Does housing system affect horse welfare? The AWIN welfare assessment protocol applied to horses kept in an outdoor group-housing system: The ‘parcours’

Abstract

Outdoor group housing is generally reported as being beneficial to the welfare of horses compared to single boxes, being considered to show greater similarities with the living conditions of feral horses, allowing full expression of behaviours such as grazing, social interactions and free movement. However, concerns persist regarding the ability to maintain a good nutritional state and the possibility of acquiring injury. No data reporting a comprehensive assessment of welfare for horses in outdoor group-housing systems are currently available. The present study aimed at applying a scientifically valid welfare assessment protocol to group-housed outdoor horses in ‘parcours’, a particular management system used in the south of France. ‘Parcours’ are semi-natural areas, grazed by domestic herbivores located in lowland, mountain, or marsh. One hundred and seventy-one horses older than a year pertaining to six farms and kept on ‘parcours’ were evaluated by a trained veterinarian using a modified version of the second level Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) welfare assessment protocol for horses. No major welfare issues were detected. Horses in ‘parcours’ displayed few abnormal behaviours, they could move freely for most of the day and interact with conspecifics, maintaining a healthy state of nutrition and a good relationship with humans. The main welfare concerns were related to the presence of superficial integument alterations such as alopecia, difficulty in reaching quality controlled water sources and a lack of shelter. As the number of facilities involved in this study is relatively limited, further harmonised data collection should aim to enlarge the sample size and allow comparison with different outdoor group-housing conditions.

How Useful Are Existing Protocols in the Quick Assessment of the Welfare of Semi-Feral Horses? Pilot Study on Konik Polski Horses Living in the Forest Sanctuary

“…To achieve the aim of our study, to evaluate the usefulness of these protocols for inspectors and owners, we first analysed our chosen protocols in terms of feasibility as suggested by the Ten-stage Protocol for assessing welfare in free-roaming horses [ 9 ]. Knowing the conditions of Koniks living in the sanctuary, the particular regulations concerning them (preferably that the horses should not be touched), and having in mind the possible short time for welfare assessment in practice, we scrutinised both protocols to keep only the indicators and methods we could use in the field, similar to the “parcours” use of the AWIN protocol [ 32 ]. Due to the requirements to maintain the Koniks to be as “wild” as possible, we did not touch the horses, except for marking some horses with a cattle pencil marker (since it was otherwise difficult to record which horses had so far been subject to the welfare assessment).…”

“…The IFCE/INRAE Protocol Cheval Bien-Etre [8] could not be used as a complete tool. Therefore, similarly to the approach taken by Dai et al [32], we adapted the protocol for our purposes. We omitted the assessment of body condition, as this required physical handling of the horse.…”

“…The core of this protocol is the AWIN horse protocol which consists of reliable and validated welfare indicators [ 2 ]. It was used in a recent study [ 32 ] to assess the welfare of horses in an outdoor group housing system, the “parcours”. Importantly, the IFCE/INRAE protocol involved the evaluation of at least three indicators of negative emotions, likely to indicate reduced well-being: stereotypies, signs of indifference towards the environment (including a “withdrawn” posture, or signs of apathy) and aggressiveness towards humans.…”