The Welfare of a Domesticated Horse
When we speak of poor horse welfare, we often imagine an underweight horse struggling to pull a cart in a developing country. This is because most people believe that as long as a horse is fed and has a shiny coat there is no welfare issue. In reality, welfare goes much further than that; both the physical and mental state of the animal must be considered.
In the 1960s, the Brambell commission set out ‘the Five Freedoms’ which outline different aspects of the animal welfare under human control and for ma framework for welfare analysis.
These Five Freedoms are:
Freedom from hunger and thirst
Freedom from environmental stress ( excessive heat or cold)
freedom from pain, injury and disease
Freedom to act out normal behaviour (which are species-specific)
Freedom from fear and distress
Freedom from Hunger, Thirst and Environmental Stress
The first two freedoms are what most people consider to be welfare. And in developed countries, these are relatively well taken care of, even if many times inappropriately. For example, many horses are given inappropriate diet that contains too many concentrates and too little forage. This is also the issue of excessive rugging.
Freedom from Pain, Injury and Disease
Most people will also consider the third freedom important, but some may be biased as to what they consider ‘acceptable’ pain or injury. For example:
Two scenarios that most people consider to be a welfare issue:
An underweight horse in Egypt pulls a cart and is whipped by his owner who is uneducated and depends the animal for survival (most common in developing countries).
An underweight horse breaks a leg as a result of being overworked by his owner (again, most commonly witnessed in developing countries)
A scenario that many people don’t consider to be a welfare issue:
A horse with a shiny coat at a jumping event refuses to jump an over fence and is whipped by the rider.
A horse with a shiny coat breaks a leg at a grand-prix cross-country event or racing event.
All these scenarios are welfare issues and while you can certainly argue that one scenario is worse than another because more freedoms are broken it still does not mean that the other scenarios are an example of good equine welfare.
It is also worth mentioning that there are scenarios where the owners are poorly educated and depend on their animal to feed themselves and their families and other scenarios whereas there are scenarios where the horses are for ‘entertainment’ purposes (used loosely, meaning professional sport, outdoor exercise or hobby). While causing suffering to an animal is never right, it is even less so when it is done for entertainment.
Freedom to Act Out Normal Behaviour
The fourth freedom is so routinely broken in livery yards, riding clubs and breeding facilities that is becomes increasingly difficult for people to consider it an important aspect of welfare.
The following charts represent the way an average free-ranging horse spends his time versus how an average 24h stabled horse spends his time:
The chart for the “free ranging horse” was made using the following data: Horses spent 15% of their day drowsing and sleeping and 16 to 18hrs foraging and browsing. The rest of the day is spent on other activities such as playing, exploring, grooming, rolling etc.
The ‘stabled horse’ data was made assuming the horse would be fed hard feed twice a day, fed hay 3 times a day, ridden one hour a day and groomed 15 minutes a day, and sleeping like a normal horse (15%). This left the stabled horses with 40% of their time doing nothing. This leads to unwanted behaviour patterns (Stereotypes for instance like crib-biting, weaving, nodding, wood chewing, box walking, etc.) from boredom and their natural needs being unfulfilled.
Of course, these are 2 extremes, but it is worth working out how close the horse management we offer is close to the free-range ideal.
Freedom from Fear and Distress
Another freedom that is routinely broken due to the majority of training (“traditional” and “natural” alike) being based on the use of aversive (physically or emotionally unpleasant) which provokes fear in the horse, therefore avoided by the horse.
This blog was written following a course I studied in Equine Psychology.
In future Blogs, we will talk about Abnormal behaviours and how can we enrich the life of our domesticated horses.
Love and Light,
France x
