Horse breeding practices have significant welfare implications, from selection pressures for extreme conformation to the welfare of mares used as embryo recipients.
Horse breeding choices made for show success, commercial value, or aesthetic preference can impose lifetime welfare costs on the animals produced. Extreme conformation, heritable disease, and reproductive exploitation of mares for embryo transfer all represent breeding ethics issues that the horse industry is only beginning to address systematically. Welfare-conscious breeding prioritizes health, soundness, and longevity over performance extremes.