RAiSE (recognizing affective state in equine) and the assessment of equine affective state: Accuracy and application.

Overview

• This study evaluates the effectiveness of an online course called Recognizing Affective States in Equine (RAiSE) in improving participants’ ability to assess the emotional states of horses and to apply this knowledge in horse management.

Introduction

• Understanding the affective state (AS), or emotional condition, of animals is crucial for assessing their well-being.
• Horse owners often recognize the importance of interpreting horses’ emotions but frequently lack the skill to do so accurately.
• The RAiSE course was developed to help individuals improve their skills in identifying equine affective states and encourage its use in everyday interactions with horses.

Objective

• To evaluate whether the RAiSE online course improves participants’ accuracy in recognizing affective states in horses.
• To determine if the course encourages participants to use affective state assessments in their horse management practices.

Methods

• Participants completed surveys before (PRE), immediately after (POST), and 90 days following the course (90POST).
• Surveys involved identifying affective states in 20 videos showcasing horse behavior.
• Participants’ accuracy was assessed in three areas:
  • Overall Accuracy (OA): Total correctness in identifying affective states.
  • Valence (V): Ability to identify whether the emotion was positive or negative.
  • Arousal (A): Ability to identify the intensity or activation level of the emotion.
• Self-reported use of affective state assessments in horse interactions was also measured.

Results

• The study involved 73 participants, mostly female (86.8%) with an average age of about 53 years.
• Overall Accuracy (OA) significantly improved from a mean score of 12.8 (out of 20) before the course to 14.4 immediately after the course (p = 0.002).
• Valence accuracy showed significant improvement, from 15.4 to 17.1 (p = 0.001), indicating better recognition of whether the horse’s emotional state was positive or negative.
• Arousal accuracy showed minimal change, from 15.8 to 16.5, indicating less improvement in recognizing the intensity of the affective state.
• At 90 days post-course, 87.5% of participants expressed intention to apply affective state assessments in their horse management, and 74.1% reported already doing so.

Conclusions

• The RAiSE online course effectively improves the ability of participants to recognize emotional states in horses, particularly in correctly identifying the emotional valence.
• The course also encourages long-term behavioral changes, leading participants to incorporate assessment of equine emotions in horse care and management.
• This highlights the course’s potential as a practical tool to enhance equine welfare by fostering better human understanding of horse emotions.

Implications

• Improved emotional recognition can lead to better management decisions, potentially reducing stress and improving welfare of horses.
• Online education provides accessible means for horse owners and caretakers to develop important welfare-related skills.
• Future courses could explore methods to improve recognition of arousal levels, an area that showed less improvement in this study.