Equine teaching hospitals provide advanced care that can save lives but create specific welfare challenges through unfamiliar environments, multiple handlers, and intensive monitoring that requires careful attention.
Veterinary teaching hospitals provide life-saving care to horses that would otherwise die, representing a fundamental welfare benefit. However, the hospital environment creates specific welfare challenges - unfamiliar surroundings, multiple handlers with varying skill levels, intensive monitoring procedures, and isolation all cause stress. The educational mission of teaching hospitals sometimes creates tension with welfare goals when student learning opportunities involve additional handling of stressed patients. Leading teaching hospitals increasingly recognize that welfare-centered care protocols, including minimizing unnecessary handling, skilled fear-free interactions, and appropriate pain management, improve both patient welfare and educational outcomes.