Hartpury University Repository

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Williams, Jane

Marlin, David

Pal, Lynn

Randle, Hayley

Do horse owners know how to care for their horses?
J. Williams1*, D.M. Marlin2, L. Pal3 and H. Randle4
1Hartpury University, Hartpury, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom, GL19 3BE, 
2Cambridge, United Kingdom, 3@DrLynnPal, United Kingdom,4Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia.
*Corresponding author: jane.williams@hartpury.ac.uk
INTRODUCTION
Horse owners have a duty to safeguard the wellbeing of horses in their care. However, within recreational equine populations, a
substantial proportion of welfare problems reported are linked to unintentional neglect due to owner ignorance.
Research objective: to assess the equine knowledge base in a preliminary sample of UK horse-owners.
METHOD
128 UK horse owners and riders, >18 years and with variable educational achievements (no degree: n=74, undergraduate degree,
n=27, postgraduate qualification, n=27) completed 40 voluntary questions in an online multiple-choice survey, distributed via equine-
related Facebook™ sites,. Questions covered topics related to equine management, health, behaviour and welfare, and were
categorised as easy (n=14), medium (n=14) or hard (n=12) in terms of difficulty. Frequency analysis was used to determine response
rates.ANOVA with post-hoc LSD tests identified differences in knowledge between difficulty.
RESULTS
CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest a lack of fundamental knowledge exists in these horse owners, which has the potential to negatively impact
equine health and welfare. Further research needs to identify if this is a universal phenomenon in the equine industry and explore
strategies to educate horse owners and by association improve equine wellbeing.
0.00%
20.00%
40.00%
60.00%
80.00%
100.00%
Easy Medium Hard
P=0.003
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
Easy Medium Hard
0.00%
10.00%
20.00%
30.00%
40.00%
50.00%
Easy Medium Hard
The majority of respondents answered ‘easy’ questions correctly
(78.71%), with 18.36% selecting incorrect answers and 2.93%
stating they did not know the correct answer (Figure 1).
Less than half of the participants answered ‘medium’ questions
correctly (47.29%), with 31.51% selecting the incorrect answer and
21.21% not knowing the correct answer.
Even fewer respondents attained the correct answer for the ‘hard’
questions (21.51%), with the majority either selecting the incorrect
response (46.17%) or not knowing the correct answer (32.32%).
Fig. 4: Don’t know responses
Fig. 1: Responses to questions. EASY: Q1-14; MEDIUM: Q15-28, HARD: Q 29-40
Fig. 2: Correct responses Fig. 3: Incorrect responses
P=0.001
P=0.001 P=0.001
P=0.004
P=0.0001
0.00% 20.00% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%
1. Resting HR
2. DIPJ lay name
3. Define obligate nasal breather
4. Time spent eating in 24hrs
5. Ears flat back means...
6. Where is a horse's blind spot
7. Normal resting temperature
8. Approach a horse from...
9. Bit size is measured…
10. A whip should be used…
11. Response after horse moves off leg aid
12. After exercise, how to cool down
13. Time to exercise after 1 scoop chaff
14. Head nod on LFL contact, which leg is lame
15. Signs habituated to aids
16. Recc. Forage to concentrate ratio
17. Identify description of a horse on the bit
18. Signs of colic
19. Shoeing interval healthy, sound horse
20. Legal length time can travel before watering
21. Define stance
22. Identify XC speed for BE novice event
23. Where are caries found
24. Idenitfy horse working anaerobically (HR/…
25. Identify correct HPA front and hind feet
26. REM sleep occurs under …
27. What is a trichoglyph
28. What is operant conditioning
29. Select description of spinal movement on…
30. Typical pressures under cavesson nosebands
31. Palmar refers to which direction
32. Define 'uphill'
33. How many pairs of ribs in horse
34. Identify main vitamin lining horse's airways
35. What is base colour in a skewbald
36. Safe amount of garlic to feed
37. Select description of iron metabolism
38. Horse sweat glands are described as…
39. When healthy horse drops / misses a heart …
40. Select statement describes feed allergies
Correct Incorrect Don't know
Differences in correct responses between the question categories
were significant (ANOVA: F= 25.18, df=2, P=0.0001). Interestingly,
as difficulty increased, less correct answers were scored and it
appears ‘don’t know’ became a more preferred response (Figures
2-4).


English

Do Horse Owners Know How To Care For Their Horses?  

Taylor, F.

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Williams, Jane M.

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