Forage, freedom of movement, and social interactions remain essential fundamentals for the welfare of high-level sport horses
“These results undeniably support the fact that unrestricted access to forage, the ability to move freely outdoors, and the opportunity to interact socially with conspecifics are fundamental needs of horses that could be provided to horses, also to high-performance ones. It is therefore essential that solutions are put in place to ensure that these conditions are met.”
Phelipon R, Hennes N, Ruet A, Bret-Morel A, Górecka-Bruzda A, Lansade L.
The impact of restricted grazing systems on the behaviour and welfare of ponies
«Ponies on strip systems moved less and exhibited increased agonistic interactions compared with the track system, maybe as a result of a perceived reduction in space or concentration of resources, although the accessible areas were matched. These results suggest that there may be physical as well as psychological health benefits to the track system.»
Kirton R, Sandford I, Raffan E, Hallsworth S, Burman OHP, Morgan R.
Which affiliative behaviour can be used as a valid, reliable and feasible indicator of positive welfare in horse husbandry?
«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.»
Margit H. Zeitler-Feicht, Elke Hartmann, Michael H. Erhard, Miriam Baumgartner
Activity Time Budgets—A Potential Tool to Monitor Equine Welfare?
“Activity time budgets allow an objective, quantitative on-farm welfare assessment and comparison of different management, feeding, and housing systems. In addition, changes in time budgets can be used to identify painful conditions and monitor the success of management interventions to improve equine welfare.”
“This meta-analysis of the literature confirms that it is justified to claim that social contact, free movement and access to roughage are basic needs in horses.”
Detecting Welfare in a Non-Verbal Species: Social/Cultural Biases and Difficulties in Horse Welfare Assessment
“First of all, as horses are non-verbal, current management practices rely upon what one thinks is good for them, which opens the way to subjective interpretations and projections, based on one’s own subjective experience but probably still more on cultural/social norms and influences, traditions and beliefs. The lack of recognition, identification, or even the misinterpretation of signals are other potential reasons for welfare issues. Lastly, the over-exposure to animals with expressions of compromised welfare may lead to lower sensitivity of owners/professionals. That is why we lastly suggest that instead of simply providing information on what to do, we should promote validated visible indicators that leave less room for personal interpretation.”
Using the Five Domains Model to develop welfare assessment guidelines for Thoroughbred horses in New Zealand
“This review outlines the processes followed by New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) when developing its Thoroughbred Welfare Assessment Guidelines. It accepted that guidance on welfare management must be based on up-to-date knowledge of how animal welfare is understood scientifically.”
The 2020 Five Domains Model: Including Human–Animal Interactions in Assessments of Animal Welfare
“This review outlines the latest in a succession of updates of the Five Domains Model, which, at each stage, incorporated contemporary verified scientific thinking of relevance to animal welfare assessment. The current update includes, within the structure of the Model, specific guidance on how to evaluate the negative and/or positive impacts of human behaviour on animal welfare.”
Mellor DJ, Beausoleil NJ, Littlewood KE, McLean AN, McGreevy PD, Jones B, Wilkins C.
Indicators of Horse Welfare: State-of-the-Art. Animals
“The aim of this review is to disentangle welfare parameters and to differentiate reliable animal‐based indicators of horses’ welfare from potential signals of acute sickness, discomfort, temporary states of pain, stress or emotion that are not based on popular beliefs in order to provide the equine industry with appropriate guidelines and recommendations.”
A Ten-Stage Protocol for Assessing the Welfare of Individual Non-Captive Wild Animals: Free-Roaming Horses (Equus Ferus Caballus) as an Example
“The ten-stage protocol described here illustrates how the well-established Five Domains Model can be systematically applied to assess the welfare of individual free-roaming wild animals. This paper therefore forms a template for making such welfare assessments in free-roaming wild terrestrial species by applying the principles outlined here.”
Using the Five Domains Model to Assess the Adverse Impacts of Husbandry, Veterinary, and Equitation Interventions on Horse Welfare
“The aim of this study was to conduct a series of paper-based exercises in order to assess the negative (adverse) welfare impacts, if any, of common interventions on domestic horses across a broad range of different contexts of equine care and training.”
McGreevy P, Berger J, de Brauwere N, Doherty O, Harrison A, Fiedler J, Jones C, McDonnell S, McLean A, Nakonechny L, Nicol C, Preshaw L, Thomson P, Tzioumis V, Webster J, Wolfensohn S, Yeates J, Jones B.
