Harness Racing Australia (HRA) has long been at the forefront of equine welfare and traceability. Guided by the HRA commissioned independent review known as the Parker Report and the QLD Government’s Martin Report considerable progress in both these important areas has been achieved in the 2 years since their release.
Both independent reviews have called for changes to the categories that form part of HRA’s Retirement and Deceased Notifications. The current categories/options available are no longer serving their purpose in a rapidly evolving welfare space and changes are needed to facilitate greater accuracy in the reporting of horses leaving the industry.
Some changes are purely to make a category easier to recognize, for example further clarifying the difference between a horse which has died of natural causes vs one which has received humane intervention. The addition of other categories such as gait issue and temperament issue allow for more accurate tracking of the exact reasons that horses exit the industry.
The changed categories will be viewable in HarnessWeb as well as on the original hard copy paper form very shortly.
Coupled with the soon to be introduced traceability rule updates now is the perfect time to log into HarnessWeb (or create a free account here if you don’t already have one) and ensure the horses listed in your care are all up to date.
Any questions regarding this or any other traceability questions can be directed to Kathleen Mullan at kmullan@hra.com.au
