Assessing equine emotional state

Abstract

The scientific study of animal emotion has recently become an important focus for animal behaviour and welfare researchers. For horses used by humans for work, recreation or sport, the question of the significance of their life experiences in terms of their emotional response, is an important one if we are to provide for their welfare needs. Horses have received relatively less scientific attention than many livestock species when it comes to investigating emotional state or affective experience, although their behavioural responses during sporting or recreational performance are often described anecdotally using terminology indicating an underlying presumption of equine emotions. Indeed, the international governing body for equestrian sport, the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), include the concept of 'the Happy Equine Athlete' into their rules, as a key objective during training and competition. This review presents available evidence to date of the physiological, behavioural and cognitive components of equine emotion and evaluates the extent to which the question concerning 'how horses feel' can be answered. The characterization of equine emotion in terms of level of arousal and valence, based on physiological, behavioural and cognitive indicators, offers a way forward to determine the impact of different situations and experiences on horses during their working lives. There is a need to develop robust validated methods for accessing equine emotions, to underpin a universally agreed method for/approach to providing an accurate assessment of equine welfare that can be utilized in a variety of contexts. This will 2 provide a means of monitoring and improving the horse's experience, ensuring that the horse enjoys a good life, rather than one that is just worth living.

Improving the Recognition of Equine Affective States

“…Good welfare depends on understanding and meeting the physical and emotional needs of the individual horse, as detailed in e.g. [22,25]. The context of the behaviour is also important, in particular whether or not the handler is working effectively to improve the horse's affective state or merely attempting to complete the human-directed activity.…”

“…Video 6 (behavioural rehabilitation) was slightly different from the others, in that, although the horse certainly appeared anxious and distressed, the handling was calm, undemanding and was less likely to risk worsening the affective state of the horse. Whilst an understanding of the underlying source of such distress should be paramount in any behavioural rehabilitation work, it was not considered here whether the causes of the behaviours observed in the videos were linked to the training itself, chronic or acute pain, failures of management practices to meet the equid ethogram or the horses' previous history [22,23]. In particular, no judgment was offered on the handlers, the type of training taking place or the horses' experiences beyond these clips; instead the focus was on the horses' behavioural responses that took place during the videos, which might or might not be representative of other occasions.…”

Social Learning in Horses—Fact or Fiction?

“…Additionally, horse trainers may assume that naïve horses are able to observe and learn from older, well-trained horses ( 9 , 16 ). Although horses undoubtedly are sensitive to transfer of emotional states ( 17 ) they are less likely to learn specific behaviors from conspecifics. Both over- and underestimating the mental capabilities of horses can have significant welfare implications as this has been used to justify punishment in some training systems.…”

Emotional Transfer in Human–Horse Interaction: New Perspectives on Equine Assisted Interventions

“…Animals share the same central and peripheral neural mechanisms involved in experiencing emotion in humans; for this reason, they will actively seek situations assumed to provide them with a pleasurable experience and avoid those that might be assumed to be negative. Therefore, it is likely that animals experience similar humans' emotional states [99].…”