Equine welfare encompasses the physical and psychological well-being of horses, focusing on their health, comfort, and overall quality of life. This area of study addresses various aspects, including nutrition, housing, behavior, and management practices, aiming to ensure that horses are kept in environments that meet their physiological and behavioral needs. Research in equine welfare examines factors such as stress indicators, pain assessment, and the impact of human interactions on horse behavior and health. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the assessment, improvement, and implications of welfare practices in equine management.
Haddy E, Burden F, Raw Z, Rodrigues JB, Zappi Bello JH, Brown J, Kaminski J, Proops L.Belief in animal sentience and the quality of human-animal relationships play a significant role in animal welfare. However, the link between an individual animal's welfare and the beliefs and emotional connection of the owner to the animal is understudied and focussed on single cultures, limiting generalisability. In this study, we explored potential links between owner attitude, beliefs in animal sentience, and working equid welfare across four continents. This study used a welfare assessment protocol alongside a questionnaire exploring owner attitudes to assess 378 participants across six c...
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...
Herbst AC, Coleman MC, Macon EL, Brokman A, Stromberg AJ, Harris PA, Adams AA.Information on the management and health of US senior horses (≥15 years of age) is currently limited. Objective: Provide information on (1) primary use of US senior horses, (2) reasons and risk factors for horse retirement, (3) exercise management, (4) prevalence of low muscle mass and (5) risk factors for, and owner-perceived consequences of, low muscle mass. Methods: Online survey. Methods: Survey responses from 2717 owners of U.S.-resident senior horses (≥15 years of age) were analysed descriptively and inferentially, using ordered and binomial logistic regression, ANOVA and the Kru...
Aguilar-Lazcano CA, Espinosa-Curiel IE, Ríos-Martínez JA, Madera-Ramírez FA, Pérez-Espinosa H.The development of technology, such as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, has significantly advanced many fields of study. Animal research is no exception, as these technologies have enabled data collection through various sensing devices. Advanced computer systems equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities can process these data, allowing researchers to identify significant behaviors related to the detection of illnesses, discerning the emotional state of the animals, and even recognizing individual animal identities. This review includes articles in the English langu...
Greening L, Allen S, McBride S.Sleep disturbance is observed across species, resulting in neurocognitive dysfunction and poor impulse control/regulation of negative emotion. Understanding animal sleep disturbance is thus important to understand how environmental factors influence animal sleep and day-to-day welfare. Self-reporting tools for sleep disturbance are commonly used in human research to determine sleep quality, that cannot be transferred to non-verbal animal species research. Human research has, however, successfully used frequency of awakenings to create an objective measurement of sleep quality. The aim of this ...
Lykkjen S, Stenbakk LK, Holmøy IH.Laminitis is a systemic condition resulting in debilitating pain and structural changes within the feet, and hence has major welfare implications. Causes include endocrine and systemic inflammatory conditions. Ponies are frequently affected, and observations in the field suggest that occurrence of laminitis is also common in Norwegian breeds. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence and risk factors for laminitis within the Norwegian pony breed Nordlandshest/Lyngshest. Results: The study was a cross-sectional study based on questionnaires sent to members of the Norwegian Nordlands...
Carmo LG, Werner LC, Michelotto PV, Daros RR.Food rewards are believed to have a positive valence in horses. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of food rewards on horse behavior before entering a horse chute, and behavior and facial movements while restrained in it. Thirteen female adult horses were brought once daily to an animal handling facility for three weeks. In week 1, baseline period, no reinforcement was applied. In weeks 2 and 3, experimental phase, half of the horses received positive reinforcement treatment after entering and remaining in the chute; the remaining horses were considered as controls (no positive rei...
Higgins C, Huber L.Rhodococcus equi, a gram-positive facultative intracellular pathogen and a soil saprophyte, is one of the most common causes of pneumonia in young foals. It poses a threat to the economy in endemic horse-breeding farms and to animal welfare annually. Many farms use thoracic ultrasonographic screening and antimicrobial treatment of subclinically affected foals as a preventive measure against severe R. equi infections. The wide use antimicrobials to treat subclinically affected foals has contributed to the emergence of multidrug resistant (MDR)-R. equi in both clinical isolates from sick foals a...
