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.
Hewson CJ, Dohoo IR, Lemke KA, Barkema HW.Anecdotal evidence suggests that many veterinarians may not use analgesics in livestock for routine surgical procedures or painful disease states. To investigate this, we conducted a national mail survey of a random sample of 1431 Canadian veterinarians (response rate, 50.1%). Questions primarily concerned veterinarians' analgesic usage for common surgeries and medical conditions in beef and dairy cattle, pigs, and horses, and attitudes toward pain management. More than 90% of veterinarians used analgesic drugs for equine surgeries, for cesarean section in sows and cows, and for bovine claw am...
Green RD, Qureshi MA, Long JA, Burfening PJ, Hamernik DL.Agricultural animal research has been immensely successful over the past century in developing technology and methodologies that have dramatically enhanced production efficiency of the beef, dairy, swine, poultry, sheep, and aquaculture industries. In the past two decades, molecular biology has changed the face of agricultural animal research, primarily in the arena of genomics and the relatively new offshoot areas of functional genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics and metagenomics. Publication of genetic and physical genome maps in the past 15 years has given rise to the possib...
von Borell E, Langbein J, Després G, Hansen S, Leterrier C, Marchant J, Marchant-Forde R, Minero M, Mohr E, Prunier A, Valance D, Veissier I.Measurement of heart rate variability (HRV) is a non-invasive technique that can be used to investigate the functioning of the autonomic nervous system, especially the balance between sympathetic and vagal activity. It has been proven to be very useful in humans for both research and clinical studies concerned with cardiovascular diseases, diabetic autonomic dysfunction, hypertension and psychiatric and psychological disorders. Over the past decade, HRV has been used increasingly in animal research to analyse changes in sympathovagal balance related to diseases, psychological and environmental...
McGreevy PD.The lengthy association of humans with horses has established traditional equestrian techniques that have served military and transport needs well. Although effective, these techniques have by-passed the research findings of modern psychologists, who developed the fundamentals of learning theory. That said, the pools of equestrian debate are far from stagnant. The latest wave of horse whisperers has offered some refinements and some novel interpretations of the motivation of horses undergoing training. Additionally, the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) has introduced the concept of t...
Pritchard JC, Barr AR, Whay HR.Dehydration and heat stress are serious welfare issues for equids working in developing countries. There is a lack of any standardised method or validated interpretation of the skin tent test in horses and donkeys. Owners of dehydrated and heat-stressed animals often depend on veterinary examination for identification of these conditions, leading to delays in treatment and unnecessary reliance on external sources to effect welfare improvement. Objective: To validate a standardised skin tent test for dehydration and a behavioural measure of heat stress in working equids; and to examine the effe...
Sherman RA, Morrison S, Ng D.Hoof disease and injuries are common and serious problems for equines. Maggot debridement therapy (MDT) has been used to treat problematic wounds in humans, but has been used only rarely in other animals. US veterinarians who had employed MDT were surveyed to investigate their reasons for the choice of this treatment and their clinical experiences with it. Between 1997 and 2003, 13 horses were treated by eight veterinarians who used MDT to control infection or debride wounds, which could not easily be reached surgically or were not responding to conventional therapy. Seven animals were lame, a...
The Journal of nutritionJune 15, 2006
Volume 136, Issue 7 Suppl 2114S-2121S doi: 10.1093/jn/136.7.2114S
Harris P, Bailey SR, Elliott J, Longland A.Laminitis occurs throughout the world in horses and ponies and has major welfare implications. It is obviously important to be able to recognize and treat the condition in its early stages so that pain and suffering are kept to a minimum. However, ideally it would be preferred to be able to recommend certain interventions/countermeasures that avoid or prevent the condition from occurring in the first place. Because pasture-associated laminitis occurs with grass consumption, one obvious way to avoid the condition is to prevent access to pasture and to feed forage alternatives that are known to ...
Hartung J.There is public discussion of the new E.U. Animal Transport Regulation No 1/2005 of Dec. 2004 and its advantages and draw-backs. This Regulation is no longer a Directive, so that it is directly applicable in the Members States. Although the Regulation is recognised to have great potential to improve welfare and health of transported animals, it will also increase administrative work. Most improvements will come through better education and the increased responsibilities of animal attendants, drivers, keepers and transport organisers, and through the stricter control mechanisms (log book, train...
van Breda E.This study measured parameters of stress in recreational, trained horses (REC; n = 7) and elite (International Grand Prix level) trained, dressage horses (DRES; n = 5). The training of the DRES horses uses an unnatural head-neck position (Rollkur), whereas in the REC horses such training techniques are not common. The study measured stress by using heart rate variability analysis for 30 min postfeeding in the morning and 30 min postexercise after a morning training session. The study found no significant difference at rest between the REC and DRES horses. During the posttraining measurements, ...
