Welfare auditing of horse operations provides accountability and drives improvement. Understanding what effective welfare audits include helps evaluate and advocate for standards.
Welfare auditing creates accountability where good intentions alone cannot. Without external verification, operations can believe their welfare standards are better than they are, or face market incentives to prioritize performance over welfare. Independent welfare auditing, when rigorous and genuinely independent, creates the objective information needed to drive improvement. The development of validated equine welfare assessment tools and their incorporation into certification schemes is a genuine progress priority for the horse industry.