Equid Assessment, Research and Scoping (EARS): The Development and Implementation of a New Equid Welfare Assessment and Monitoring Tool.
Authors: Raw Zoe, Rodrigues Joao B, Rickards Karen, Ryding Joe, Norris Stuart L, Judge Andrew, Kubasiewicz Laura M, Watson Tamlin L, Little Holly, Hart Ben, Sullivan Rebekah, Garrett Chris, Burden Faith A
Journal: Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
Summary
# EARS Tool: Standardising Equid Welfare Assessment Across Global Contexts The fragmentation of equid welfare assessment methodologies has long hampered meaningful data comparison and collaborative improvement efforts between international organisations, as existing tools are typically designed for specific situations rather than universal application. Raw and colleagues addressed this by developing EARS (Equid Assessment, Research and Scoping), which consolidates previously validated welfare indicators with novel metrics into a single, context-agnostic framework capable of generating comparable datasets across diverse settings and geographical regions. Field trials across nineteen countries yielded 7,464 welfare assessments over fifteen months, demonstrating that EARS functioned as a practical, efficient tool without compromising assessment rigour or comprehensiveness. For equine professionals, this standardised approach offers significant advantages: farriers, veterinarians, physiotherapists and nutritionists can now contribute to a unified evidence base that facilitates knowledge-sharing, identifies welfare trends across populations, and supports evidence-based interventions tailored to specific equid populations and management contexts. The EARS framework represents a critical step towards coordinated global welfare monitoring and provides a foundation for future refinement as additional validated indicators emerge.
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Practical Takeaways
- •You now have access to a single, standardized welfare assessment tool that works across different equid management contexts, eliminating the need to switch between multiple assessment protocols
- •The EARS tool enables your welfare data to be comparable with assessments conducted globally, supporting collaborative knowledge-sharing and benchmarking against international standards
- •This framework consolidates existing validated indicators into one resource, saving time in welfare monitoring while maintaining scientific rigor and comprehensiveness
Key Findings
- •EARS tool successfully consolidated existing validated welfare assessment methods into a single comprehensive framework applicable across 19 countries
- •7,464 welfare assessments were collected over 15 months, demonstrating the tool's utility and rapid data collection capability
- •The standardized EARS tool addresses the previous lack of comparable datasets by providing a 'one size fits all' resource for equid welfare assessment in any context