TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigating equestrians’ perceptions of horse happiness
T2 - An exploratory study
AU - Bornmann, Tanja
AU - Randle, Hayley
AU - Williams, Jane
N1 - Funding Information:
Ethical Statement: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - Happiness is a subjective feeling and associated with positive affective states that can indicate good welfare. It is becoming increasingly agreed that equestrians’ ability to recognize indicators of positive emotions has the potential to enhance overall horse wellbeing, but research in this area is limited. Therefore, this study investigated equestrians’ perceptions of horse happiness. A survey comprising 25 questions was distributed through equestrian-related social media (internationally) and yielded 332 valid responses. Frequency analysis was conducted within each factor category (e.g., rider type). Pearson chi-squared and Fisher's exact test determined if differences occurred between the tested factor categories (significance level: P < .05). The majority of respondents believed that they were able to recognize when their horses were happy (94%, n = 332; P < .0001) whilst 92.8% (n = 332; P < .0001) believed that their horses could be described as happy. The majority of participants who indicated that they were able to recognize when their horses were happy also believed that their horses were: happy when they interacted with them (98.3%, n = 295; P < .001); when they rode them (83%, n = 270; P < .0001); when they worked them (i.e., unmounted work) (82.7%, n = 312; P < .0001). The largest respondent proportion believed that horses who were very “forward”/energetic every time they were being ridden could be best described as “rather happy” (36.4%, n = 332). Owners more frequently believed that horses were “rather happy” if they did not react to loud noises/scary objects (30.9%, n = 285; P < .013). These results suggest that some equestrians may have overconfidence in interpreting equine affective states. Furthermore, some respondents may have incorrectly perceived behaviors potentially indicating negative emotions as indicators of happiness.
AB - Happiness is a subjective feeling and associated with positive affective states that can indicate good welfare. It is becoming increasingly agreed that equestrians’ ability to recognize indicators of positive emotions has the potential to enhance overall horse wellbeing, but research in this area is limited. Therefore, this study investigated equestrians’ perceptions of horse happiness. A survey comprising 25 questions was distributed through equestrian-related social media (internationally) and yielded 332 valid responses. Frequency analysis was conducted within each factor category (e.g., rider type). Pearson chi-squared and Fisher's exact test determined if differences occurred between the tested factor categories (significance level: P < .05). The majority of respondents believed that they were able to recognize when their horses were happy (94%, n = 332; P < .0001) whilst 92.8% (n = 332; P < .0001) believed that their horses could be described as happy. The majority of participants who indicated that they were able to recognize when their horses were happy also believed that their horses were: happy when they interacted with them (98.3%, n = 295; P < .001); when they rode them (83%, n = 270; P < .0001); when they worked them (i.e., unmounted work) (82.7%, n = 312; P < .0001). The largest respondent proportion believed that horses who were very “forward”/energetic every time they were being ridden could be best described as “rather happy” (36.4%, n = 332). Owners more frequently believed that horses were “rather happy” if they did not react to loud noises/scary objects (30.9%, n = 285; P < .013). These results suggest that some equestrians may have overconfidence in interpreting equine affective states. Furthermore, some respondents may have incorrectly perceived behaviors potentially indicating negative emotions as indicators of happiness.
KW - Affective state
KW - Behavior
KW - Equestrianism
KW - Equine emotion
KW - Happiness
KW - Horse welfare
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jevs.2021.103697
DO - 10.1016/j.jevs.2021.103697
M3 - Article
C2 - 34416986
AN - SCOPUS:85110252002
VL - 104
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - Journal of Equine Veterinary Science
JF - Journal of Equine Veterinary Science
SN - 0737-0806
M1 - 103697
ER -