Handling and Management Practices for Working Equids

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD HANDLING AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

The importance of good handling practices

For a working animal, interacting with people – or handling – is one of the most frequent things they experience. Each handling experience across their lifetime is an opportunity to shape their emotional and physical wellbeing.

Good handling reduces suffering and promotes wellbeing. Animals are prepared for the tasks required of them and understand the expectations of handlers through consistent, gentle signals. This creates a clear system of communication between people and animals, and should replace harmful practices such as inhumane training, goading, and whipping.

The importance of good management practices

Every person responsible for animal care has a duty to ensure animals are managed in a way that meets their physical, emotional, and behavioural needs.

Good management includes preventative strategies to reduce the likelihood of injury and disease. These practices benefit animal welfare and are more cost effective than responsive treatment.(1, 2) Good management improves the productivity, longevity, and quality of animals’ lives.(1)

Handling and Management Practices Influence Each Other

Good handling enables effective management practices including training, farriery, and veterinary care. In turn, good management practices facilitate handling interactions and produce healthy animals, capable of performing their working roles.(3)

An animal who has their needs met and feels safe and understood is more likely to be healthy, cooperative, and content. This means fewer injuries, less anxiety, and a happier life overall – for animals and people.

	How equids are handled influences their behaviour towards people both in the short term and long term.(4-6) Good handling makes human-animal interactions more effective, productive, and safe for both animals and people.(7, 8).
	Handling and management practices influence each other. Management practices that meet equids’ behavioural needs result in equids who respond better to people, and equids who are handled well are easier to manage.(9)

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD HANDLING AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Key Characteristics of Good Handling:

• Good handling achieves the desired outcome (for example, a veterinary examination) whilst promoting positive animal welfare both at the time of handling and in the long term.
• The cognitive and sensory capabilities of equids are understood and accounted for. For example, handlers demonstrate awareness of the blind spots of equids.(9)
• Human interactions are consistent and predictable, with animals given the opportunity to build lasting relationships with individual people.

Good handlers can:

• Appraise animal welfare, understanding how an animal’s welfare state and handling impact each other.
• Understand, recognise, and interpret equine behaviour
• Implement a range of different handling protocols, selecting the most appropriate protocol based on the individual situation.
• Communicate effectively with other people involved in the handling and management of the animal, for a consistent approach.
• Demonstrate sensitivity for the natural movement capabilities of the equid, giving them appropriate space to turn and allowing adjustment of gait to cope with corners/uneven terrain.

Key Characteristics of Good Management:

Management decisions are based on:

• The individual animal’s welfare state and needs, alongside other individual factors including genetics and experience.
• Both the animals’ immediate needs and their needs over their lifetime
• The impact on the animals’ quality of life, ensuring that the balance of lifetime experiences is predominantly positive.

Good management systems incorporate positive aspects of equids’ natural environments and allow the expression of species-specific natural behaviours. This includes, but is not limited to:

• The ability to live with and establish relationships with animals of the same species, with full social contact and choice in preferred companions. (10-12)
• Choice and control over movement and surroundings, with opportunities for rest, exploration, problem-solving, and learning.
• Regular (at least daily) freedom to roll on a soft ground surface, free from faeces, debris, or hazards.
• Access to forage and water that meets their nutritional and behavioural needs.(13,14)

Management practices mitigate risks and harms associated with animals working. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Ensuring optimal health through preventative healthcare, hoofcare, and routine checks
• Prompt healthcare in response to illness and injury
• Additional nutritional support to meet the energy expenditure associated with animals working
• Ethical training for tasks that animals are expected to perform (working tasks and participation in husbandry and healthcare procedures)
• Comfortable, well fitted and maintained harness, including any cart or pack saddles
• Ensuring animals are fit for the work expected of them
• Reducing workloads for vulnerable animals (for example, pregnant or nursing mares with foals at foot; sick, old, and infirm animals), and ensuring work does not compromise animals’ musculoskeletal maturation
• Frequent and suitable resting opportunities, with the ability to lie down fully in an environment that gives choice of where to rest and protection from fear, distress, and discomfort (9)
• People working and interacting with the animal in any capacity have the appropriate skills and resources to perform their duties competently and without putting the welfare of the equid at risk

Restraint

Restraint is a method of restricting an animal's movement. It can be used as a management practice to confine an animal to a designated area (for example by tethering) or to reduce or prevent movement for the purpose of examination, healthcare or treatment.

Those responsible for handling and management of working equids should use the minimum restraint possible (both in severity and duration) to achieve safety for animals and people. Chemical restraint should be used in place of harmful restraint practices. Pain relief and anaesthesia should always be used to mitigate painful management practices.

Tethering

Animals should be tethered by a broad leather neck strap, fitted so that it does not rub or mark the animal’s fur or skin. Animals should not be tethered by the leg.

Tethered animals should be able to exhibit natural behaviours, such as grazing, rolling, and socialising, without risk of entanglement. They need access to adequate feed, water and shade or shelter in an area of flat ground with no hazards or roads. The area should be kept clear of manure and animals should be relocated frequently to allow access to fresh pasture and prevent excessive ground damage.

Vulnerable animals (for example, late pregnant or nursing mares; sick, old, infirm, untrained and/or young animals) are generally not suitable for management by way of tethering. Extra care is needed when tethering stallions, particularly near mares or other stallions. Loose animals should be kept separate to tethered animals.

Tethered animals should be checked regularly and must not be left unattended for long periods.(15)

Hobbling

Hobbling severely compromises animal welfare as it is a major cause of leg wounds, and it excessively restricts the ability to exercise natural behaviours. If hobbling is being practiced, harm can be limited by using wide, flat, non-abrasive materials instead of rope and following the guidance for tethering until an alternative method of restraint is adopted.

