There are 80 equine welfare issues considered serious throughout different facets of the horse world, making it extremely difficult to get a handle on which are top priority. In an effort to determine which issues faced the most horses, researchers in the UK created two lists: one that included issues that affect the entire horse population; and one that included issues that cause suffering for individual horses, reports The Horse.
The research team, which included Drs. Fiona Rioja-Lang, Melanie Connor, Heather Bacon and Cathy Dwyer, asked 19 equine welfare experts what they felt were the UK's main equine welfare issues. Respondents provided 84 issues, which were then discussed in a two-day meeting to prioritize the list of issues.
The conference attendees determined that the most prevalent issues facing the equine population as a whole included lack of biosecurity and disease surveillance. The next most-concerning issues included delayed euthanasia; lack of owner understanding of equine welfare; the horse's frustration, fear and stress from their jobs; and obesity.
Delayed euthanasia was also deemed to cause the most suffering to individual hoses. Other concerns for individual horses included lack of owner recognition of pain behavior; internal parasites; obesity; and diets being fed that are unsuitable for equines.
These concerns highlight the need for owner education—many owners would be surprised to learn how many issues relate to them and not veterinary care. Other group welfare concerns that involve equine owners include unstable social groups, indiscriminate breeding and ill-fitting tack. Individual equine welfare concerns included overwork, overweight riders and the inability for horses to have normal social interactions with how they are managed.
Read more at The Horse.
Read the full article here.
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