"Any kind of mistreatment of horses is completely unacceptable. There should be no doubt that we at Danish Warmblood strongly and clearly distance ourselves from this," opens the President of Danish Warmblood, Jan Pedersen.

The Danish Warmblood association actively participates in national and international work with a focus on horse welfare. In Denmark, Danish Warmblood is part of the "Forum for Horse Welfare", while the association participates in the international cooperation on horse welfare via the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses and thereby with the International Equestrian Federation, FEI.

In Danish Warmblood the development and research into horse welfare is closely followed, and the association's rules & regulations is changed and adapted to new, evidence-based knowledge.

In the current case, where Viegaard Stutteri owned by John Byrialsen has been reported to the police after a former employee published photos on Facebook and described his experiences at the stud, the police and authorities have been on inspection and found no reason to intervene.

"If we in the Danish Warmblood association become aware that one of our members (please note that John Byrialsen is not a member of Danish Warmblood and has not been for the past 10 years), has been reported to the police for horse abuse, we will of course follow the case closely. If the member in question is accused by the authorities and convicted, the case will also be dealt with by the Danish Warmblood's disciplinary committee. With an option to hand out sanctions, or to exclude the member from the association", elaborates Jan Pedersen.
 

Basically, the association works on the base of established rules for dealing with horses, where it first and foremost reads: In all dealings with the horse, consideration for the horse's welfare must take precedence over everything else.

"Horse welfare and good practice for dealing with horses are key focus points in the association. We constantly strive to be at the forefront and act if we experience a trend or a direction that goes against our Code of Conduct. By working purposefully and intensively with others – nationally as well as internationally – we help set standards for horse welfare,” concludes the President of Danish Warmblood, Jan Pedersen.