Shan R, Steel CM, Sykes B.The impact of recommended withholding periods (RWPs) for omeprazole on the recurrence of Equine Gastric Ulcer Syndrome (EGUS) is unknown. The study was designed to compare the effect of two RWPs on EGUS recurrence post-omeprazole treatment and to determine if a nutraceutical supplement would reduce EGUS recurrence when administrated during an RWP. The study was a blinded, randomized clinical trial. Part 1: Horses were allocated to an RWP0 or RWP2 and crossed over after 4-weeks. Horses received oral omeprazole once daily, except during the RWPs at the end of the treatment periods. Part 2: Horse...
Brown B, Cardwell JM, Verheyen KLP, Campbell MLH.In 2021, in response to an acknowledged need for universal, consistent ethics to guide decision making in the horse sport sector, Campbell published a theoretical ethical framework for the use of horses in competitive sport. The research reported here tested the applied usefulness of that theoretical ethical framework through stakeholder engagement in a three-round modified Delphi study and refined it to develop a practical decision-making tool which can be applied consistently across multiple equestrian disciplines. Stakeholders from a broad range of equestrian competitive disciplines partici...
Rankins EM, McKeever KH, Malinowski K.Equid welfare in equine assisted services (EAS) is an area that has received attention, but less attention than the documentation of human outcomes in response to EAS. To safeguard the well-being of equids and minimize human risk of injury, continued research on the effects of EAS programming and participants on equids needs to occur. The aims of this systematic scoping review were to identify the approaches taken for describing and understanding equids in EAS and the methods employed in evaluating equids' responses to EAS programming, participants, or both. Literature searches were performed ...
Lightfoot KL, Frost E, Burford JH, England GCW, Freeman SL.Behavioural models are widely used within human medicine to understand beliefs and intention associated with major health interventions. Objective: To investigate horse-owner beliefs and practices associated with emergency colic planning. Methods: Cross-sectional study. Methods: An online survey incorporating the Trans-Theoretical Model of behaviour change and the Theory of Planned Behaviour was developed to assess owner intention to adopt three areas of emergency colic planning: (1) prevention/recognition, (2) involvement of others and (3) personal preparation. Participants were recruited usi...
Tilley P, Simões J, Sales Luis JP.From previous studies, the International Society for Equitation Science has advised that further research be conducted on the physiological/psychological effects of less-exacerbated poll flexion angles. We aimed to evaluate the effects of two riding poll flexion positions with a difference of only 15° on the respiratory systems and behaviour of horses through an evaluation of dynamic airway collapse via over-ground endoscopy, the pharyngeal diameter, pleural pressure, arterial oxygenation and lactate, HR/RR, and the occurrence of conflict behaviours. Twenty high-level dressage and twenty show...
Bollinger L, Bartel A, Weber C, Gehlen H.High elimination rates and concerns for horse welfare are important issues in endurance riding. Improved understanding of the causes of elimination could increase completion rates in this sport. We have identified pre-ride laboratory risk factors that enable an assessment of potential elimination before the ride. A longitudinal cohort study was performed among 49 healthy horses competing in the 160 km endurance ride at the 2016 World Championship of Endurance Riding in Samorin/Slovakia. Blood samples were taken before the event. For statistical evaluation, horses were categorized into three gr...
Allen K, Anderson L, King M, Mullan S.The ethics of using horses in sport is receiving increasing attention and media scrutiny. Sports medicine ethics is an important and well-established discipline within human medicine and biomedical ethics, which has, thus far, received little application to the equine veterinary field. Objective: The purpose of this scoping review was to explore the existing literature on equine sports medicine ethics, to understand the current concerns and issues, and to map areas for future research. Methods: Scoping review. Methods: Academic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, CAB abstracts) were searched to...
