What is it about?
Understanding how horses are kept provides horse owners and veterinarians with important insights into the health and welfare of individual horses. This paper describes the results of an online survey of horse owners and carers conducted by the Australian Horse Industry Council on horse health and well-being in 2012/2013
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Why is it important?
This report describes the first national level survey of horse health and well-being conducted in Australia. Importantly it covers a breadth of horse keeping practices that address shelter, social contact, exercise, watering and feeding practices. There are important differences between horse keeping practices in Australia, and those described in the northern hemisphere. For example, unlike surveys of horses conducted in the northern hemisphere, most horses were housed at pasture during the day and night; few were stabled. The report is timely insofar as it provides evidence to underpin and improve the educational and regulatory needs of the Australian horse industry.
Perspectives
In United States, and some other jurisdictions, routine surveys of horse keeping practices and the health status of the horse population as a whole are conducted. These underpin government policy, extension work, and the education of horse owners and businesses in these countries. This is the first study of its type at a national level in Australia, documenting both positive and negative aspects of horse welfare. The Australian Horse Industry Council is well-placed as a national representative body to update and continued this work on ongoing basis
Professor Christopher B Riley
Massey University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Horse-keeping practices in Australia: findings from a national online survey of horse owners, Australian Veterinary Journal, October 2017, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/avj.12639.
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