On-Farm Welfare Assessment of Horses: The Risks of Putting the Cart before the Horse

Abstract

Although the question of animal welfare has been an important source of concern in the scientific community for several decades, many aspects are still under debate. On-farm assessments have to be rapid, acceptable to farmers and safe for both the assessors and animals. They are thus very demanding, with multiple decisions to make, such as the choice of appropriate indicators, sampling methods and scoring. Research has moved from resource-based to animal-based criteria, which reflects the subjective welfare state of an animal rather than relying upon external indices. In the present review, we describe two major (i.e., the most frequently/recently tested or disseminated) protocols: one in low-/middle-income countries, and the other in high-income countries, for on-farm assessments of horses, using animal-based resources; we evaluate their strengths and limitations, and then we compare their results with those obtained by various other studies. We propose lines of improvement, particularly in view of public dissemination, and offer suggestions for further refinement or new protocols. We emphasize the high risks of putting the cart before the horse, i.e., proposing protocols that rely upon indicators and sampling methods that need to be refined, as this could lead to under-evaluation (or less likely over-evaluation) of current welfare problems. Because welfare is a subjective experience, the true representation of an individual’s actual welfare status has to be evaluated by using objective assessment tools (that are validated and have a scientific basis) used by well-trained observers.

Activity Time Budgets—A Potential Tool to Monitor Equine Welfare?

“…Animal welfare is a multifaceted, continuously evolving concept at the interface of science and society, influenced by ethical, economic, cultural, and political concerns [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. Its multidimensionality, both from a scientific and societal perspective, requires objective, quantifiable, and unambiguous evidence-based parameters to assess animal welfare and inform guidelines and policies [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ].…”

“…As welfare is a subjective individual experience, the animal welfare scientific community has moved progressively from input or resource-based measures, such as housing type or the amount of food provided to the animal, toward more output or animal-based assessments that not only evaluate the quality of the environment in which an animal is kept but also its physical and psychological condition and its ability to express the full repertoire of species-appropriate behaviors [ 6 , 9 , 11 ]. Therefore, behavior is increasingly used as an indicator of welfare because an animal’s behavior can provide valuable insight into its subjective state [ 6 , 12 , 13 ]. The behavior of horses is defined by their niche as a prey species and highly social grassland dwellers with strong group fidelity who, in their natural habitat, are continual grazers with ultradian activity patterns roaming areas of land up to 78 km 2 [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ].…”

“…Healthy, stress-free horses divide their time between activities that allow them to satisfy their basic requirements of food, movement, and rest, and exhibit a highly repetitive, individual, daily routine with almost identical time patterns of behavior from day to day [ 15 , 18 , 19 ]. Accordingly, the amount of time an animal engages in behavioral activities (time budget) is considered a very informative welfare indicator [ 6 , 9 , 15 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]. To this end, domesticated horses are often compared to feral or wild conspecifics.…”

“…To this end, domesticated horses are often compared to feral or wild conspecifics. Thereby, feral horses can be used as a benchmark for comparison, not as gold standard for optimum welfare [ 6 , 9 , 15 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]. Indeed, domestic horses, given the opportunity to display species-appropriate behavior and an environment sufficiently reflecting a natural habitat, display time budgets similar to those of wild horses [ 4 , 15 , 23 , 25 ].…”

“…However, domestic horses are kept in a variety of housing systems that offer more or less adequate environmental conditions with differing levels of physical freedom, often with regimental feeding and limited foraging and social opportunities [ 14 , 15 ]. Thus, differences in the time budgets of domesticated horses compared to feral or wild conspecifics are currently used as a measure of compromised welfare [ 6 , 15 , 23 , 24 , 26 , 27 ].…”