Riley CB, Padalino B, Rogers CW, Thompson KR.There is an increased understanding of shared human-animal risk in terms of "one welfare", whereby when animals are at risk, so are people, so preventing injury to one species may also prevent injury to the other. Because transport-related injuries to horses are common, the authors considered this paradigm to study road equine transport-related injuries to humans in New Zealand. The aim was to determine their frequency and associated factors by distributing a survey to horse industry participants through industry organisations asking about their horse activities, road transport experiences, an...
Carroll SL, Sykes BW, Mills PC.Behaviour-related issues are common in horses. Many 'undesirable behaviours' pose important safety concerns for the human handlers / riders / carers, as well as welfare concerns for the horse. Undesirable behaviours can also devalue a horse, or result in the horse being re-homed, relinquished, or euthanased. Undesirable behaviours occur for a range of reasons. These include physiological causes, poor management, and the use of inappropriate or poorly applied handling and training techniques. The potential contribution of each of these aspects must be considered when attempting to reduce or eli...
Bookbinder L, Prisk A.Gastrointestinal colic is the most common primary care equine emergency and affects nearly one of four horses per year. Colic is a significant welfare concern for equine patients and a financial and emotional burden for owners. The primary care practitioner is instrumental in identifying critical cases quickly and making appropriate management recommendations to improve patient outcomes.
Harvey AM, Beausoleil NJ, Ramp D, Mellor DJ.The mental experiences of animals are what characterises their welfare status. The Five Domains Model for assessing welfare aligns with the understanding that physical and mental states are linked. Following measurement of indicators within each of the four physical/functional Domains (1. Nutrition; 2. Physical environment; 3. Health; and 4. Behavioural interactions), the anticipated negative or positive affective consequences (mental experiences) are cautiously inferred and assigned to Domain 5. Those inferences derive credibility from validated knowledge of the underlying systems of physiolo...
Kranenburg LC, van der Poel SH, Warmelink TS, van Doorn DA, van den Boom R.Equine squamous gastric disease (ESGD) is common in horses and poses a serious welfare problem. Several risk factors have been identified and ESGD is routinely treated with omeprazole. Fourteen mares, previously used as embryo recipients and diagnosed with ESGD, were selected. Horses were confined to individual stalls, exercised once daily, and fed ad libitum hay, 1 kg of a low starch compound complementary feed and a mineral supplement. Half of the horses received a compound containing hydrolysed collagen (supplement) and the other half did not (control). At the start of the study, ESGD score...
Torres Borda L, Auer U, Jenner F.Sociality is an ethological need of horses that remained unchanged by domestication. Accordingly, it is essential to include horses' social behavioural requirements and the opportunity to establish stable affiliative bonds in equine management systems and welfare assessment. Thus, this systematic review aims to provide an up-to-date analysis of equine intraspecific social ethograms. A literature review yielded 27 papers that met the inclusion criteria by studying adult (≥2 years) equine social behaviour with conspecifics using a well-defined ethogram. Social interactions were observed in 851...
Padalino B, Benedetti B, Felici M, Bicout DJ.To date, there is no official method for measuring horse welfare after transport. This study aimed to develop a scale to classify horses into four categories: good shape; light affected; affected; down (GLAD) based on their welfare impairment measured at unloading. To this end, 15 animal-based measures (ABMs), previously recorded from 1019 horses, were scored. Weight and severity scores provided by welfare experts, alongside the number of welfare principles highlighted by the ABM, were assigned to each ABM. The welfare impairment () of each horse was then calculated as the weighted sum of the ...
Zollinger A, Wyss C, Bardou D, Bachmann I.In domestic conditions, adult stallions are mostly housed individually in internal stables to reduce the risk of injuries during social interactions. Social deprivation in horses results in physiological stress and behavioural problems. The aim of this study was to test the "social box" (SB), which allows closer physical contact between neighbouring horses. Eight pairs of stallions (n = 16) were filmed over a 24 h period in the SB and in their usual box stables, "conventional boxes" (CB), which strongly restrict tactile contact. The effect of housing in the SB on behaviour and the occurrence a...
