The professional team for horse pain recognition

Mervi Pakola, Horse Academy

I am a horse trainer and rehabilitator. I help people with problems with horses. Educational problems, pain recognition or rehabilitation of the horse. I also give courses on horse training and welfare all over Finland.

I started studying equine pain behaviour and rehabilitation years ago when I noticed
many horses' behavioural problems were caused by pain. Nowadays in addition to training, I rehabilitate horses because I like to help horses with pain. I think it's important for horse people to learn identify the horse's pain behavior and lameness in order to give the horses the help they need as soon as possible.

I am trained equine masseur, animal trainer, Equine osteopath (International Diploma of Equine Osteopathy). I have also Specialist Vocational Qualification in Horse Care and Management, where I specialized on horse muscle maintenance
as a specialist and developer of horse stables and horse industry. In addition, I have attended many other shorter studies. You can familiarize yourself with
my studies here.

DVM, PhD, MSc Ann-Helena Hokkanen

Ann-Helena Hokkanen: I am a doctor of veterinary medicine familiar with animal pain. I graduated as a veterinarian in 2007, and I defended my doctorate on knotting pain in calves at the University of Helsinki in 2015. In 2016, I received a European veterinary specialization degree in the field of animal welfare (Dip ECAWBM-WSEL). In the summer of 2022, I completed my extensive 3-year postgraduate degree in pain management at the University of Edinburgh's medical education program (MSc in the Clinical Management of Pain). Currently, I am a stay-at-home mom to my two children and I work as an agricultural entrepreneur on my family's dairy farm. I am also involved in projects investigating pain in calves and piglets and the well-being of young calves at the University of Helsinki. In addition, I lecture and write about animal pain and how to treat it.