The topic of ethics and horses encompasses the study and evaluation of moral principles and standards as they apply to human interactions with horses. This area of research involves examining the welfare, treatment, and management of horses in various contexts, including sport, leisure, work, and scientific research. Ethical considerations may address issues such as humane training methods, living conditions, and the use of horses in competitive events. Researchers in this field analyze the implications of human decisions on equine well-being and explore frameworks for ensuring ethical practices. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that investigate ethical theories, welfare assessments, and policy discussions related to the ethical treatment and management of horses.
Passantino A, Giannetto C, Passantino L, Piccione G.The Council of Europe's activities in the field of animal welfare are particularly noteworthy and comprise the elaboration of several norms for the protection of animals. Concerning the specific European Directive, Regulations or Convention for the protection of animals, the Authors underline the missing of specifics recommendations concerning the welfare of sport horses and especially of trotters. Guidelines are reported by regulation of equestrian sports. The paper's purpose is to give practical elements to individuate the welfare state and to promote a clear regulation on welfare, care and ...
Jones B, Goodfellow J, Yeates J, McGreevy PD.There is increasing controversy about the use of the whip as a performance aid in Thoroughbred horseracing and its impact on horse welfare. This paper offers a critical analysis of the British Horseracing Authority's (BHA) 2011 Report Responsible Regulation: A Review of the Use of the Whip in Horseracing. It examines the BHA's process of consultation and use of science and public opinion research through the application of current scientific literature and legal analysis. This analysis suggests that the BHA's findings on the welfare impact and justification for whip use are insufficiently defe...
McIlwraith CW.The article discusses the key findings and discussions from the fifth Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit. This summit presented several ways in which data collection and analysis can […]
Seidel GE.Principles for selecting future research projects include interests of investigators, fundability, potential applications, ethical considerations, being able to formulate testable hypotheses and choosing the best models, including selection of the most appropriate species. The following 10 areas of assisted reproduction seem especially appropriate for further research: efficacious capacitation of bovine spermatozoa in vitro; improved in vitro bovine oocyte maturation; decreasing variability and increasing efficacy of bovine superovulation; improved fertility of sexed semen; improving equine IV...
Swegen A, Aitken RJ.Feral horses populate vast land areas and often induce significant ecological and economic damage throughout the landscape. Non-lethal population control methods are considered favourable in light of animal welfare, social and ethical considerations; however, no single effective, safe and species-specific contraceptive agent is currently available for use in free-ranging wild and feral horses. This review explores aspects of equine reproductive physiology that may provide avenues for the development of specific and long-lasting immunocontraceptive vaccines and some of the novel strategies that...
Kienapfel K, Link Y, König V Borstel U.Much controversy exists among riders, and in particular among those practicing dressage, regarding what can be considered an "appropriate" Head-Neck-Position (HNP). The objective was to assess the prevalence of different HNPs in the field, the behavioural reactions of horses during warm-up and competition rides in relation to HNP and the relation between HNP and marks achieved in the competition. Horses (n = 171) were selected during dressage competitions according to their HNP (3 categories based on the degree of flexion), and their behaviour was recorded during 3 minutes each of riding i...
Anestis MD, Anestis JC, Zawilinski LL, Hopkins TA, Lilienfeld SO.Equine-related treatments (ERT) for mental disorders are becoming increasingly popular for a variety of diagnoses; however, they have been subjected only to limited systematic investigation. Objective: To examine the quality of and results from peer-reviewed research on ERT for mental disorders and related outcomes. Methods: Peer-reviewed studies (k = 14) examining treatments for mental disorders or closely related outcomes were identified from databases and article reference sections. Results: All studies were compromised by a substantial number of threats to validity, calling into question t...
Ramey D, Rollin B.Veterinarians working with racehorses face unique challenges. No other type of practice expects veterinarians to "correct" such minute deficiencies in performance. Since the actual performance potential of many horses cannot be known, treatments may be targeted at "perceived" deficiencies in performance. Nevertheless, seconds or fractions of a second determine profit and loss and thus the animal's value for the trainer and owner. One or two seconds may ultimately determine whether a horse continues racing or is sold for slaughter. Is a veterinarian who works to maintain or improve racehorse pe...
Christophersen MT, Dupont N, Berg-Sørensen KS, Konnerup C, Pihl TH, Andersen PH.Outcomes of colic treatment are of great interest to clinicians, horse owners and insurers. One commonly used criterion of success is the overall short-term survival rate. This is used as to compare treatments and to measure quality of veterinary care, but may be biased by demographic or social factors such as attitudes towards animal suffering and euthanasia. The aims of this study were to 1) describe and analyse characteristics in horses with signs of colic referred to the University Hospital for Large Animals (UHLA), University of Copenhagen, Denmark over a 10-year period and 2) to compare ...
