guarantee cross border exchanges of knowledge and appropriation of solutions. At national and European levels, the project will connect different categories of actors and stakeholders (practitioners, advisors, trainers, representatives of the equine sector, regional and national networks, etc.) of the equine sector in a long-term perspective to create new work habits and exchange of best practices. 

Task 1.1:  Creation of guidelines defining the network architecture and management (M1 – M3)

Task 1.2:  Creation and animation of networks at local and national levels (M1 - M48)

Task 1.3: Creation and animation of the network at the European level and relation with the European ecosystem of the equine sector, research and innovation, and agricultural organisations (M1 - M48)

Task 1.4:  Cross-visits to ensure cross fertilisation (M5 - M48) 

Task 1.5: Setting up an advisors’ and trainers' network to consolidate new work habits (M1 - M48)

WP2: To identify the needs, interests, grassroot solutions, scientific solutions and other best practices within the equine sector, concerning farmers, vets, nutritionists and technicians. This WP will also cross reference the needs with the existing solutions, knowledge and initiatives. Objectives are to: 1) Identify the needs of equine farmers in each type of production context at National Horse AKIS (NH-AKIS); 2) Compile the scientific based knowledge, best practices and solutions available at NH-AKIS; 3) Compile the scientific based knowledge and solutions available in all participant Member States and 4) Understand the gaps between available knowledge and sector need at NH-AKIS.

Task 2.1: Identify the needs of farmers in each type of production context at National Horse AKIS (NH-AKIS) (M1– M8) 

Task 2.2: Identification of existing solutions and good practices at national Horse AKIS and EU levels (M1 – M13)

Task 2.3: Matchmaking of common needs and existing solutions at EU level (M8 – M17)

Task 2.4: Identification of gaps in each national Horse AKIS and at EU Level (M14– M18)

WP3: To ensure the creation of a knowledge collection of useful and usable best practices and solutions. Activities will include a) to provide evaluation and cost-benefit analyses for implementation of Best Practises and solutions, b) to provide a range of assessed best practices and solutions at EU level and to evaluate their acceptability by end-users c) to provide solutions, best practices, and EU-tools ready-to-implement on field.

Task 3.1: Methodology for knowledge evaluation and the cost-benefit analysis for solutions and practices (M1– M13) 

Task 3.2: Multi-actor evaluation and assessment of the knowledge (M13 – M43) 

Task 3.3: End-user’s acceptance of the solutions (M15 – M43) 

Task 3.4: Adaptation and popularisation of solutions and best practices, including EU-tools (M8 – M45)

WP4: To improve application of scientific knowledge and best-practice in end-users in order to enhance animal welfare, farm economics and to reduce environmental impact.

To this end, the objectives of WP4 are: 1) To develop an appropriate demonstration methodology for partners and stakeholders of national Horse AKIS; 2) To organize at least 24 demonstration days all along the project lifetime in all participating countries; 3) To design and create content for trainings and the training kit, and 4) To organize at least 24 training sessions targeting equine farmers and at least 24 training sessions targeting trainers and advisors all along the project lifetime in all participating countries

Task 4.1: Demonstration methodology (Start Month: 12 – End Month:25)

Task 4.2: Organisation of demonstration days (Start Month 15 – End Month 39)

Task 4.3: Creation of trainings and e-learning modules (Start Month 16 – End Month 46)

Task 4.4: Organisation of training days (Start Month 23 – End Month 48)

WP5: To organize and systematize the existing knowledge available on the European equine sector, and to communicate and disseminate the existing and the generated knowledge throughout the project.

Task 5.1: Design of the Communication and Dissemination (C&D) activities (M1 – M48)

Task 5.2: Implementation of C&D activities (M1 – M48)

Task 5.3: Integration of EUNetHorse information in the EUFarmBook platform (M1 – M48)

Task 5.4: Participation in international conferences (M7 – M48)