Hallman I, Karikoski N, Kareskoski M.Obesity is a growing welfare concern in modern equine populations and predisposes horses to disturbances in energy metabolism such as insulin dysregulation. However, equine metabolic syndrome has only been recognized in recent decades. Functioning energy metabolism is pivotal to normal body homeostasis and affects essentially all organ systems, including reproduction. Previous literature suggests that obesity has an effect not only on the reproductive processes in mares but also on offspring health, predisposing the offspring to later-onset orthopedic and metabolic problems. This review focuse...
Lisboa BRF, da Silva JAR, da Silva WC, Barbosa AVC, Silva LKX, Lourenço-Júnior JB.In Brazil, the study on equine thermoregulation has not shown considerable advances, moreover, in the Amazon, this is a little explored aspect. This study aims to evaluate the thermoregulation of horses submitted to two methods of post-exercise cooling, in the climatic conditions of the Eastern Amazon. The experiment was conducted at Centro Hipico, Ananindeua, Para, for 15 days. Ten male horses, castrated of the Brazilian breed, aged 13 years and with an average weight of 482.3 kg were used. Equestrianism, which was exercised with pre-established protocol in the arena and track, for 30 min. Af...
Kang H, Zsoldos RR, Sole-Guitart A, Narayan E, Cawdell-Smith AJ, Gaughan JB.Healthy adult horses can balance accumulation and dissipation of body heat to maintain their body temperature between 37.5 and 38.5 °C, when they are in their thermoneutral zone (5 to 25 °C). However, under some circumstances, such as following strenuous exercise under hot, or hot and humid conditions, the accumulation of body heat exceeds dissipation and horses can suffer from heat stress. Prolonged or severe heat stress can lead to anhidrosis, heat stroke, or brain damage in the horse. To ameliorate the negative effects of high heat load in the body, early detection of heat stress and im...
Camp M, Kibler ML, Ivey JLZ, Thompson JM.Racehorse welfare is a prominent, public issue which affects nearly every aspect of the racing industry. Thoroughbred care after race career completion has garnered increasing attention from the equine industry, general public, and animal welfare groups alike. As the average racehorse's career lasts just 4.5 years, owner demand for thoroughbreds is essential for post-race careers and acceptable welfare standards. This study utilized data from and hedonic pricing models to analyze buyer demand for thoroughbreds sold in online auctions held from 2012 to 2020. The results indicate buyer preferenc...
Kim SM, Cho GJ.This study aimed to prove that deep learning can be effectively used for identifying various equine facial expressions as welfare indicators. In this study, a total of 749 horses (healthy: 586 and experiencing pain: 163) were investigated. Moreover, a model for recognizing facial expressions based on images and their classification into four categories, i.e., resting horses (RH), horses with pain (HP), horses immediately after exercise (HE), and horseshoeing horses (HH), was developed. The normalization of equine facial posture revealed that the profile (99.45%) had higher accuracy than the fr...
Söderroos D, Ignell R, Haubro Andersen P, Bergvall K, Riihimäki M.Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) associated with biting midges is a common allergic skin disease in horses, reducing the welfare of affected horses. This study investigated the effect of IBH on animal welfare and behaviour and assessed a new prophylactic insect repellent. In total, 30 horses were recruited for a prospective cross-over and case-control study. Clinical signs of IBH, inflammatory markers in skin biopsies and behavioural data (direct observations, motion index) were scored longitudinally during two consecutive summers. No differences were observed in the total number of itching...
Hovey MR, Davis A, Chen S, Godwin P, Porr CAS.Stress can impact the health and well-being of animals negatively. Behavioral and physiological changes, particularly serum cortisol, offer objective and easy-to-use methods of evaluating stress in horses. However, limited studies support a positive relationship between changes in stress-related serum cortisol concentrations and stress-related behaviors in horses. This study assessed differences in stress-related behaviors and serum cortisol concentrations in horses used in a therapeutic riding program (TRH) or university riding program (UNI). Riders were grouped by disability type (TRH) or by...
