The British Horse Society has welcomed the recent announcement by the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) minister, Alun Michael, that U.K. land grazed by horses can now benefit from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Single Payment scheme, in recognition of the important contribution horses make to the rural economy.

According to Defra, the CAP reform “will simplify the application arrangements for subsidy payments by replacing ten major CAP payment schemes with one new single payment. Farmers will have greater freedom to farm to the demands of the market as subsidies will be decoupled from production. At the same time, environmentally friendly farming practices will be better acknowledged and rewarded. The implementation of the CAP reform is central to England’s Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food