Detecting Welfare in a Non-Verbal Species: Social/Cultural Biases and Difficulties in Horse Welfare Assessment.
Authors: Hausberger Martine, Lesimple Clémence, Henry Séverine
Journal: Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
Summary
# Editorial Summary Whilst horses have lived alongside humans for over five millennia, scientific evidence suggests we fundamentally misunderstand their welfare needs—a paradox that Hausberger and colleagues attribute not to lack of knowledge, but to cognitive and cultural blind spots in how we interpret equine behaviour. Since horses cannot articulate their experience verbally, management decisions are filtered through subjective human interpretation, cultural tradition, and personal belief rather than objective assessment of the animal's actual state, creating a framework ripe for welfare problems to go unrecognised or be actively misinterpreted. The authors identify three critical barriers to effective welfare assessment: the widespread failure to recognise or correctly interpret equine stress and pain signals; subjective projections of what humans assume horses need; and desensitisation among owners and professionals who become habituated to seeing compromised welfare as normal through repeated exposure. Rather than continuing to prescribe management practices based on "what we think is good," the review emphasises that equine professionals need validated, objective, visible welfare indicators—measurable behavioural and physiological markers—that minimise personal interpretation and can serve as a common language across the sector. This shift toward standardised, science-backed indicators is essential for moving beyond cultural assumptions and ensuring that management decisions consistently reflect horses' actual biological and psychological needs rather than our projections onto them.
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Practical Takeaways
- •Move beyond relying on personal beliefs or 'tradition' about what horses need—actively learn and use validated, visible welfare indicators that reduce subjective interpretation.
- •Regularly reassess your sensitivity to welfare indicators; overexposure to chronic problems can blind you to signs of poor welfare that should prompt intervention.
- •Recognize that horses cannot tell you they are uncomfortable—you must develop literacy in reading their behavioral and physical signals to identify early welfare concerns.
Key Findings
- •Horse welfare problems are prevalent in domestic populations despite 5000+ years of human-horse coexistence, suggesting fundamental misunderstandings of horse needs.
- •Non-verbal communication in horses creates reliance on subjective human interpretation influenced by cultural norms, traditions, and beliefs rather than validated indicators.
- •Owners and professionals may develop reduced sensitivity to signs of compromised welfare through overexposure to affected animals, leading to normalization of poor welfare states.
- •Lack of recognition, identification, or misinterpretation of equine behavioral and physical signals contributes significantly to ongoing welfare issues.