Waran NK.DELETE:
The last known ‘wild’ horse was the Przewalski (e.f. prezewalskii), which lived until fairly recently in its natural state in Mongolia. Although little is known of their social organisation in the wild, a number of studies have been carried out of their behaviour in captive conditions. Attempts are now being made to reintroduce them into more natural conditions than the zoos and private collections in which most of them are currently maintained (Keiper and Receveur 1992). Although there is a lack of information about truly wild horse behaviour, a number of studies, such as that d...
Baumgartner M, Boisson T, Erhard MH, Zeitler-Feicht MH.During the evolution of the horse, an extended period of feed intake, spread over the entire 24-h period, determined the horses' behaviour and physiology. Horses will not interrupt their feed intake for more than 4 hours, if they have a choice. The aim of the present study was to investigate in what way restrictive feeding practices (non ad libitum) affect the horses' natural feed intake behaviour. We observed the feed intake behaviour of 104 horses on edible (n = 30) and non-edible bedding (n = 74) on ten different farms. We assessed the duration of the forced nocturnal feed intake interrupti...
Littlewood KE, Beausoleil NJ, Stafford KJ, Stephens C, Collins T, Quain A, Hazel S, Lloyd JF, Mallia C, Richards L, Wedler NK, Zito S.This study set out to explore how euthanasia decision-making for animals was taught to students in eight Australasian veterinary schools. A questionnaire-style interview guide was used by a representative at each university to interview educators. Educators were interviewed about their teaching of euthanasia decision-making for four categories of animals: livestock, equine, companion and avian/wildlife. Using thematic analysis, the terms provided by participants to describe how (mode of teaching) and what (specific content) they taught to students were categorised. Information about content wa...
Kelemen Z, Grimm H, Vogl C, Long M, Cavalleri JMV, Auer U, Jenner F.Housing and management conditions strongly influence the health, welfare and behaviour of horses. Consequently, objective and quantifiable comparisons between domestic environments and their influence on different equine demographics are needed to establish evidence-based criteria to assess and optimize horse welfare. Therefore, the present study aimed to measure and compare the time budgets (=percentage of time spent on specific activities) of horses with chronic orthopaedic disease and geriatric (≥20 years) horses living in different husbandry systems using an automated tracking device. Ho...
Henry S, Sigurjónsdóttir H, Klapper A, Joubert J, Montier G, Hausberger M.Artificial weaning is a standard practice known to be one of the most stressful events in a domestic foal's life. Research has mainly focused on ways to alleviate weaning stress. However, there is still a need for more detailed research on what should constitute best practices with respect to animal welfare. The aim of this review is to address this issue by examining the natural weaning process. We first provide an overview of the scientific literature on the natural temporal dynamics of the dam-offspring bond in horses: it is to be noted that the natural process of weaning is little document...
Büttgen L, Geibel J, Simianer H, Pook T.Osteochondrosis dissecans (OCD) is a degenerative disease of the cartilage leading to osseous fragments in the joints. It is important in horse breeding both from an animal welfare and an economic perspective. To study adequate breeding strategies to reduce OCD prevalence, a lifelike simulation of the breeding program of German Warmblood horses was performed with the R package MoBPS. We simulated complex breeding schemes of riding horses with different selection steps and realistic age structure, mimicking the German situation. As an example, osseous fragments in fetlock and hock joints were c...
Chapman GE, Archer D, Torr S, Solomon T, Baylis M.There is growing concern about the increasing risk of disease outbreaks caused by arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) in both human beings and animals. There are several mosquito-borne viral diseases that cause varying levels of morbidity and mortality in horses and that can have substantial welfare and economic ramifications. While none has been recorded in the UK, vector species for some of these viruses are present, suggesting that UK equines may be at risk. The authors undertook, therefore, the first study of mosquito species on equine premises in the UK. Mosquito magnet traps and red-bo...
