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Animals : an open access journal from MDPI2020; 10(11); 1960; doi: 10.3390/ani10111960

The Development of a Novel Questionnaire Approach to the Investigation of Horse Training, Management, and Behaviour.

Abstract: 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 version of the E-BARQ collected qualitative data on respondents' experience of the questionnaire. The pilot questionnaire was developed with the assistance of an international panel (with professional expertise in horse training, equitation science, veterinary science, equestrian coaching, welfare, animal behaviour, and elite-level riding), and was used to collect data on 1320 horses from approximately 1194 owner/caregiver respondents, with an option for respondents to provide free-text feedback. A Rotated Principal Component Analysis of the 218 behavioural, management, and training questionnaire items extracted a total of 65 rotated components. Thirty-six of the 65 rotated components demonstrated high internal reliability. Of the 218 questionnaire items, 43 items failed to reach the Rotated Principal Component Analysis criteria and were not included in the final version of the E-BARQ. Survey items that failed the Rotated Principal Component Analysis inclusion criteria were discarded if found to have a less than 85% response rate, or a variance of less than 1.3. Of those that survived the Rotated Principal Component Analysis, items were further assigned to horse temperament (17 rotated components), equitation (11 rotated components), and management and equipment (8 rotated components) groups. The feedback from respondents indicated the need for further items to be added to the questionnaire, resulting in a total of 214 items for the final E-BARQ survey. Many of these items were further grouped into question matrices, and the demographic items for horse and handler included, giving a final total of 97 questions on the E-BARQ questionnaire. These results provided content validity, showing that the questionnaire items were an acceptable representation of the entire horse training, management, and behavioural domain for the development of the final E-BARQ questionnaire.
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Publication Date: 2020-10-24 PubMed ID: 33114408PubMed Central: PMC7693391DOI: 10.3390/ani10111960Google Scholar: Lookup
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Summary

This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.

The study proposes and validates the Equine Behaviour Assessment and Research Questionnaire (E-BARQ), a novel tool aimed at understanding and improving horse training, management and behavior. The questionnaire was refined through several stages, with the end goal of ameliorating horse welfare and ensuring ethical equitation.

Objective and Approach

  • The E-BARQ was designed to help researchers understand how different training methods and management changes affect horse behavior over time.
  • With the insights gathered, the ultimate goal was to improve rider safety and promote horse welfare, thereby paving the way for ethical equitation.
  • During the development of the E-BARQ, the research team also assessed strategies to incentivize stakeholders to participate in this citizen science project.

Data Collection and Analysis

  • Qualitative data were initially gathered via the pilot version of the E-BARQ, which was used to garner feedback on the questionnaire itself from around 1194 horse owners/caregivers.
  • This questionnaire, developed with the input of an international expert panel, gathered data on 1320 horses. Respondents could also provide additional feedback in a free-form text format.
  • Following this, a Rotated Principal Component Analysis was performed on the 218 original questions, yielding 65 key components.
  • Of these 65 rotated components, 36 showed high internal reliability. However, 43 items failed to meet the criteria for inclusion in the Rotated Principal Component Analysis and were thus excluded from the final version of the questionnaire.

Development of Final Questionnaire

  • Surviving questionnaire items were further divided into categories reflecting horse temperament, management and equipment, and equitation – with 17, 8, and 11 rotated components respectively.
  • Feedback from the pilot questionnaire indicated the need for additional items, resulting in the final E-BARQ containing a total of 214 items.
  • These items were grouped into question matrices. With the inclusion of demographic data for both the horse and its handler, the finalized questionnaire contained a total of 97 questions.
  • The final format of the questionnaire provided content validity, by adequately covering the full range of aspects related to horse training, management, and behavior – ultimately enabling the implementation of the finalized E-BARQ.

Cite This Article

APA
Fenner K, Dashper K, Serpell J, McLean A, Wilkins C, Klinck M, Wilson B, McGreevy P. (2020). The Development of a Novel Questionnaire Approach to the Investigation of Horse Training, Management, and Behaviour. Animals (Basel), 10(11), 1960. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10111960

Publication

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
ISSN: 2076-2615
NlmUniqueID: 101635614
Country: Switzerland
Language: English
Volume: 10
Issue: 11
PII: 1960

Researcher Affiliations

Fenner, Kate
  • Sydney School of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, Camperdown NSW 2006, Australia.
Dashper, Katherine
  • School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds LS1 3HE, UK.
Serpell, James
  • School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
McLean, Andrew
  • Equitation Science International, 3 Wonderland Ave, Tuerong, Victoria 3915, Australia.
Wilkins, Cristina
  • Saddletops Pty Ltd., Gatton, Queensland 4343, Australia.
Klinck, Mary
  • Dre Mary Klinck, m.v., consultante en comportement, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC H9X0A6, Canada.
Wilson, Bethany
  • Sydney School of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, Camperdown NSW 2006, Australia.
McGreevy, Paul
  • Sydney School of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, Camperdown NSW 2006, Australia.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Citations

This article has been cited 9 times.
  1. Yokomori T, Ohnuma A, Tozaki T, Segawa T, Itou T. Identification of Personality-Related Candidate Genes in Thoroughbred Racehorses Using a Bioinformatics-Based Approach Involving Functionally Annotated Human Genes. Animals (Basel) 2023 Feb 20;13(4).
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