Standardised welfare assessment tools allow consistent measurement of equine welfare across different settings. Understanding and applying these tools improves outcomes for horses in all management contexts.
Welfare assessment provides an evidence base for management decisions and regulatory oversight. For horses, assessment must cover physical health, behavioural needs, and the quality of the human-animal relationship since all three dimensions contribute to overall welfare. Body condition scoring is particularly important as both under- and over-nutrition are significant welfare concerns. Pain assessment has improved dramatically with the development of validated facial action coding tools, enabling earlier identification of chronic pain conditions including lameness, dental disease, and musculoskeletal problems. Behavioural assessment — including observation of stereotypies, social behaviour, and response to novel stimuli — provides insight into psychological welfare that physical examination alone cannot detect. Competitive equestrian sports increasingly incorporate welfare assessment requirements, reflecting growing recognition that performance and welfare are interdependent.