Driessen B, Bauquier SH, Zarucco L.Managing pain in horses afflicted by chronic laminitis is one of the greatest challenges in equine clinical practice because it is the dreadful suffering of the animals that most often forces the veterinarian to end the battle with this disease. The purpose of this review is to summarize our current understanding of the complex mechanisms involved in generating and amplifying pain in animals with laminitis and, based on this information, to propose a modified approach to pain therapy. Furthermore, a recently developed pain scoring technique is presented that may help better quantify pain and t...
Rodrigues JB, Sullivan RJE, Judge A, Norris SL, Burden FA.Across Asia the brick-kiln industry is expanding. In Nepal, urban dwelling has increased in recent years, raising requirement for low-cost, mass produced bricks to meet the population needs. Working equids (WEs) play a key role in non-mechanised kilns. Assessing the welfare of these equids is the starting point to addressing concerns. In line with One Welfare principles, the health and welfare of animals, people and the kiln environment are interlinked. In December 2019, 119 WEs were assessed in seven brick kilns in three districts of Nepal, using the Equid Assessment Research and Scoping tool...
Brinkmann L, Gerken M, Riek A.Outdoor group housing is increasingly recognized as an appropriate housing system for domesticated horses. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate the effect of potential feed shortage in semi-natural horse keeping systems in winter on animal health and welfare. In 10 female Shetland ponies blood concentrations (NEFA, total protein (TP), total bilirubin (TB), beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and thyroxine (T4)), body mass and the body condition score (BCS) were monitored for 7 months including a 4 months period of feed restriction in five of the 10 ponies. Restrictively fed animals ...
Gardela J, Carbajal A, Tallo-Parra O, Olvera-Maneu S, Álvarez-Rodríguez M, Jose-Cunilleras E, López-Béjar M.Horse transportation for temporary relocation during rest periods is a common and widespread practice among horse owners, either from sport competition or working tasks. This study aimed to determine the effect of a relocation period and the multiple factors associated with a rest period on hair cortisol concentrations (HCCs) in horses. Additionally, this study reports the seasonal effect on HCCs and hair growth over a year. Thirteen police horses, Pure Spanish stallions of various ages (5-13 y), were selected to participate in this study. Hair sample collection was carried out approximately e...
Klous L, Siegers E, van den Broek J, Folkerts M, Gerrett N, van Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaan MS, Munsters C.In this study, we examined the effects of pre-cooling on thermophysiological responses in horses exercising in moderate environmental conditions (average wet bulb globe temperature: 18.5 ± 3.8 °C). Ten international eventing horses performed moderate intensity canter training on two separate days, and were either pre-cooled with cold-water rinsing (5-9 °C for 8 ± 3 min; cooling) or were not pre-cooled (control). We determined velocity (V), heart rate (HR), rectal temperature (T), shoulder and rump skin temperature (T and T), plasma lactate concentration (LA), gross sweat loss (GSL), and lo...
Carroll SL, Sykes BW, Mills PC.Husbandry and veterinary procedures have the potential to generate fear and stress in animals. In horses, the associated responses can pose a significant safety risk to the human personnel involved in the procedure, as well as to the animal itself. Traditionally, physical restraint, punishment, and/or threat of an aversive, have been the most common strategies used to achieve compliance from the horse. However, from a welfare perspective, this is less than ideal. This approach also has the potential for creating a more dangerous response from the horse in future similar situations. When caring...
Waran NK, Robertson V, Cí·¯ord D, Kokoszko A, Marlin DJ.The effects of transporting horses facing either forwards or backwards were compared by transporting six thoroughbred horses in pairs in a lorry on one journey facing in the direction of travel, and on another journey facing away from the direction of travel, over a standard one-hour route. Heart rate monitors were used to record their heart rate before, during and after the journey and the horses' behaviour was recorded by scan sampling each horse every other minute. The average heart rate was significantly lower (P < 0.05) when the horses were transported facing backwards, and they also t...