Christie JL, Hewson CJ, Riley CB, McNiven MA, Dohoo IR, Bate LA.In North America, there are few representative data about the effects of management practices on equine welfare. In a randomized survey of 312 nonracing horses in Prince Edward Island (response rate 68.4%), owners completed a pretested questionnaire and a veterinarian examined each horse. Regression analyses identified factors affecting 2 welfare markers: body condition score (BCS) and stereotypic behavior. Horses' BCSs were high (mean 5.7, on a 9-point scale) and were associated with sex (males had lower BCSs than females; P < 0.001) and examination date (P = 0.052). Prevalences of crib bi...
Murray JK, Singer ER, Morgan KL, Proudman CJ, French NP.Fatalities resulting from horse falls occurring during the cross-country phase of eventing competitions initiated epidemiological investigation of the risk factors associated with horse falls. Objective: To identify variables that increased or decreased the risk of a horse fall during the cross-country phase of an eventing competition. Methods: Data were collected from randomly selected British Eventing competitions held in Great Britain during 2001 and 2002. Data were obtained for 173 cases (jumping efforts resulting in a fall of the horse-and-rider partnership) and 503 matched controls (jump...
Sloet van Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaan MM, Blok MB, Begeman L, Kamphuis MC, Lameris MC, Spierenburg AJ, Lashley MJ.'Rollkur' or 'overbending' is the low and deep riding of a dressage horse during training or warming up. Lately, this technique has been criticized, and not necessarily objectively, on welfare grounds. To be able to evaluate these criticisms, more needs to be known about the workload and stress of horses being ridden 'rollkur'. The aim of the present study was to compare the workload of eight riding-school horses when being ridden deep and round with a draw rein ('rollkur') and when being ridden in a natural frame with only light rein contact ('free'). Workload (as measured by heart rate and b...
Kaiser L, Heleski CR, Siegford J, Smith KA.To determine whether therapeutic riding resulted in higher levels of stress or frustration for horses than did recreational riding and whether therapeutic riding with at-risk individuals was more stressful for the horses than was therapeutic riding with individuals with physical or emotional handicaps. Methods: Observational study. Methods: 14 horses in a therapeutic riding program. Methods: An ethogram of equine behaviors was created, and horses were observed while ridden by 5 groups of riders (recreational riders, physically handicapped riders, psychologically handicapped riders, at risk chi...
Rahman SA, Walker L, Ricketts W.In Asia and the Far East, livestock undergo major suffering due to malnutrition, overloading, and ill-treatment. At slaughter animals are handled roughly and watch other animals being killed; stunning is not practised. Cruelty to other animals such as elephants, horses, donkeys, bears, dogs, and circus animals has largely been prevented through the efforts of animal welfare organisations. Governments have taken initiatives to establish Animal Welfare Boards and enact laws for the prevention of cruelty to animals, but their efforts are far too limited to be of any significance and financial con...
Mejdell CM, Simensen E, Bøe KE.Due to extreme weather conditions, a flock of outwintered Icelandic horses had to manage for several days on snow as the source of free water. They were fed grass silage ad lib, and any change in feed consumption was not observed. After nine days, blood samples were taken and analysed for plasma osmolality, they were subjected to a simple clinical examination, and offered drinking water. Osmolality levels were within normal limits and mean value did not differ significantly from samples which previously were taken of the same individuals. The general condition of the horses was normal, with no...
Merridale-Punter MS, Wiethoelter AK, El-Hage CM, Hitchens PL.Lameness is an important concern in working equids of low- and middle-income communities (LMICs) with significant One Welfare implications. This study aims to determine the prevalence and influencing factors of lameness in working equids of LMICs. A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to investigate pooled outcome prevalence using a random intercept regression model. Subgroup and sensitivity analysis were performed through meta-regression. A meta-analysis of study factors for lameness prevalence was performed. Sixty-four studies were included in the review. The pooled prevalence...
