Understanding the Equine Scoring systems
When it comes to ensuring the well-being of our equine companions, it's essential to have reliable methods for assessing their health and well-being. This is where equine welfare scoring systems come into play. These systems are designed to evaluate the overall welfare of horses by considering various aspects of their physical and mental health, behavior, and living conditions.
What Are Equine Welfare Scoring Systems?
Equine welfare scoring systems are frameworks that provide a structured approach to assessing a horse's well-being. They combine objective measures, like health indicators and physical condition, with subjective observations, such as behavior and facial expressions, to offer a holistic view of a horse's quality of life.
Examples of Equine Welfare Scoring Systems
Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) for Horses: Developed under a European initiative, AWIN provides a standardized approach to assessing health, behavior, and management practices.
Standardized Equine-Based Welfare Assessment Tool (SEBWAT): The purpose of the tool is to provide an overview of the general welfare condition of working equine animals, both individually and cumulatively at a group level
Horse Grimace Scale (HGS): Uses facial expressions to detect pain, providing an objective measure of discomfort.
Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram (RHpE): This ethogram is designed to help identify pain in horses while they are being ridden, by observing specific behaviors and physical signs.
Five Domains Model: Assesses welfare based on nutrition, environment, health, behavior, and mental state, offering a comprehensive view of animal welfare.
Why are these important?
These tools help identify problems early on, whether they're related to health, behavior, or the environment. Early detection allows for swift intervention, which can prevent issues from becoming serious problems. With these standardized protocols, it's easier to ensure consistency in how we evaluate horse welfare. This is crucial for comparing welfare across different environments and over time.
By understanding the specific needs and conditions that affect horse welfare, caretakers can make informed decisions to improve their care and management practices. These systems provide valuable data that can inform research and influence policy decisions, ultimately leading to better welfare standards in the equine industry.
Practical Applications of Welfare Scoring Systems at Competitions
Implementing welfare scoring systems at equine competitions can only improve the well-being of participating horses. These systems can be used to monitor the horses' physical and mental health, ensuring they are fit to compete and are not subjected to undue stress or pain. Here are some practical ways to apply these scoring systems in a competition setting:
Warm Up, Pre & Post Competition
The use the Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram (RHpE) and the Horse Grimace Scale (HGS) can monitor horses during warm up and competition. With this scale, it can empower trained ring stewards to step in when noticing pain or discomfort in the horses, ensuring immediate action can be taken to address any welfare concerns. Horses can be assessed post competition to ensure the event has not negatively impacted their health.
When the RHpE has been applied to Grand Prix dressage horses (Dyson & Pollard, 2021), it was found that the average score was 3/24, but ranging from 0- 7/24 (8/24 is regarded as the threshold for pain in horses). The most frequent of behaviours were:
- Mouth open with separation of the teeth for ≥10 s (68%)
- Head behind vertical ≥10° ≥10 s (67%)
- An intense stare for ≥5 s (30%)
- Repeated tail swishing (29%)
- Facility and Environmental Assessments
Use welfare scoring systems should be used to evaluate the competition facilities and environment. This ensures that the venues meet high welfare standards, providing safe and comfortable conditions for the horses. Before a competition, organizers can conduct an assessment of the stables, arenas, and paddocks using the Five Domains Model and the Good Housing section from the Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN). Organizers can check for adequate ventilation, sufficient stable space, ensuring enough turn out time and socializing for the horses, making necessary improvements based on the assessment.
Compliance and Transparency
Welfare scoring data can be used to ensure compliance with regulatory standards and promote transparency in horse welfare practices. Competition organizers can publish welfare assessment results on their website, showing that all participating horses have passed pre- and post-competition checks. This builds trust with competitors and the public, demonstrating a commitment to high welfare standards and ethical competition practices. With so much pressure from the public regarding horse welfare and the social license to operate hanging by a thread, this transparency can help build confidence in the event's commitment to horse welfare.
Conclusion
Introducing welfare scoring systems at competitions ensures that horses are treated with the utmost care and welfare being a top priority. By conducting thorough pre- and post-competition checks, monitoring horses during events, evaluating facilities, educating staff, ensuring regulatory compliance, and using data for continuous improvement, competition organizers can create a safer and more humane environment for all participating horses. This not only enhances the welfare of the horses but also promotes fair and ethical competition practices.
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References
Dyson, S. and Pollard, D. (2021) ‘Application of the ridden horse pain ethogram to elite dressage horses competing in World Cup Grand Prix competitions’, Animals, 11(5), p. 1187. doi:10.3390/ani11051187.