“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.”

«Human–horse relationships can be experienced in many ways and the horse companion can be given various roles, from a partner in action to a tool or commodity. How humans experience connection with horses and what kinds of roles are assigned to them may reflect or even depend on the real-life co-actions and environments. In this study, we assessed experiences of intersubjectivity in human–horse relationships, focusing particularly on whether and how agency and emotional and embodied intersubjectivity with the horse were discussed by horse owners.»

«In this article, we have reviewed the literature on welfare, choice, and control, and discussed the ways in which these topics intersect. The majority of research has investigated the role of control on psychological wellbeing via stimulation management. However, we also know that making choices is a means by which to exercise control, and that studies on choice behavior have indicated that making choices can have a direct positive impact on welfare. «

«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.»

«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.»

«Nasal and mandibular pressures increased with noseband tightness, with 1.0 finger laxity or less associated with significantly and incrementally higher pressures than 1.5 or 2.0 finger tightness.»

!The article reports a meta-analysis of 58 peer-reviewed studies investigating on dorsoventral hyperflexion of the neck in horses, a practice under substantial public and scientific scrutiny for the past two decades.[…] (1) The consensus is that there are negative welfare consequences for horses required to perform with a hyperflexed HNP.»

«This ethogram introduces standardised definitions for equine social behaviours, complemented by videos as a foundation for future studies. Clear definitions are necessary to facilitate the comparison of data across studies and evidence-based optimisation of equine husbandry conditions and welfare.»

«Findings indicate that while enthusiasts are aware of and acknowledge the need for good welfare practices, several factors hinder application: financial constraints, lack of physical space, insufficient skilled labor, time limitations, inadequate resources or materials, and a lack of technical knowledge. Most strikingly, despite acknowledging the need for improvement and professing love for their horses, participants did not recognize that the conditions under which they keep or use horses often fall short of their own standards. They attributed the inability to make changes not to themselves but to external circumstances beyond their control. These results pave the way for further research to determine whether equestrian activities are based on a respectful relationship with horses or if belonging to the equestrian world takes precedence, even at the expense of equine welfare.»

«Horses are highly social animals that preferably live in stable social groups and form long-term affiliative bonds. However, although their need for social interaction has not changed with domestication, domestic horses are often housed in individual stables with limited social contact with other horses or in group housing with regular changes in their group composition. Thus, this review aims to provide an overview of social ethograms to facilitate the inclusion of social behaviour in equine welfare assessment.»

«Box rest is inevitably stressful for the horse and usually also the owner, yet we often underestimate both. Careful consideration should be given to how we can improve the horse’s welfare under these challenging conditions. Involving the owner in decision making, discussing a range of potential options and the feasibility of each option in their individual circumstances maximises the likelihood of success.»

«This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of conflict behaviour in Icelandic horses competing at elite level in breed-specific gait competitions. We used online video recordings from a competition in Iceland […]We conclude that mouth movements (mouth opening and an elongated upper lip) are common behavioural expressions in Icelandic horses competing at elite level. Further studies are required to reveal the significance of these behaviours in terms of horse welfare.»

«This study, based on horses, contributes to the general debate on the place of attentional processes at the interface of emotion and cognition and opens new lines of thought about individual sensitivities (only individuals can tell what an appropriate reward is), attentional processes and learning.»

«Working conditions may influence attention characteristics indirectly through welfare, or directly through selection and training. Our study opens new lines of thought on the determinants of animal cognition and its plasticity and constitutes a further step towards understanding the interrelationship between working conditions and cognition.»

«The present review examines existing protocols for assessing horse welfare at the farm level.»

«We propose new methods for assessing the relationship between welfare and cognition and open up the discussion on the evolution of the brain and the part domestication may have played.»

«Re-thinking weaning practices in the domestic situation is crucial for obvious welfare reasons in both the short and long term.»