Erickson HH, Kitchell RL.In the last 2 decades there have been substantial advances in our knowledge of the scientific basis of the mechanisms of pain. Nociceptors or pain receptors are widespread in the skin and tissues of animals; chemical mediation of nociceptor excitation may provide a key for understanding the peripheral phenomena related to pain. The expression of pain in animals involves multiple ascending and descending branches, as well as specialized pain-signaling mechanisms in the spinal cord. The importance of these different pathways varies with species and circumstances. Endogenous neural systems in the...
Ungemach FR.Doping in performance horses is defined as the "illegal application of any substance, except normal diet, that might modify the natural and present capacities of the horse at the time of the race." The prohibition of doping is mainly based on the protection of animals. Doping can be performed with various aims: "doping to win" can be regarded as the classical method by mobilization of overphysiological capacities. Such positive doping may be classified as an acute form using psychomotoric stimulants, as a chronic form using anabolic hormones, and as a paradoxical form using small doses of neur...
Kloock T, Pickles KJ, Roberts V, Uhlendorf F, Twele L, Wilkens HL, Stehle E, Feige K, Niebuhr T.In horses with trigeminal-mediated headshaking (TMHS), clinical signs are likely to be expression of neuropathic facial pain. Currently, subjective assessment of disease severity is used as measure of compromise of animal's welfare. Objective: To develop and validate a precise scoring system for TMHS: History, Rest and Exercise Score (HRE-S). The HRE-S consists of three subscores: history score (H-S), resting score (R-S) and exercise score (E-S). Methods: Retrospective observational study. Methods: Seven masked observers with different experience used HRE-S to score 40 video recordings taken d...
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...
Kampmann S, Hampson BA, Pollitt CC.Recent record rainfall in much of semi-arid Central Australia is the most likely reason for a feral horse population increase in excess of normal. Uncontrolled numbers of feral horses have habitat degradation and animal welfare implications. Objective: The aims of this study were to investigate the social structure of feral horses and assess their population growth rate following unseasonably high rainfall. Methods: The study area was 4000 km(2) of unmanaged, semi-arid country in Central Australia (latitude 24.50°S, longitude 132.10°E). Horses were identified by descriptive features from g...
Holcomb KE, Stull CL, Kass PH.Nonprofit equine rescue organizations in the United States provide care for relinquished horses and may offer adoption programs. With an estimated 100,000 "unwanted" horses per year and few municipal shelters providing wholesale euthanasia, there is a need to minimize the number of unwanted horses and maximize their successful transition to new caregivers. This study's objectives were to characterize the relinquishing and adoptive owners interacting with nonprofit rescue organizations. Nonprofit organizations (n = 144) in 37 states provided information by survey on 280 horses relinquished betw...
Legg KA, Weston JF, Gee EK, Bolwell CF, Bridges JP, Rogers CW.The welfare of horses in endurance competitions has been the focus of recent media attention. Epidemiological studies have examined the sport at the international (FEI) level. However, much of the participation in the sport occurs at a national level in preparation for FEI level competition. The aims of this study were to describe participation in, and risk factors for elimination, from New Zealand endurance competitions. Data were collated from all endurance competitions (≥40 km) held in New Zealand during the 2010/11-2015/16 competition seasons. There were 6885 starts (n = 775 horses, n = ...
Henriksson J, Sauveroche M, Roth LSV.Due to our long history of living in close association with horses, these animals are suggested to have enhanced skills in understanding and communicating with humans. Today, horses have become important to humans for sport and leisure and their understanding of human behaviour and their human-directed behaviour are therefore of great importance. In this study, we investigated 22 horses in a human contact-seeking experiment where they were presented with an unsolvable problem and a detour experiment with a human demonstrator. The unsolvable problem consisted of pieces of carrot in a closed buc...
Panagiotopoulou O, Rankin JW, Gatesy SM, Hutchinson JR.Horse racing is a multi-billion-dollar industry that has raised welfare concerns due to injured and euthanized animals. Whilst the cause of musculoskeletal injuries that lead to horse morbidity and mortality is multifactorial, pre-existing pathologies, increased speeds and substrate of the racecourse are likely contributors to foot disease. Horse hooves have the ability to naturally deform during locomotion and dissipate locomotor stresses, yet farriery approaches are utilised to increase performance and protect hooves from wear. Previous studies have assessed the effect of different shoe desi...
Starling M, McLean A, McGreevy P.Equitation science is an evidence-based approach to horse training and riding that focuses on a thorough understanding of both equine ethology and learning theory. This combination leads to more effective horse training, but also plays a role in keeping horse riders and trainers safe around horses. Equitation science underpins ethical equitation, and recognises the limits of the horse's cognitive and physical abilities. Equitation is an ancient practice that has benefited from a rich tradition that sees it flourishing in contemporary sporting pursuits. Despite its history, horse-riding is an a...
