Correct assessment of stress in horses is important for both horse welfare and handler safety during necessary aversive procedures. Handlers depend on behaviour when judging how well an individual is tolerating stressful procedures such as loading or veterinary intervention. However, evidence suggests that behaviour may not accurately reflect affective states in horses. This may be explained by individual

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Tissue damage may result in pain, inducing protective behaviour such as lameness. Because we cannot directly measure an animal's subjective experience, pain research and veterinary assessment rely on these behavioural indicators when quantifying pain. This assumes that pain expression is proportional to damage but this has not been tested in animals and ignores the possible effects of personality and coping style. First, we assessed whether lameness accurately predicted the severity of tissue damage, or whether there is variance in how "stoical" individuals are. An experienced equine veterinarian scored horses for lameness and then the severity of tissue damage using either x-ray or ultrasound during the course of normal diagnostics in a clinical setting. Contrary to assumptions, we found no relation between scores for lameness and severity. Consequently, "stoicism" was calculated as severity score minus lameness score. We tested hypotheses founded on previous work concerning how personality would be expected to link with stoicism and pain behaviour. Personality was quantified using a validated questionnaire, completed by owners. Owners also gave their subjective opinion on how tolerant the horse was to pain using a 1-5 likert scale. This is the first paper to assess the relationships between pain behaviour and personality in animals. We found that neuroticism is negatively related to "stoicism" whereas extroversion was positively related to levels of lameness, which may mean that pain in more easily identified in highly extrovert individuals. Future work to clarify these findings and their major implications for accurate assessment of damage and pain in animals are discussed. © 2013 Elsevier B.V

Human-animal bond is receiving increasing attention and is thought to confer benefits on wellbeing and performance in working animals. One important benefit of bonding is the "safe base" an attachment figure provides, which manifests in better coping and increased exploration during potential threat. However, there is limited research exploring the existence or benefits of human-horse bonds, though bonding is sought after by both pleasure and elite riders. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether the presence of horses' owners confers a safe-base, therefore improving horse behaviour and physiological stress responses during novel handling tests. Horses completed two different handling tests, one with their owner and the other with an unfamiliar experimental handler (n = 46). Test and handler order was randomised and handlers were double blind to the performance of the horse with the alternate handler. Time taken to complete the tests and proactive behaviour were measured as indicators of performance and compliance. Core temperature, discrepancy in eye temperature, heart rate and heart rate variability were recorded to assess stress responses. If horses experience a "safe base" effect in the vicinity of their owner, they would be expected to show lower stress responses and greater behavioural compliance, compared to being handled by a stranger. There was no difference in behaviour or any physiological stress response between the handlers. This indicates that a calm, competent, but unknown handler may be equally effective to an owner during stressful procedures as neither equine performance nor affective state supported a safe-base effect. This supports previous research suggesting that the level of bond between human and horse may not be the most salient factor in coping or compliance during training and handling. These findings have implications for veterinary and clinical behaviour counselling, where novel human handlers must modify behaviour under potentially stressful circumstances.