«Simply caring for animals is becoming not enough. Horses with altered welfare are more prone to negatively perceive situations, which is a feature of utmost importance for the safety and health of themselves and the people around them. To date, limited research has explored the impacts of handling and human interactions on horses’ health and welfare, focusing mostly on the removal of emotionality. Nevertheless, it is highly recommended that research about handling procedures that promote positive horse–human relationships include the assessment of positive emotions, together with the positive perceptions of animals about their environment and the people around them. Welfare commitment is needed, in order to define the more favorable situations for animals and to promote the best practices. Finally, while raising, handling, training, or preparing horses, we need to understand the way they perceive their environment, the way human actions are assessed, and that these perceptions are different from ours. The present study shows that for horses, a lack of choice about their surroundings is perceived as stressful and greatly affects their mental state and quality of life.»

«The aim of this study was to analyze the utilization of different stable areas of a total of 52 group-housed horses as well as their preferred stable parts and the use of resources. The study was situated in a “HIT Active Stable®” in Northern Germany for a period of 227 observation days.»

«Horses tended to have their nasal plane (noseline) behind the vertical more often during warm-up than during competition. Poll angle was larger during competition than during warm-up, while there was no significant difference in shoulder angle between the two situations. Horses displayed more conflict behavior and unusual oral behavior during warm-up than during competition. Judges’ scores correlated with HNPs during competition. Horses with noselines held further behind the vertical tended to receive higher scores.[…]The result implies that there might be concerns related to animal welfare and rule compliance. The observed HNPs used by world-class riders in this study appear to contradict the established rules, yet these deviations are not penalised by the judges during competitions.»

“Sport horses often are shod with shoes made of iron, which is a good conductor. Thus. it is expected that the conduction of heat between the hooves and the ground is larger in shod hooves […] Horses with iron shoes had a significantly lower surface temperature on their hind hooves (14.3 ±1.4 C) compared to horses without shoes (20.0 ±2.0 C) (F2,4 ¼ 9.4; P ¼ 0.031). The surface temperature of front hooves showed the same trend, but the difference was not significant (shod horses: 14.7 ±4.4 C vs. unshod horses: 20.1 ±1.9 C.”

“Our results demonstrated a 36.3% decrease of heel expansion when a conventional shoe is used compared with the barefoot situation, which is similar to restrictions reported in other studies (Dyhre-Poulsen et al.,1994; Roepstorff et al., 2001; Yoshihara et al., 2010). It is reasonable to assume that this amount of restriction in heel movement observed with conventional shoeing techniques may affect hoof geometry and even orthopaedic health of the horse (Hinterhofer et al., 2001; Roepstorff et al., 2001).”

“An increase in stride length at the walk and trot was observed in shod horses, and this increased stride length could contribute to joint and tendon strain of the forelimb during locomotion. The reduction in the thickness of the digital cushion in shod horses could potentially alter the ability of the hoof to absorb ground concussion and disperse the weight of the horse, and the increase in joint circumference of shod horses indicates joint inflammation, which leads to swelling and potential lameness over time. This increase in joint swelling may be caused by the reduction of digital cushion involvement in the hoof. Therefore, the increase in blood flow, greater digital cushion depth, and shorter stride lengths in barefoot horses may indicate barefoot trimming as a healthier alternative to traditional methods.

«This biophysical modelling study used a finite deformation elasticity model with anisotropic and heterogeneous material relations to show that capsule deflections and the energy stored in the capsule may be amplified by increasing hoof horn moisture content. The sensitivity of the model to variations in material parameters, which were estimated due to unavailability of data, was minor when compared to the overall model response. The ability to manipulate the energy stored by the hoof during locomotion may be useful for modifying impact energy transmission in the limb. However it remains for future work to determine optimal hydration levels for horses engaged in specific athletic activities.”

“This study indicates that raising the heels may increase the load on the dorsal laminar junction and vice versa. Therefore, hoofcare interventions that raise the hoof angle may not achieve the desired intention of reducing the load in the dorsal lamellae.”

«The review provides an overview of the current literature concerning the use of horses in equine-assisted services (EAS) and of their effects on humans, and it focuses on their effects on horses.»

