«The goal of this study is to create a preliminary list of behaviors that occur exclusively between horse friends that indicate behavioral demonstrations of affection. Researchers used proximity indicators to identify bonded pairs and focused on coding behaviors that horses voluntarily expressed with their chosen friends and not with other mares.»

«Taken together, the results from the present literature review show that, for adult horses, only the affiliative behaviour ‘voluntary social proximity’ could be a suitable indicator of positive welfare, regarding its validity and considering the aspects of reliability and feasibility. The prerequisites for its application are a precise definition of the behaviour and a standardised assessment protocol.»