The Equestrian Community in Israel
There are estimated to be more than 60,000 horses in Israel; many of these horses are caught up in the current war, with no possibility to flee and seek safety, and some with no shelter and care. Horse owners, riding schools, athletes, breeders, and professionals are in desperate conditions without any resources to save their horses. The health and welfare of these horses could rapidly get worse over time due to restricted food intake, risk of starvation and colic due to poor feed quality and inappropriate nutrition, wounds, injuries, stress due to the war environment, and frequent relocation.
These problems are not only related to the lack of medicines and scarce availability of veterinary professionals, but also to the loss of money income for horse owners.

1.    Lack of medicines, including painkillers, anaesthetics, sedatives, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs. As well as high costs many owners are unable to afford due to the war.
2.    Many veterinarians were drafted into the army, and the remaining vets are under heavy load and are unable to reach many horses in need of medical care in time.
3.    Many horse owners have no resources to fund feed, medicine, and veterinary services.

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About Equida
The Equida organisation was founded in 2020 by the Israeli equine nutritionist Shirley Ferber. Equida was created as an educational platform aimed to make evidence-based information more accessible in Hebrew and Arabic to the local community in Israel, to improve the health and welfare of horses, donkeys and mules in the region.

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The Challenges We Are Facing
Following the October 7th massacre and the current war in Israel, Equida has been organising volunteers and resources to support the rescue efforts of animals from the southern war zone, and later continuous evacuations of horses and donkeys from both the southern and northern fronts. Over 140 horses, donkeys and mules have already been evacuated to hosting farms across the country, while some remain in areas close to the front due to the logistical and financial challenges of evacuating and hosting large groups of animals. To continuously support the evacuated animals while their owners are currently refugees hoping to one day have homes to get back to, Equida has recently launched a fundraising campaign to fund essential feed and medicine and care for these animals while the war is still ongoing and is presumed to continue for many months.

Among other challenges, we are facing an agricultural crisis with hay supplies running low and scarce grazing areas due to the local climate. As well as delays in the supply of imported feeds.

Furthermore, an Equine Encephalosis Virus has recently been identified as causing an outbreak of infectious fever sickness in Israeli horses for the last few months. With a lack of farm workers, the constant threat of missiles and a lack of supply of medicine, many horses are at risk of escalating symptoms and health concerns due to the virus. While equine veterinarians are overwhelmed with cases and cannot access some high-risk areas.