Dyson S, Pollard D.The Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram (RHpE) comprising 24 behaviours was developed to facilitate the identification of musculoskeletal discomfort, with scores of ≥8/24 indicating the presence of pain. The median RHpE score for 147 competitors at World Cup Grand Prix events from 2018 to 2020 was three (interquartile range [IQR] 1-4; range 0-7). The aim of the current study was to apply the RHpE to 38 competitors at the Hickstead-Rotterdam Grand Prix Challenge and 26 competitors at the British Dressage Grand Prix National Championship in 2020. The median RHpE scores were four (IQR 3-6; range 0-8) an...
Dittmann MT, Latif SN, Hefti R, Hartnack S, Hungerbühler V, Weishaupt MA.The use of horses in competitive sports receives increasing criticism from the public, mainly due to the potential for injury. However, it is unclear if orthopedic and other health issues are more common in competition horses than those in leisure horses. The aim of this study was to assess husbandry, use, and orthopedic health in Swiss riding horses and to compare these aspects between horses owned by self-identified competitive riders (CR) and leisure riders (LR) in Switzerland. A total of 237 owners completed an online survey providing information on their athletic ambitions, their horse's ...
Schott HC, Estrada-Coates A, Alva-Trujillo M, Petersen AD, Kinsley MA, Esser MM, Casillas J, Garcia-Seco E, Madariaga-Najera M, Fernando Martínez JA....There is great need for veterinary care for working equids worldwide. Addressing this need provides an opportunity for veterinary students to gain primary care experience. An annual two week collaborative outreach and educational program with Michigan State University (MSU), the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and the Universidad Veracruzana (UV) was developed to provide care for working equids in rural Mexican communities. From 2017 to 2019 24 US veterinary students and 25 Mexican veterinary students, interns and residents examined, vaccinated and dewormed more than 2200 equi...
Coenen M.The control of husbandry by veterinarians with the prospect of animal welfare demands a valuation of the nutritional status of farm animals. The situation of main importance is a suspected undernutrition. A prolonged failure in nutrient and energy supply results in mobilisation of body fat as well as body protein. Especially the protein depletion includes a loss of capacity of several essential functions, e.g. of the immune system or the respiratory tract. Undernutrition is often classified as stress, but the typical parameters for stress related reactions offer no sufficient information to ev...
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...
Merlin A, Foucher N, Linster M, Cazeau G, Marsot M, Delerue M, Sala C, Schneider J, Ferry B, Amat JP, Tapprest J.There is limited evidence regarding the proportion of dead equids in France that were euthanized and the factors influencing the decision-making of euthanasia. The better understanding of which could facilitate research on improvement of welfare, especially on end of life issues. The aim of this study was to estimate the proportion of euthanasia and identify associated factors in equids in France. A web-based survey was created and distributed by the French horse and riding institute to owners who reported an equine death between April 2017 and April 2018 (n = 5 158). Factors associated with...
Pawluski J, Jego P, Henry S, Bruchet A, Palme R, Coste C, Hausberger M.The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response to chronic stress is far from straight forward, particularly with regards to animal welfare. There are reports of no effect as well as both decreases and increases in cortisol after chronic stressors. Therefore, the first aim of the present study was to determine how measures of compromised welfare, such as chronic pain and haematological anomalies, related to cortisol levels in domestic horses (Equus caballus). Domestic horses are an informative model to investigate the impact of chronic stress (due to environment, pain, work, housing con...
Sigurjónsdóttir H, Haraldsson H.We explore how herd composition and management factors correlate with frequencies of social interactions in horse groups. Since the welfare of horses correlates with low aggression levels and social contact opportunities, information of this kind is important. The data are a collection of records of social interactions of 426 Icelandic horses in 20 groups of at least eight horses. The complexities and limitations of the data prohibit useful statistical modelling so the results are presented descriptively. Interesting and informative patterns emerge which can be of use both in management and in...
Williams JM, Randle H, Marlin D.COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic on 11 March 2020; the United Kingdom (UK) implemented quarantine measures shortly afterward, resulting in rapid changes in how owners managed and interacted with their horses. This study provides a rapid analysis of the initial impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the management of UK leisure and competition horses. A 17 question online survey was distributed via equestrian social media sites to ascertain the impact of COVID-19 on horse and yard management and on human-horse interactions. Frequency analysis combined with Chi-squared and thematic analyses i...
