Development of an ethogram for a pain scoring system in ridden horses and its application to determine the presence of musculoskeletal pain

There is evidence that more than 47% of the sports horse population in normal work may be lame, but the lameness is not recognised by owners or trainers. An alternative means of detecting pain may be recognition of behavioral changes in ridden horses. It has been demonstrated that there are differences in facial expressions in non-lame and lame horses. The purpose of this study was to develop a whole horse ethogram for ridden horses and to determine whether it could be applied repeatedly by one observer(Repeatability Study, 9 horses) and if, by application of a related pain behavior score, lame horses (n=24) and non-lame horses (n=13) could be differentiated.
Source: Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research - Category: Veterinary Research Authors: Source Type: research