ReviewAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI2020
On-Farm Welfare Assessment of Horses: The Risks of Putting the Cart before the Horse.
Review in Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Farm Atmosphere: Calm Attention and Mobility Characterise Positive Horse Welfare.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Evaluation of Short-Term Stall Size Housing on the Behavior and Welfare of Domestic Horses (Equus caballus).Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS · 2026Article
- From Human Perception of Good Practices to Horse (Equus Caballus) Welfare: Example of Equine-Assisted Activities.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Selected Acoustic Frequencies Have a Positive Impact on Behavioural and Physiological Welfare Indicators in Thoroughbred Racehorses.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Mental Experiences in Wild Animals: Scientifically Validating Measurable Welfare Indicators in Free-Roaming Horses.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Review
- Welfare of extensively managed Swedish Gotland ponies.Animal welfare (South Mimms, England) · 2023Article
- Changes in Management, Welfare, Emotional State, and Human-Related Docility in Stallions.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Quality of Life within Horse Welfare Assessment Tools: Informing Decisions for Chronically Ill and Geriatric Horses.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Review
- Interest in Humans: Comparisons between Riding School Lesson Equids and Assisted-Intervention Equids.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Detecting Welfare in a Non-Verbal Species: Social/Cultural Biases and Difficulties in Horse Welfare Assessment.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Review
- Equine Activity Time Budgets: The Effect of Housing and Management Conditions on Geriatric Horses and Horses with Chronic Orthopaedic Disease.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- An Ethical Framework for the Use of Horses in Competitive Sport: Theory and Function.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Recommendations for Ensuring Good Welfare of Horses Used for Industrial Blood, Serum, or Urine Production.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Article
- Activity Time Budgets-A Potential Tool to Monitor Equine Welfare?Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although the question of animal welfare has been an important source of concern in the scientific community for several decades, many aspects are still under debate. On-farm assessments have to be rapid, acceptable to farmers and safe for both the assessors and animals. They are thus very demanding, with multiple decisions to make, such as the choice of appropriate indicators, sampling methods and scoring. Research has moved from resource-based to animal-based criteria, which reflects the subjective welfare state of an animal rather than relying upon external indices. In the present review, we describe two major (i.e., the most frequently/recently tested or disseminated) protocols: one in low-/middle-income countries, and the other in high-income countries, for on-farm assessments of horses, using animal-based resources; we evaluate their strengths and limitations, and then we compare their results with those obtained by various other studies. We propose lines of improvement, particularly in view of public dissemination, and offer suggestions for further refinement or new protocols. We emphasize the high risks of putting the cart before the horse, i.e., proposing protocols that rely upon indicators and sampling methods that need to be refined, as this could lead to under-evaluation (or less likely over-evaluation) of current welfare problems. Because welfare is a subjective experience, the true representation of an individual's actual welfare status has to be evaluated by using objective assessment tools (that are validated and have a scientific basis) used by well-trained observers.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.