This new approach, featuring animal-based indicators, could help well-meaning owners detect equine welfare issues they might accidentally be overlooking at their own farms, says Dr. Irena Czycholl. | Photo: iStock

The Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) assessment protocol for horse farms, developed in 2015, is getting fine-tuned by researchers who are testing it in the field. And it’s already showing positive results.

“This new approach, featuring animal-based indicators, helps well-meaning owners detect welfare issues they might accidentally be overlooking in their farms, leading to constructive changes that improve their horses’ lives,” said Irena Czycholl, PhD, of the Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel Institute of Animal Breeding and Husbandry, in Germany.

Czycholl and her fellow researchers recently investigated a two-level approach to the AWIN horse protocol. The first level allows for a general overview of an entire farm based on quick evaluations of a sample of horses. The second level provides more specific details, with more in-depth evaluations of every horse on the