«This study provides the first evidence that ponies can distinguish among human facial expressions presented by live humans. Angry faces resulted in activation of the right hemisphere as ponies viewed the human first, more often and longer with their left eye.»

“The objective of this literature review is to explore aspects of the relationship between humans and horses to better understand the horse’s umwelt and thereby shed new light on potential positive approaches to enhance equine welfare with humans.”

«This study looked at how horses perceive human interaction as a form of positive reward by examining whether scratching and patting can serve as a reward for a behavior and how this compares to known rewards (treats) based on horses’ ability to use symbols to show preferences.[…] …, all horses in this study showed preference for treats over human contact, regardless of handling or training histories.»

«In the present study, we tested whether horses could associate individual human voices with past positive or negative experiences. Both behavioural and electroencephalographic measures allowed examining laterality patterns in addition to the behavioural reactions. The results show that horses reacted to voices associated with past positive experiences with increased attention/ arousal (gamma oscillations in the right hemisphere) and indicators of a positive emotional state (left hemisphere activation and ears held forward), and to those associated with past negative experiences with negative afective states (right hemisphere activation and ears held backwards).»

“The results revealed that human emotional cues influenced the frequency of gaze following and the amount of time that horses looked at humans. Horses avoided following the human gaze and looked in their direction for a shorter period of time when humans displayed expressions of disgust. These findings support our hypothesis that horses exhibit sensitivity to negative human emotional cues.”

«This study presents the first evidence of horses’ abilities to spontaneously discriminate between positive (happy) and negative (angry) human facial expressions in photographs.»

«The association of a reward with a learning task in an interactional context induced positive reactions towards humans during training. It also increased contact and interest, not only just after training, but also several months later, despite no further interaction with humans. In addition, this ‘positive memory’ of humans extended to novel persons.»

«The results showed that the type of reinforcement had a major effect on the subsequent animals’ perception of familiar and unfamiliar humans. Negative reinforcement was rapidly associated with an increased emotional state, as revealed by heart rate measurements and behavioural observations (head movements and ears laid back position). Its use led the ponies to seek less contact with humans. On the contrary, ponies trained with positive reinforcement showed an increased interest in humans and sought contact after training.»

«These results support our hypothesis that perception of humans by horses may be based on experience, i.e. repeated interactions. Altogether, our results support the hypothesis that horses can form a memory of humans that impacts their reactions in subsequent interactions.»

«Heart rate (HR) is considered to be an effective tool for assessing animals’ emotional response to a stimulus. We investigated changes in HR during a series of handling procedures (grooming test) in horses that had different experiences of human interaction.»

«Observations in their box of 76 horses all living in the same conditions, belonging to one breed and one sex, revealed that the prevalence and types of stereotypies performed strongly depended upon the type of work they were used for. The stereotypies observed involved mostly mouth movements and head tossing/nodding. Work constraints probably added to unfavourable living conditions, favouring the emergence of chronic abnormal behaviours. This is especially remarkable as the 23 hours spent in the box were influenced by the one hour work performed every day. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of potential effects of work stressors on the emergence of abnormal behaviours in an animal species. It raises an important line of thought on the chronic impact of the work situation on the daily life of individuals.»

«Horses chose the attentive person significantly more often using the body cue, head cue, and eye cue but not the mixed cue. This result suggests that domestic horses are highly sensitive to human attentional cues, including gaze.»

«Clear variations occurred between groups of horses that depended on different caretakers. In this school, one caretaker is responsible for the whole daily management of a group of horses and is probably a very important factor in their well-being. The effects of this daily relation to a human seemed to be involved in the reactions to a strange person. » hestehold oppstalling relasjon

«The Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram (RHpE) comprises 24 behviours, the majority of which are at least 10 times more likely to be seen in lame horses compared with non-lame horses.»

«The majority of owners were unaware that their horses showed behavioural abnormalities during tacking-up or mounting.»

«The display of many behaviours during tacking-up or mounting is likely to reflect lameness or tack-associated discomfort. Owners must be better educated to recognise these behaviours.»

“This study describes the facial expressions in healthy horses free of pain before and during transportation and social isolation, which are putatively stressful but ordinary management procedures.”

