Journal article

The effects of feedback from horse welfare assessments

SM Viksten, EK Visser, PL Hitchens, HJ Blokhuis

Animal Welfare | UNIV FEDERATION ANIMAL WELFARE | Published : 2018

Abstract

This study was designed to determine whether feedback from welfare assessments, using the Horse Welfare Assessment Protocol, affected actual horse welfare in 21 stables. After the first assessment, stable managers in the high feedback (HF; n = 10 stables) group were supplied with extensive information and support regarding the welfare measures and relevance of the results. The low feedback (LF; n = 11 stables) group only received the results without additional information. Upon re-assessment, six months later, no significant changes were seen in the stable overall (SO) score in either group. Significant changes occurred in individual measures; in the HF group more fresh-air inlets were open ..

View full abstract

University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Stiftelsen Hastforskning


Funding Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Jan Hultgren for his valuable help with the statistical analyses. The authors would also like to thank all the participating stables. We thank Dr Bryan Jones for editing the English and for his helpful comments. This work was supported by Stiftelsen Hastforskning (Project no H1247017).