This episode kicks off our new season of Changing Rein, in which we hope to step back and take a ‘big picture’ look at how welfare policy happens in equestrian sport, and what are the challenges and opportunities in making a better life for horses in sport. Our first guest is Prof Natalie Waran. Nat is an internationally acclaimed animal behaviour and welfare scientist, educator and opinion leader. She was previously Professor of Animal Welfare, the Jeanne Marchig Animal Welfare Education Centre Director andInternational Dean at Edinburgh University’s Veterinary School, before she moved back to NZ in 2016 to take up the role of Professor of One Welfare and Executive Dean at EIT where she was based for 7 years. She was until recentlyDirector of a new ‘A Good Life for Animals Centre’ – a Research and Human Behaviour Change initiative in New Zealand. She is now full-time in her role as Director of NavigateWelfare, an international animal welfare consultancy,whilst maintaining her academic work as a Hon Professor at Edinburgh, Hartpury, and Charles Sturt Universities. Over the past 30+ years, she has researched and published across a range of species, but her special interest is in equine welfare and she has worked on a variety of topics including; horse transport, indicators of equine stress andpain, equine problem behaviour, equine quality of life and welfare assessment as well as editing a book ‘The Welfare of Horses’ published by Springer. Her most recent research collaborations involves colleagues in Australia, UK,Brazil, UK, Sweden and Denmark, all with the central objective of developing methods and understanding about positive horse welfare. She has been a trustee for a number of international equine charities including; The Brooke (workingequids) and International Fund for Animal Welfare and works closely with others such as World Horse Welfare. A co-founder of the International Society for Equitation Science (ISES), she is now Honorary Fellow and former Trustee forthe organisation. She has a track record of organising numerous conferences and workshops to bring researchers and practitioners together to share information to advance animal welfare, and in particular to promote positive human behaviour change. The first workshop to develop the field of equitation science was held in 2004whilst she was at Edinburgh University, she then organised the 2012 ISES conference in Edinburgh when she returned to the vet school, and in 2024 she chaired the local organising committee for the ISES conference held in NZ with the theme of ‘A Good Life for Horses’. As the invited chairperson of the FEI Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission, she led the development of an ambitious report proposing a new ‘Good Life’ Vision, Charter and 30 Recommendations toaddress critical issues related to the involvement of horses in sport, and in 2024, she co-authored a white paper (Good Equine Welfare) for Eurogroup for Animal Welfare. In 2025 she was awarded an OBE for her services to equine welfare, research and education. When at home in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand , Nat enjoys training and riding her own horses, coaching young riders and trying to teach her naughty donkeys and Pickles the (very) feral goat, new tricks.