“The aim of this scoping review was to share efforts aimed at automating the process of recognizing and assessing pain, using the horse as a model agricultural species.”

«This research and clinical work included systematic evaluation of thousands of hours of video-recordings, including many hundreds of normal, healthy horses, as well as hospitalized patients with various complaints and/or known medical, neurologic, or orthopedic conditions. Each of 73 ethogram entries is named, defined, and accompanied by a line drawing illustration. Links to online video recorded examples are provided, illustrating each behavior in one or more hospitalized equine patients.”

«There was no direct relationship between rider skill level and the RHpE score, but riders did alter the manifestations of some behaviours.»

“Reliability of facial expression items was lower than reliability of behavioral items. These findings suggest that five body behaviors (posture, head position, location in the box stall, focus, and interactive behavior) should be included in a scale for live assessment of mild orthopedic pain. We also recommend inclusion of facial expressions in pain assessment.”

“We exposed 33 horses to stressful situations such as separation from herdmates, denied access to feed and sudden introduction of a novel object, and determined that full and half eye blinks decrease in these situations. Feed restriction was the most stressful for the horse as indicated by increased heart rate, restless behaviour and high head position.”

“In accordance with the findings in other types of equine pain, the CPS and FAP proved useful and valid for objective and repeatable assessment of pain in horses with orthopaedic trauma or after orthopaedic surgery. This can further aid treatment of horses in clinical practice and might improve equine welfare”

“While equine pain detection in machine learning is a novel field, our results surpass veterinary expert performance and outperform pain detection results reported for other larger non-human species.”

“This study assessed the application of a modified equine composite pain scale (CPS) and identified the inter-observer reliability. Associations between CPS scores and the measured concentrations of serum cortisol ([cortisol]) and plasma adrenocorticotrophic hormone ([ACTH]) in horses presenting with colic were determined.”

“Currently, composite pain scales and facial expression-based pain scales seem to be the most promising tools for pain assessment in horses and numerous studies have recently been published on the use of these pain scales in horses. Therefore, this narrative review mainly focuses on these two types of pain scales and on the studies that have appeared describing these type of pain scales in horses. ”

«This study validates a recently described pain scale, the Equine Utrecht University scale for facial assessment of pain (EQUUS-FAP), in horses with acute or postoperative pain originating from the head, including dental pain, ocular pain, or trauma to the skull.»

“This paper reviews the existing knowledge base regarding the identification and quantification of pain in horses. Behavioural indicators of pain in horses in the context of normal equine behaviour, as well as various physiological parameters potentially useful for pain evaluation, are discussed.”

“This study describes scale construction and clinical applicability of the Equine Utrecht University Scale for Composite Pain Assessment (EQUUS-COMPASS) and the Equine Utrecht University Scale for Facial Assessment of Pain (EQUUS-FAP) in horses with acute colic.”

“This narrative review describes parameters that can be used to detect pain in horses, provides an overview of the various pain scales developed (visual analogue scales, simple descriptive scales, numerical rating scales, time budget analysis, composite pain scales and grimace scales), and highlights their strengths and weaknesses for potential clinical implementation.”

“The assessment of pain is critical for the welfare of horses, in particular when pain is induced by common management procedures such as castration. Existing pain assessment methods have several limitations, which reduce the applicability in everyday life. Assessment of facial expression changes, as a novel means of pain scoring, may offer numerous advantages and overcome some of these limitations. The objective of this study was to develop and validate a standardised pain scale based on facial expressions in horses (Horse Grimace Scale [HGS]).”

“An equine pain face comprising ‘low’ and/or ‘asymmetrical’ ears, an angled appearance of the eyes, a withdrawn and/or tense stare, mediolaterally dilated nostrils and tension of the lips, chin and certain facial muscles expressions can be recognized in horses during induced acute pain. This description of an equine pain face may be useful for improving tools for pain recognition in horses with mild to moderate pain.”

“In the present study, consistent improvements in welfare indicators were observed when horses ate roughage through the hay bag.”