Miranda-de la Lama GC, Gonzales-Castro CA, Gutierrez-Piña FJ, Villarroel M, Maria GA, Estévez-Moreno LX.Every year thousands of horses from Mexico and the United States of America (USA) are transported to slaughter in Mexico, but little is known about their welfare or pre-slaughter logistics. In this study, we recorded the origin, sex, age and condition of horses (121 journeys, 2648 animals) upon arrival to an abattoir in northern Mexico, including transport details. Horse welfare was measured indirectly via individual scores for body condition, coat quality, lameness, ocular and nasal discharge, as well as reactivity to a chute restraint test, all performed shortly after unloading. The average ...
Younes M, Robert C, Cottin F, Barrey E.Nearly 50% of the horses participating in endurance events are eliminated at a veterinary examination (a vet gate). Detecting unfit horses before a health problem occurs and treatment is required is a challenge for veterinarians but is essential for improving equine welfare. We hypothesized that it would be possible to detect unfit horses earlier in the event by measuring heart rate recovery variables. Hence, the objective of the present study was to compute logistic regressions of heart rate, cardiac recovery time and average speed data recorded at the previous vet gate (n-1) and thus predict...
Hitchens PL, Hultgren J, Frössling J, Emanuelson U, Keeling LJ.Determining welfare status in a population is the first step in efforts to improve welfare. The primary objective of this study was to explore a new epidemiological approach for analysis of data from official competent authorities that pertain to compliance with animal welfare legislation. We reviewed data already routinely collected as part of Swedish official animal welfare inspections for 2010-13, using a checklist containing 45 checkpoints (CPs). These covered animal-, resource- and management-based measures of equine welfare. The animal-based CPs were measures that directly related to the...
Padalino B, Rogers CW, Guiver D, Bridges JP, Riley CB.Transport-related problem behaviors (TRPBs) are common in horses and can cause injury to both the horses and their handlers. This study aimed to identify possible risk factors for TRPBs to inform approaches to mitigate TRPBs incidence and enhance horse welfare. An online cross-sectional survey was conducted to explore the prevalence of TRPBs and their association with human-, training- and transport management-related factors in New Zealand. The survey generated 1124 valid responses that were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and logistic regression analyses. Having at least one horse wit...
de Mira MC, Lamy E, Santos R, Williams J, Pinto MV, Martins PS, Rodrigues P, Marlin D.The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of salivary cortisol (SC) and eye temperature measured by infrared thermography (IRTET) as biomarkers to manage competitions more effectively and monitor horse welfare in endurance competitions. Based on previous studies, it was hypothesised that pre-exercise baseline SC and IRTET would be higher in younger or less experienced horses, and that post-exercise variation from baseline would be higher in the top finishers. Results: Salivary cortisol measured in 61 competing at qualifier 40 km and 80 km rides showed an abrupt variation ...
Pickering P, Hockenhull J.Information on the management of animals within domestic environments is freely available to animal owners and caregivers either online, or in paper form by request. However, awareness is growing within the animal welfare sector that simply providing written guidelines or educational material is not enough to affect a positive change in owners in relation to animal welfare. In the quest to improve equine welfare, understanding the way that owners and other stakeholders seek information and their communication preferences is key to effective dissemination of up to date equine welfare informatio...
Gronqvist G, Rogers C, Gee E.Within popular press there has been much coverage of the negative effects associated with firework and horses. The effect of fireworks has been documented in companion animals, yet no studies have investigated the negative effects, or otherwise, of fireworks on horses. This study aims to document horse responses and current management strategies to fireworks via an online survey. Of the total number of horses, 39% (1987/4765) were rated as "anxious", 40% (1816/4765) "very anxious" and only 21% (965/4765) rated as "not anxious" around fireworks. Running (82%, 912/1107) was the most common behav...
Pinchbeck GL, Clegg PD, Proudman CJ, Morgan KL, French NR.Falls during racing present a risk of injury to both horse and jockey and a risk of fatality to horses. Objective: To use video recordings of races to describe the circumstances surrounding horse falls at hurdle and steeplechase fences and to identify and quantify within-race risk factors for horse falls in National Hunt racing in the UK. Methods: A retrospective, matched, nested case-control study using video recordings of races was conducted on 6 UK racecourses. Cases and controls were matched on both race type and jump number at which the fall occurred. Conditional logistic regression analy...