McKendree MG, Croney CC, Olynk Widmar NJ.To address escalating concerns about livestock animal care and welfare it is necessary to better understand the factors that may predispose people to develop such concerns. It has been hypothesized that experiences with, beliefs about, and emotional connections to animals may influence level of perceived obligation toward and therefore concern for animals. However, the extent to which people's classifications of animals and their status as pet owners may impact their views on food animal care and welfare practices remains unclear. An online survey of 798 U.S. households was therefore conducted...
Chen JW, Uboh CE, Soma LR, You Y, Jiang Z, Li X, Guan F, Liu Y.Animal sport such as horseracing is tainted with drug abuse as are human sports. Treatment of racehorses on race day with therapeutic medications in most cases is banned, and thus, it is essential to monitor the illicit use of drugs in the racing horse to maintain integrity of racing, ensure fair competition and protect the health, safety and welfare of the horse, jockeys and drivers. In the event of a dispute over the identity of the sample donor, if the regulator can provide evidence that the DNA genotype profile of the post-race sample matched that of the alleged donor, then the potential d...
Lesimple C, Hausberger M.Healthcare practitioners such as physicians or nurses often underestimate patients' well-being impairment (e.g., pain, anxiety) which may lead to undesirable consequences on treatment decisions. Lack of recognition/identification of signals and over-exposure are two reasons invoked, but a combination of factors may be involved. Studying human decoding of animals' expressions of emotions showed that "identification" to the subject was necessary to decode the other's internal state. In the present study we wanted to compare caretakers' reports on the prevalence of stereotypic or abnormal repetit...
Peli A, Scagliarini L, Calbucci S, Diegoli G.The increasing awareness of animal welfare issues among consumers and the general public in the European Union has brought about the adoption of laws for the protection of production animals throughout the various steps of the food chain, from breeding to slaughter. Considering that horses may be kept for a variety of reasons, including as companion animals and as farm animals, protective legislation in Europe applies to this species only partially. In consistency with the areas of competence of the European Union, it is the purpose of the activity (be it economic/commercial or neither) and no...
Rutberg AT, Turner JW, Herman K.To be effective and publicly acceptable, management of free-roaming horses and burros in the United States and elsewhere needs a consistent ethical framing of the animals and the land they occupy. In the U.S., the two laws that largely govern wild horse and burro management, the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act and the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act ("FLPMA"), rest on conflicting foundations, the former based on an ethic of care and the latter on largely utilitarian principles. These conflicts specifically fuel debates over the selection of appropriate fertility control ...
Gehlen H, Puhlmann J, Merle R, Thöne-Reineke C.Auxiliary reins are commonly used for the training of riders and horses as well as in daily training. They are often criticized when used incorrectly, as they will not help and can harm the horse by causing overwork, accidents, and injuries, which harm the horse in the long term. They also often conceal causal rider problems while trying to achieve quick success. The aim of this paper was to investigate, with an online horse-owner questionnaire, which and how often auxiliary reins were used and whether they were used appropriately. Only participants who were currently using auxiliary reins wer...
Rosskopf U, Noeske K, Werner E.This paper describes a double antigen ELISA (DAE) for rapid, specific and reliable assessment of the antitetanus immune status of horses and sheep. Compared with the indirect ELISA, the double antigen ELISA has the advantage of species-independent testing of sera. Thanks to its test design, it is more specific since the detected antibodies are forced to bind tetanus toxoid twice. In addition, it is very sensitive to tetanus antibodies, enabling the detection of low antibody titres, in range which is relevant for the assessment of the protective status (tetanus toxin neutralising antibodies). T...
Hupe O, Ankerhold U.Pet owners often assist voluntarily while their pets are being X-rayed during a medical examination. Medical staff members occupationally exposed to radiation are monitored regularly, as they wear personal dosemeters, whereas no dose measurements are carried out on voluntarily assisting persons, as measurements are both cost- and time-intensive. However, the dose limits prescribed in the German radiation protection regulations have to be observed for these volunteers as well. To assist the legislator in deciding whether the German regulation should be changed so that in future the dose of volu...
Fiedler JM, Ayre ML, Rosanowski S, Slater JD.Anthropomorphizing can misinform the making of inferences about animal mental experiences. This is a consideration when implementing the Five Domains Model for animal welfare assessment. An online survey run in 2021 captured horse sector participants' perspectives about anthropomorphism and wellbeing in relation to horses. Most respondents, 82.9% ( = 431/520), believed that anthropomorphism could influence horse welfare and wellbeing. These respondents were then asked how, in their opinion, anthropomorphism might relate to horse welfare. A thematic analysis identified two themes: (1) 'Anthropo...
Grandgeorge M, Lerch N, Delarue A, Hausberger M.Equine-assisted intervention (EAI) studies deal with clients, whereas very few studies focused on the effects on animals. EAI equids are also submitted to management, which influences their welfare. Management and working conditions depend on human decisions and perception. We gathered information through a survey about facilities managers' strategies (n = 51) and obtained direct information on management and working practices and their consequences on equids' welfare through an observational study (n = eight facilities, 174 equids). Differences in managers' perceptions of good management prac...
