Horses are highly social animals whose welfare in captivity depends significantly on the quality of social contact and their ability to express natural social behaviours.
Horse welfare in captivity is significantly shaped by social conditions. Horses evolved as highly social prey animals and have strong motivations for proximity, grooming, and social interaction with companions. Lone housing that deprives horses of meaningful social contact causes measurable stress, contributes to stereotypic behaviour including crib-biting and weaving, and compromises overall welfare. Yet individual stabling remains common in competition horse management, often justified by management convenience. Even where full companionship is impractical, partial social contact through shared paddock time, adjoining stabling, or other social animals significantly reduces isolation stress and improves welfare.