Bornmann T, Randle H, Williams J.Happiness is a subjective feeling and associated with positive affective states that can indicate good welfare. It is becoming increasingly agreed that equestrians' ability to recognize indicators of positive emotions has the potential to enhance overall horse wellbeing, but research in this area is limited. Therefore, this study investigated equestrians' perceptions of horse happiness. A survey comprising 25 questions was distributed through equestrian-related social media (internationally) and yielded 332 valid responses. Frequency analysis was conducted within each factor category (e.g., ri...
Padalino B, Rogers CW, Guiver D, Thompson KR, Riley CB.Injuries resulting from road transport are common in horses and are a potential welfare concern, as well as, a source of economic loss. An online cross sectional survey was used to determine the prevalence of road transport related injuries to horses in New Zealand and the association of human factors including demographics, industry background, training and the horse handling experience of the respondents with transport related injury. The survey generated 1133 valid responses that were analyzed using descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. At least o...
Lerch N, Cirulli F, Rochais C, Lesimple C, Guilbaud E, Contalbrigo L, Borgi M, Grandgeorge M, Hausberger M.Little is known about the impact of equine-assisted interventions (EAI) on equids' perception of humans. In this study 172 equids, living in 12 riding centres, were submitted to a standardised human-horse relationship test: the motionless person test. Age, sex, type (horse/pony), housing, and feeding conditions of subjects were recorded. Overall, 17 equids worked in EAI, 95 in riding school lessons (RS), and 60 in both (EAI-RS). There were high inter-individual variations in the number of interactive behaviours directed towards the experimenter: negative binomial general linear models showed t...
Hitchens PL, Hultgren J, Frössling J, Emanuelson U, Keeling LJ.There are Swedish animal welfare regulations concerning the body condition of horses and general advice on keeping horses including that horses should be fed so that they do not become over- or underweight relative to their use. Compliance is assessed by official animal welfare inspectors. The objective of this study was to determine whether the national animal welfare control database could be used to estimate the prevalence and risk factors for overweight horses in Sweden. The official animal welfare control checklist for horses contains 45 checkpoints (CP) of which CP-8 pertains to the acce...
Yngvesson J, Rey Torres JC, Lindholm J, Pättiniemi A, Andersson P, Sassner H.We compared welfare measures of horses among Swedish riding schools (RS) during winter where horses were kept either in group housing ( = 8) or in tie-stalls/boxes ( = 8), Health data for six previous months were obtained for all horses at each RS from their records. Ten horses per RS were examined, with the exception of one where only 8 horses were examined. Health conditions and body condition score (BCS) using the Henneke scale were recorded and management factors were quantified (health check routines, feeding, housing-related risk factors, time outside). RS-recorded health data (for 327 h...
Pickrell J.Indoor atmospheres in swine or poultry confinement buildings, horse stalls or human dwellings contain gases, dusts and endotoxin in concentrations significantly in excess of those in outdoor environments. Although concentrations of such constituents differ appreciably between species, many of such differences may be related to differences in indoor mass loading and ventilation, or to the homogeneity of such ventilation. The high protein content of these indoor dust particles suggest they are of animal origin. Their ability to form bacterial colonies and to form or bind endotoxin suggest that t...
Fenner K, Dashper K, Serpell J, McLean A, Wilkins C, Klinck M, Wilson B, McGreevy P.The Equine Behaviour Assessment and Research Questionnaire (E-BARQ) is a questionnaire instrument developed to obtain quantitative data on the domestic equine triad of training, management, and behaviour of horses. The E-BARQ was developed to identify how changes in training and management impact behaviour over time, to define normal behaviour in horses, and to discover how to improve rider safety and horse welfare, leading to ethical equitation. During the development of the E-BARQ, we also investigated how best to motivate stakeholders to engage with this citizen science project. The pilot v...