Robertson T, Thomas E, Starbuck G, Yarnell K.As a free-ranging, social species, the housing of horses () may limit their opportunity to display natural behaviour, compromising well-being. This review records and presents studies that have investigated horse housing design, evaluates the location and number of studies carried out to date, and reports the methods used to assess impact on equine well-being. A Boolean search was conducted in two databases: Web of Science and Scopus, filtered according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol, resulting in 60 peer-reviewed papers for evaluation. ...
Torell Palmquist G, Känsälä Alveheim N, Huot-Marchand F, Ashton L, Lewis V.This paper highlights and summarizes the experiences and perceptions of European equestrian educational experts from a workshop held at the French National Riding School in Saumur. The workshop, which brought together fifty leading experts, aimed to address challenges in equestrian education, identify common ground, and share best practices. Using 'The World Café' method, the participants were divided into groups to discuss four key topics: the relationship between horses and humans, diversity of perspectives versus common ground, training philosophy, and social acceptability. A follow-up onl...
Cameron A, Geldard M, Mair T, England G, Burford J, Freeman S, Pollock K, Wilson E.Veterinary and charity teams are frequently involved in equine end-of-life decisions. These can cause ethical dilemmas and emotional burdens and complicate communication with owners. Semi-structured focus groups explored experiences of making decisions about end-of-life care and euthanasia at three UK equine veterinary practices and one charity. There were 26 participants in a mix of roles. Inductive coding was conducted during thematic analysis. Major themes generated were 'Equine Welfare', 'Relationships', 'Decision-Making', and 'Emotional Toll and Coping Strategies'. Communication, finances...
Mota-Rojas D, Whittaker AL, Bienboire-Frosini C, Buenhombre J, Mora-Medina P, Domínguez-Oliva A, Martínez-Burnes J, Hernández-Avalos I....Recognizing that nonhuman animals are sentient beings has increased interest in studying their emotional state. Similar to humans, research has shown that some nonhuman mammals can modify facial expressions by contraction/relaxation of facial muscles according to their affective state. From a neurophysiological perspective, emotions are processed in several brain structures, mainly from the limbic system, such as the hypothalamus, hypophysis, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala. The converged pathways between the amygdala, the motor cortex, and its projections to the facial nerve cont...
Kim JY, Choi JH, Ryu H, Kang HJ.Ensuring animal welfare is essential for both the well-being of zoo animals and the effective management of zoological facilities. This study introduces the Simplified Animal Welfare Assessment Grid (S-AWAG), a streamlined adaptation of the original AWAG framework that integrates the Five Domains Model with an observation-based approach. Designed for non-expert users, S-AWAG focuses on easily observable welfare indicators-such as health and environmental conditions-making it particularly suitable for small, private zoos, including petting zoos, roadside zoos, indoor zoos, and animal cafés. We...
Whitaker K, Burnette A, Tan JY, Graves M, Hunt J, Devine E, Anderson S, Kirkendall K, Wisnieski L.There is a shortage of equine veterinarians. Understanding what factors are associated with job satisfaction in equine veterinarians can inform interventions to increase retention in equine medicine. Objective: To explore the prominent factors causing work dissatisfaction and burnout in equine veterinarians. Methods: Qualitative research study consisting of semi-structured focus groups. Methods: Thirty-seven current and former equine veterinarians across the United States were recruited via snowball and convenience sampling to answer questions on work history, work-life balance, and perception...
O'Neil EK, Fogle CA, Sheats MK, Love K.To investigate potential equine clients' perceptions of equine veterinarians based on attire. Methods: 763 horse owners/lessees. Methods: Participants were invited to complete a survey shared mainly via equestrian social media pages between August and October 2022.1-3 Survey participants were shown pictures of a male veterinarian and a female veterinarian in 7 outfits ranging from casual to business attire and were asked to score the veterinarian on 7 traits: easygoing attitude, friendliness, compassion, trustworthiness, professionalism, competence, and cost of services. The survey asked which...
Springer S, Mihatsch DI, Grimm H, Jenner F.Equine veterinarians face a range of challenges when attending competition horses. Athletic goals may significantly impact veterinary decision making, and the veterinarian's work can be complicated by reputational considerations and rival opinions during an assessment of whether a horse is "fit to compete". Using an online questionnaire, we found that the majority of German, Austrian and Swiss equine veterinarians (N = 172) surveyed agreed that the owners of competition horses are more likely than owners of leisure horses to approach them with clear treatment ideas, and that the former have hi...
Pollmann U.The conditions under which horses are kept and the performance of acts in the circus ring may give rise to animal protection-relevant aspects for circus and show horses. A number of intolerable conditions under which horses are kept and procedures adopted for the work with circus and show horses are described. In addition, attention is drawn to monitoring methods capable of exposing the deplorable shortcomings of these businesses.
