World Equestrian Games eventing team silver medallist Sam Watson gave the opening address at Veterinary Ireland’s Equine Veterinary conference last Friday where over 150 veterinary practitioners attended. Watson’s address focused on how he has combined being a professional rider with business.

During the address he said: “As an athlete and as an entrepreneur I am driven by three words: Try. Fail. Learn. We have to try – in terms of pushing ourselves, our boundaries and horizons; but also trying new things. This will inevitably lead to failure. So, we must fail well. Then, we can learn from it. Learning is a mind-set, a skill, a process – and it is aided by a system.”

Germany’s Carolin Gerdes identified the main causes of rider or tack inflicted back pain in her talk and President of the British Equine Veterinary Association Professor Renate Weller discussed the fine line between being top performers and risking injury. He said: “When you train more you get better but at the same time your risk of musculoskeletal injury goes up.”

There were a number of other topics discussed at the conference including the healing power of honey, research on Lyme disease and dealing with dystocias.