Age Old Puzzle: Difficulties Inherent In Assessing Equine Quality Of Life 

The inability to accurately assess quality of life can be harmful to horses, as owners may potentially sacrifice equine welfare due to a lack of understanding of the factors that influence that quality of life. Though multiple quality of life models exist, most don't consider a horse's mental health and are difficult to apply in real-world situations.

Quality of life is often only considered when horse owners are faced with the decision of when to euthanize a horse. A recent report, however, suggests that quality of life should be assessed multiple times in a horse's life.

The report, which was published by the Advancing Equine Scientific Excellence (AESE) project, involved students from several institutions throughout England. This team used surveys, interviews and literature reviews to understand how equine quality of life was perceived, as well as how it could be measured.

Using existing quality of life models, the research team found a marked disparity between what researchers considered feasible and what horse owners considered feasible, with regard to ease of incorporation into a daily routine.

Any tool used to measure equine quality of life would have to be practical and effective; the tool should assist owners and caretakers in the assessment of management and training, as well as the horse's response to treatment if he is injured or ill.

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Any successful assessment tool will need to be developed by both researchers and real-life horse owners and caretakers so that its use is feasible. Supported by World Horse Welfare and The Horse Trust, this project is the first step in the development of a usable quality of life tool, which will help to improve equine welfare.

Read more at HorseTalk.

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Chronic Pain Can Be Detected In Equine EEGs

Chronic pain is difficult to assess as it involves subjective emotional and cognitive facets. There has been increasing interest in using electroencephalograms (EEGs), which measures brain waves, on resting horses to help determine if the horse is experiencing chronic pain. EEGs have been used as a tool in human medicine to help decipher chronic pain.

Riding horses are prone to chronic back pain; horses that experience this pain show lower levels of engagement and shorter attention spans. Drs. Mathilde Stomp, Serenella d'Ingeo, Séverine Henry, Clémence Lesimple, Hugo Cousillas and Martine Hausberger hypothesized that horses with chronic back pain would have resting-state EEGs that differed from horses that were pain-free.

The researchers fitted 18 horses with a headset and a telemetric recorder. The horses stood in a covered arena while they underwent back evaluations that noted the back's shape and muscular tension, as well as took precise spinal measurements. Thirteen of the horses had surface electromyography (sEMG) exams to measure muscle activity; each horse was monitored for 60 minutes to see if they had any stereotypic behavior.

The scientists found that the horses had consistent EEG profiles over time. Horses that were assessed as having back pain had resting-state EEGs that had more fast waves and fewer slow waves. The study team also linked back tension to the frequency of stereotypic behaviors. They scientists concluded that resting-state EEGs are a promising tool to assess chronic back pain in horses.

Read the full study here.

Read more at HorseTalk.

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