Abstract
Horse owners have a duty of care to safeguard the wellbeing of horses in their care. However,
within recreational equine populations, a substantial proportion of welfare problems reported are linked to unintentional neglect due to owner ignorance. This study assessed the
equine knowledge base in a preliminary sample of UK horse-owners (n=128) with variable
educational achievements (low, no degree: n=74, medium: undergraduate degree, n=27, high:
postgraduate qualification, n=27). Respondents (horse owners/riders, >18 years) completed
40 voluntary equine-related questions in an online multiple-choice survey, distributed via
equine-related FacebookTM sites, covering topics related to equine management, health,
behaviour and welfare, categorised as easy (n=14), medium (n=14) and hard (n=12). The
majority of respondents answered ‘easy’ questions correctly (78.71%), with 18.36% selecting
incorrect answers and 2.93% stating they didn’t know the correct answer. Less than half
of the participants answered ‘medium’ questions correctly (47.29%), with 31.51% selecting
the incorrect answer and 21.21% not knowing the correct answer. Even fewer respondents
attained the correct answer for the ‘hard’ questions (21.51%), with the majority either selecting the incorrect response (46.17%) or not knowing the correct answer (32.32%). Differences
in correct responses between the question categories were significant (ANOVA: P=0.0001,
f=25.18, df=2), with post-hoc analyses revealing participants selected more correct ‘easy’
answers compared to ‘medium’ (LSD: p=0.001; means: 78.71% vs 47.29%), and ‘hard’ answers
(LSD: p=0.001; means: 78.71% vs. 21.51%), and more ‘medium’ than ‘hard’ (LSD: p=0.003; means:
47.29% vs 21.51%) answers. Interestingly, it appears participants increased their selection
of ‘don’t know’ as their preferred response as question difficulty increased; ‘don’t know’
responses increased between the ‘easy’ and ‘medium’ questions (LSD: p=0.004; means: 2.91%
vs 21.21%) and ‘easy’ to ‘hard’ questions (LSD: p=0.0001; means: 2.91% vs. 32.32%). Respondents
selected more incorrect responses between the ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ question categories (LSD:
P=0.001; means: 18.36% vs. 46.17%) but the number of incorrect answers did not differ
between the ‘easy’ and ‘medium’ categories (P>0.05). Key areas where participant knowledge
was poor included recommended forage to concentrate ratio (52.71% incorrect), identification
of the signs of colic (41.09%) and recommended shoeing interval (49.46% incorrect). These
results suggest a lack of fundamental knowledge exists in these horse owners, which has
the potential to negatively impact equine health and welfare. Further research is needed to
identify if this is a universal phenomenon in the equine industry and to explore strategies to
educate horse owners and by association improve equine wellbeing
Original language | English |
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Pages | 170 |
Number of pages | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 21 Sep 2018 |
Event | 14th International Conference International Society for Equitation Science: Equitation Science 150 years after Caprilli: theory and practice, the full circle - Regiment Lanceri di Montebello, Rome, Italy Duration: 21 Sep 2018 → 24 Sep 2018 https://equitationscience.com/conferences/ |
Conference
Conference | 14th International Conference International Society for Equitation Science |
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Abbreviated title | Equine welfare: good training, good feeding, good housing, good mental state, good health, good behaviour |
Country/Territory | Italy |
City | Rome |
Period | 21/09/18 → 24/09/18 |
Other | NOTE - this conference only published abstracts - as per blurb on back of proceedings 'Herein are summaries of presentations of the 14th Equitation Science Conference held in Rome in 2018. Along with synopses of plenary talks and practical demonstrations are abstracts describing recent research within the broad emerging field of Equitation Science.' |
Internet address |