Unacceptable practices

The following practices cause unacceptable levels of animal welfare compromise: hitting, kicking, goading, shouting, pulling the ears, tail or limbs, any form of punishment, casting a conscious animal with ropes, ear twitching.

	Good handling and management practices account for the species-specific and individual needs of working equids. Horses, donkeys, and mules have different needs and tendencies.
	Domestic donkeys may form very strong pair bonds, the separation of which may result in mental and physical signs of distress such as vocalising, pacing, apathy, and reduced appetite.(16) This may lead to an increased risk of developing hyperlipaemia in response to the stress. (17)
	Donkeys are often described as “stoic” animals due to people’s difficulty recognising pain and other emotions, and their higher propensity to ‘freeze’ in response to threat compared to horses and mules. However, donkeys display numerous indicators associated with pain and stress that must be recognised for effective handling and management.(13)
	Good handling and management practices use minimally aversive techniques that offer the animal as much control and choice as possible.
	Cattle crushes are not suitable for handling equids and carry risk of injury. Their use should be avoided.
	Appropriate and effective analgesia (including anaesthesia where necessary) must be used for any management practices expected to cause pain.(18) If analgesia medication is not available, then painful management practices should be avoided.
	The animal decides what is a positive interaction. For example, patting and stroking are often considered good handling, but if the animal finds human contact aversive, then continuing to pat and stroke them is not good handling.

WHAT AFFECTS PEOPLE’S HANDLING AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES?

Handling and management practices are influenced by people, animals, and the environment in which they live and work.

To perform good handling and management behaviours people must have the:

• Capability: the psychological and physical capacity to engage in the behaviour. For example, the physical strength to balance on a cart without leaning on the reins, or the ability to self-regulate emotions in challenging situations. People must have knowledge of equine management, handling and behaviour.
• Opportunity: the physical and social external factors that make the behaviours possible. For example, suitable road surfaces and junctions to allow safe driving practices, or animal health providers promoting and accepting good handling practices.
• Motivation: the physical, cognitive, and emotional processes that prompt behaviours (including beliefs, values, goals and habits). For example, an owner’s belief that their donkey experiences positive and negative emotions, or habitual turning out animals in rolling pits at the end of a working day.(19)

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WORKING EQUIDS DO NOT EXPERIENCE GOOD HANDLING AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES?

Inhumane handling and poor management can result in physical injuries, behavioural issues, and a significant decline in overall health, welfare and quality of life.

Managing animals in a way that does not meet their needs can result in animals expressing normal behaviours at times that are inconvenient to their handlers. This can cause significant challenges in handling and management.(12,20) Handling challenges make it difficult to work with, manage, and treat the animal, and carry a significant risk of injury to people.(21)

Sustained, unsuitable management practices cause chronic stress, which can cause permanent damage to animals’ abilhity to regulate stress responses and therefore their ability to cope with future situations. This contributes to negative health outcomes, poor productivity and economic loses. Exposing equids to uncontrollable stressors can also impair learning and lead to learned helplessness, a state of chronic trauma.(22-24)

	Social isolation is a significant stressor for equids (25) which can have negative impacts on animal health and welfare, and people’s ability to handle and work with animals.
	Every action counts - each action a person makes affects the equid and handler both in that moment and in the shaping of future behaviours.

HOW CAN GOOD HANDLING AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES BE ENSURED?

Some common examples of enablers and barriers to performing good handling and management practices are listed below, using the framework of Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation outlined above.(19)

Capability

• Appropriate training in handling and management of equids, which includes both knowledge and practical skill acquisition, is required by all involved with working equids.
• Veterinary and livestock/agriculture professionals may have access to formal learning institutions for such training.
• Veterinarians and competent authorities have a responsibility to provide evidence-based support and training to farriers, other animal service providers, and owners and users who do not have access to formal training opportunities.

Opportunity

• All who work with and care for working equids should be given the opportunity to acquire the skills needed for safe handling and management practices. It should be recognised that those responsible for decisions about an equid’s care may not be the same people who work with the animal or provide the care.
• Owners, care-givers, and users need access to competent animal health professionals, suitable harness equipment, and appropriate feed and water supplies. Access might be physical, financial, and/or social.
• The environment must support owners, users, and caregivers to meet the needs of their animals, for example, infrastructure for providing rest, shelters and water points. Competent authorities may need to support communal access to such opportunities.

Motivation

• Understand the individual motivation, drive, beliefs, and goals of those responsible for the handling and management of working equids. Where people are fearful of equids, overcoming this can be a critical enabler to performing good handling and management behaviours.
• Identify, and if appropriate reinforce, people’s beliefs about the consequences of their actions. This might relate to punishment for performing undesirable behaviours (for example, fines for whipping) or rewards for desirable behaviours (for example, healthier, more productive animals as a result of good handling and management practices).

Understanding the drivers of human behaviour and how these relates to the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders is key to ensuring good handling and management practices.

APPENDIX: ASSESSING HANDLING AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

A holistic animal welfare appraisal, using animal-based indicators alongside human behaviour and resource-based indicators, is the most comprehensive method of assessment of management practices.

There are several protocols for assessing this in working equids. In small scale projects a reduced number of indicators relevant to the specific management practices may be selected from these protocols

Handling assessment protocols should cover at a minimum: animal welfare appraisal; equine behaviour; and the application of animal learning theory.

Further information on and resources to assist with assessment are available under the ‘Criteria or measurables’ tab within the Working Equid Library of Information.

References