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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