While people in the horse industry are often passionate about their horses and want to treat them well, there’s often a lack of knowledge about what horses really need, Busby said. | Photo: iStock

If you’re going to change horse welfare, first things first: change the humans. Getting people to change their views and habits is a necessary first step toward improving the lives of animals. But British researchers say it’s not an easy step.

“The root cause of most welfare issues for horses is human behavior,” said Debbie Busby, MSc, representing the British organization Human Behavior Change for Animals (HBCA) CIC. “To make a sustainable difference to horse welfare, horse owners must apply the findings of research into human behavior change.”

Busby presented her topic during the 2017 International Society for Equitation Science (ISES) conference, held Nov. 22-26 in Wagga Wagga,