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 ...
Burattini B, Fenner K, Anzulewicz A, Romness N, McKenzie J, Wilson B, McGreevy P.The broad traits of boldness and independence in domestic horses can affect their usefulness and, indirectly, their welfare. The objective of the current study was to explore associations between attributes that reflect equine boldness and independence with both the age of horses and the age at which they were started under saddle, as well as other variables including breed, colour and primary equestrian discipline. All data were sourced from responses (n = 1940) to the 97-question online Equine Behaviour Assessment and Research Questionnaire (E-BARQ). Twenty E-BARQ items from the dataset were...
Lindegaard C, Vaabengaard D, Christophersen MT, Ekstøm CT, Fjeldborg J.To compare effects of hot iron branding and microchip transponder injection regarding aversive behavioral reactions indicative of pain and inflammation in horses. Methods: 7 adult horses. Methods: In a randomized controlled clinical crossover study, behavioral reactions to hot iron branding and microchip transponder injection were scored by 4 observers. Local and systemic inflammation including allodynia were assessed and compared by use of physiologic and biochemical responses obtained repeatedly for the 168-hour study period. Serum cortisol concentration was measured repeatedly throughout th...
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...
Stull CL, Rodiek AV.Transportation stress has been implicated as a predisposing factor to respiratory disease in horses. Cross-tying horses individually in stalls is common practice for transporting show and racehorses, but horses also travel in small groups or individually without being restricted by tying. The objective of this study was to compare physiological responses of horses travelling cross-tied or loose during 24 h of road transport. Ten horses were used in a cross-over design consisting of two 4 day trials. In the first trial, 6 horses were cross-tied, while 2 pairs of horses were loose in enclosed co...
White J, Sims R.This paper explores the potential for interventions to develop pro-animal welfare habitual behaviours (PAWHBs) in people to improve the lives of animals. Human behavioural research indicates that opportunities exist to deliver lasting change through developing positive habitual behaviours. The routine nature of many equine care and management practices lends itself to habit formation and maintenance. This proof-of-concept paper aims to evaluate a theory-based intervention of developing and maintaining a PAWHB in people caring for equines. Qualitative research methods were used. A 30 day PAWHB ...
Brucks D, Härterich A, König von Borstel U.Self-control, defined as the ability to forgo immediate satisfaction in favor of better pay-offs in the future, has been extensively studied, revealing enormous variation between and within species. Horses are interesting in this regard because as a grazing species they are expected to show low self-control whereas its social complexity might be linked to high self-control abilities. Additionally, self-control may be a key factor in training and/or coping with potentially stressful husbandry conditions. We assessed horses' self-control abilities in a simplified delay of gratification test that...
Soiluva J, Häyrinen L, Gangini G, Öistämö R, Gracia-Calvo LA, Raekallio MR.Traditional visual lameness assessment is subjective. Ethograms have been developed for evaluating pain and objective sensors to detect lameness. Heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) have been used to evaluate stress and pain. The aim of our study was to compare subjective and behavioral lameness scores, a sensor system measuring movement asymmetry, HR, and HRV. We hypothesized that these measures would show related trends. In 30 horses, an inertial sensor system was used to measure movement asymmetries during trot in-hand. A horse was categorized as sound if each asymmetry was les...
Doherty O, Conway T, Conway R, Murray G, Casey V.Noseband tightness is difficult to assess in horses participating in equestrian sports such as dressage, show jumping and three-day-eventing. There is growing concern that nosebands are commonly tightened to such an extent as to restrict normal equine behaviour and possibly cause injury. In the absence of a clear agreed definition of noseband tightness, a simple model of the equine nose-noseband interface environment was developed in order to guide further studies in this area. The normal force component of the noseband tensile force was identified as the key contributor to sub-noseband tissue...
Hammer C, Gunkelman M.The objective of this study was to examine changes in surface temperature of blanketed horses during cold weather. Four mature stock-type horses were used in a 4 × 4 Latin square design. Treatments included 3 different blanket weights (based on g of fiberfill): light weight (LW; 0 g), medium weight (MW; 200 g), heavy weight (HW; 400 g), and a nonblanketed control (CON). Thermographic images were obtained from a standardized lumbar location before blanketing and immediately after cold exposure. During cold exposure, horses were outside with ad libitum access to grass hay and water for 1 h...
