Improving Horse Welfare on PEI Farms through Development of an On-Farm Assessment Tool and a Better Understanding of Horse Owners Attitudes Toward Welfare

Managing horses requires an understanding of their behavioral and physical needs. The PEI horse population consists of around 4,000 horses on 720 properties. Horse owners have a varied level of knowledge, education, experience and understanding of horses’ needs, which affects their choice of husbandry and management practices. This may lead to horses’ needs not being taken into full consideration, thereby compromising their welfare. Therefore, it is important to use horse welfare assessment to monitor welfare, provide feedback from such assessments and work towards improving welfare wherever possible.

The PEI Department of Agriculture and Land (PEIDAL) has dedicated decades of support and effort toward improving animal welfare in the island under the Animal Health Act. The Department, under the Assurance Systems Program is currently providing support for improving horse welfare in Prince Edward Island farms through assessment and benchmarking.

PEIDAL has made a connection with the University of Prince Edward Island’s Atlantic Veterinary Collage (AVC). This research will contribute to improvement of horse welfare on the island through development of on-farm assessment tool and a better understanding of horse owners’ attitudes, perceptions and behaviors, which is crucial when aiming to optimize the on-farm assessment tool and educational efforts in general. This project would be divided into two parts:

Part 1: Improving Horse Welfare on Prince Edward Island Farms Through Assessment and Benchmarking

“The Animal Health & Research Section working with AVC researchers toward the following objectives:”

1. To develop a protocol to assess horse welfare on Prince Edward Island farms under field conditions that can be used by veterinarians, inspectors and horse owners.
2. To benchmark the horse welfare assessment on Prince Edward Island farms.
3. To investigate how benchmarking improves horse welfare on PEI farms.

Part 2: Improving Horse Welfare on PEI Farms Through a Better Understanding of Horse Owners’ Attitudes Toward Welfare and an On-Farm Assessment Tool The Animal Health & Research Section working with AVC researchers toward the following objectives:

1. What are the motivators and barriers of horse owners to improve horse welfare?
2. What are the external influences on horse owners’ attitudes toward horse welfare?
3. How do horse owners evaluate the assessment tool and benchmarking report developed for Part A of this project? The research and reporting will primarily be completed by the University of Prince Edward Island with the PEIDAL’s Animal Health & Research Section providing staff time and resources to collect and analyze data related to horse owner’s knowledge, attitude and practices related to horse welfare.