Equine Science in Australasia: past, present and future

Abstract

Australia is the second-largest breeder of Thoroughbred horses in the world (behind the USA), and the horse industry overall is in GDP terms the fourth-largest industry in the Australian economy. The industry in Australia and New Zealand is pivotal to the viability of the international Thoroughbred industry as stallions are shuttled between hemispheres, allowing stallions to stand at stud in both the northern (January-April) and southern (September-December) hemisphere stud seasons in one year (Gee et al. 2020). Moreover, both countries have been very successful in Olympic competition and have thriving sport-horse sectors (Bolwell et al. 2020). Yet, compared with other economically and agriculturally important species, horse research is very poorly funded in both Australia and New Zealand and there has been little opportunity for sharing of equine research findings to broad stakeholder groups in both countries. * to promote excellence in equine science; * to focus on science, technology and innovation relevant to the horse industry; * to assist young researchers with their careers in equine science; and * to encourage participation by members of the horse industry. The AESS was held on the Gold Coast at a time to coincide with the Magic Millions winter Thoroughbred sales. The inaugural meeting was highly successful, attracting over 100 registrants, mainly from the eastern seaboard of Australia, with invited researchers from the USA, United Kingdom and New Zealand. Over 2 days, there were 10 invited papers, 48 contributed papers and 18 posters. Presentations were organised into seven themes, including musculoskeletal injury and fitness, reproduction and behaviour, the equine genome, aspects of health and performance, gut microbiology, nutrition and aspects of disease and infection. Overall, the presentations were of a consistently high quality, both in their delivery and content.