I'd agree with having licensing for ownership of any animal - cats, dogs, the lot. Too many people out there own animals without understanding how to meet their animal's basic needs.
I witness people taking on horses that do not know how to put on a headcollar. That are intending to ride but have no idea how to put their tack on. Don't understand how to safely approach and catch a horse in the field. Have no idea that they should use the same farrier on a regular basis (!!!) Witnessed someone the other day who thought their horse was colicking because it was 'so sweaty' - when instead all that had happened is that it had been turned out in the rain without a rug (fat cob). These are the people that are so naive they have no idea how much they don't know. They shouldn't be in this position, but they are.
I am incredulous that someone buying a horse has not tacked up at their local riding school. Are there really so many who cannot put a headcollar on? When I was a student I had a summer job on a trekking centre. We had around 80 riders. Many beginners and a lot of novices. By around day 2 most could put the simple saddle and bridle on. It didn't take much to teach them. By the middle of day 1 when we stopped for lunch they had worked out how to get the bridle off and the halter on. A course may teach you how to approach the perfect horse in a field, it is experience that will teach you how to approach and catch the more difficult one. No one has to use the same farrier as as for the colic I do sympathise. I had the same. Unrugged horse, very wet and when he came in he was sweaty and questionable if he had colic. He did, he had mild colic so well done to someone noticing a sweaty horse and wondering if it was OK. Better to notice than not. Experience again teaches you about colic even those of us with many horses don't always recognise it. I called my vet for a questionable horse. Didn't know if it had colic, was tied up or as the vet said on arrival was lame. Blood tests ruled out tie up, not lame and afterwards the vet couldn't even decide if it had been colic so not always easy.
I don't think testing and licenses will remove pure intentional cruelty, but I think you could do a lot to remove a lot of the unintentional cruelty which happens through ignorance or a lack of understanding.
I'm sure there would be simple ways of ensuring that people with prior knowledge could get a dispensation or some kind of accredited prior learning.
no way of verifying prior knowledge. It should get amusing if you send some of the top riders or indeed many experienced long time owners on courses to learn how to rug and groom horses.
As for people who 'dont need to know the contents of BHS stage 1' - I disagree. You may choose to keep your ponies in a semi feral way, but you should at least KNOW and UNDERSTAND expectations around stable management, grass management, feeding, handling and emergency care. If you don't need to use it, that's then a valid choice.
I personally don't but I was referring to the many owners of feral ponies. Why would they need to know this? the content would be irrelevant to them. What they need to know is how to ride a quad bike to gather them, how to drive them into a yard, how to drive them through a cattle crush and how to drive them into a trailer to either the zoo or the sales. Emergency care will most likely be a bullet and most of them have firearms certificates. Why on earth would they need to know how to groom when you cannot get within yards of these ponies
A total waste of time for these people.
These semi feral owners are just on example of the pointlessness of this. I am sure there are other similar groups.
Looking at the Stage 1 syllabus (
https://pathways.bhs.org.uk/media/2025/stage-1-care-qualification-structure-090919.pdf) I think you could cut out the parts about working on a yard and about tacking up... retain the sections on stabling, grooming, behaviour and health, rugs, handling and feeding and watering. Possibly add a little bit more on 'when to call the vet/emergency care' ... the grooming syllabus is not about presenting a horse for show, it is about basic foot care, checking for injuries and understanding what all the bits of grooming kit can be used for. That's not a crazy BHS ideology about grooming - it is just some sensible basic knowledge. The BHS are perfectly happy for people to scrub the mud off where the tack goes and carry on!
I think there's a bit of wild overreaction here to what is a really sensible idea.