Roly Owers

The recently honoured World Horse Welfare chief executive tells Kate Johnson about the challenges of social licence, "doing right by horses" and why animals are good for the soul

- Kate Johnson

“I THOUGHT it was a parking ticket!” Roly Owers says. “I’d been caught by cameras in a 20mph zone going into London early one morning.”

So when he opened the official-looking envelope and found he had been awarded an OBE for services to equine welfare in The King’s birthday honours list, he says he “couldn’t quite get my head around the fact that it wasn’t inviting me to a speed awareness course”.

Roly was shocked, and felt “almost guilty” for being recognised for doing his job, as the World Horse Welfare charity’s chief executive since 2008. When he had time to reflect, he realised it’s “a brilliant recognition of the journey that the charity has been on, and the continued relevance of equines to societies around the world”.

“The horse-human partnership plays such an important part of our lives; not just riders, people forget how relevant horses are to society,” he says.

The charity will celebrate its centenary in 2027 and its purpose hasn’t changed. The starting point has always been to promote horse welfare through education and awareness.

Roly says: “The world over, horses suffer mostly because of interaction with humans and a lot of that is down to ignorance. The basics of equine care are the same whether you’re in Guatemala or the UK.”

The charity exists to “do right by horses and tell people how; welfare and ethics, and then communication,” he says.

Its message has evolved in keeping with advances in our understanding – for example, how horses learn.