As equine welfare becomes a topic of greater interest to equine professionals and horse enthusiasts alike, one European country is developing an easy-to-use, repeatable monitoring system that will allow owners and farm managers to evaluate their own horses’ welfare.

In The Netherlands, this new equine welfare monitoring system is now in its testing phase with equitation scientists Kathalijne Visser, PhD, and Francesca Neijenhuis, PhD, researchers in the livestock research department of Wageningen University and Research Center in Lelystad. Visser, Neijenhuis, and colleagues tested the system recently on 3,000 horses at 150 volunteering horse farms and found that it yields similar results from one tester to another–an indispensible criteria for having a reliable system, Neijenhuis said. The team’s research is being funded by the Dutch government, several equestrian federations, and the Dutch Society for Protection of Animals.

"The evaluation includes 22 animal-based measurements in compliance with 12 different criteria developed from scientific literature and welfare knowledge," Neijenhuis said during the presentation of their study at the 2011 International Society for Equitation Science Conference, held Oct. 26-29 in Hooge Mierde, The Netherlands. "Each measure must be clear enough that a trained assessor can perform the assessment quickly, safely, and accurately, and the measures should be repeatable with similar results with different assessors."

During the presentation Neijenhuis focused on four primary areas for testing: the horse’s gait, back, gums, and mouth. The animals were tested for lameness, soreness, or sensitivity in the back, and wounds or hard spots on the gums, lips, and corners of the mouth. Scores were given from 0 to 2, with 2 representing a severe condition