Equine Health Update EHU Vol 21 Issue 02 | Page 4

Chairman’s Report Terry Casey Chairman SA Equine Veterinary Association Cell: 083 327 0237 May Already. The elections have come and gone. I don’t think the results were a surprise to anyone. Who knows if they will bring any change in the country. Probably, none or very little in my humble opinion. SAEVA has ,however, had a very active first five months of the year. As you all know Congress 2019 has come and gone. I think all of you who attended will agree that it was an awesome congress. Firstly “Thanks Very Much“ to your next chairperson, Angela Rodgers, for doing the organisation. The multiple speakers and dual sessions were all superbly coordinated in my opinion. This year’s speakers certainly had a diverse range of topics. Jessica Kidd with a surgery slant, Lee Morris with a reproductive slant and Joe Collins talking about donkeys. All the speakers contributed in their own ways. I know that I look at donkeys with different eyes now (not sure my opinion of repro work has changed much though). Those of you that attended this congress will know that we tried out a few new changes to the congress. Holding the congress over the weekend seemed to be well liked so it will continue in this format for next year’s congress. The positive comments were that it freed up more people to come to the congress, and it was also less time away from the practice. One of the negative effects though is that holding the congress 4 over the weekend does make some event, like for example the gala dinner more expensive to run. The benefits still seem to outweigh the drawbacks. While we are on that topic, next year’s congress will be from the 19th (the cocktail evening) to the 23rd of February 2020. It will be held in the Kruger or close to a Kruger park gate. A well renowned medicine specialist has so far been confirmed for next year and we are looking at obtaining a speaker with a pre-purchase slant. Those of you that attended this year’s congress should have received an email with a link allowing you to view the larger majority of this year’s talks in a vimeo format. If you have not received this link please could you let one of the members of the Board of Directors (more about this later) know. If for whatever reason you were unable to attend this year’s congress, you can retrospectively attend the congress by buying the congress talks. Access to these talks can be obtained from the website. Please check the list of available talks in the “events” section and then get in contact with Madaleen Schultheiss for Vetlink to organise you access. After next year’s congress (2020), these talks will be placed on the website so that they can be viewed free of charge. As an extra benefit to all the members all the talks that were filmed from Skukuza 2017 will also be placed on the website shortly. Please keep a look out for this. • Equine Health Update •