New research from ARU Writtle, part of Anglia Ruskin University, has found that most people struggle to recognise when a horse is in pain – a finding that could have serious implications for animal welfare.
The study, published in the journal Anthrozoös , is the first research to investigate how well people can spot discomfort in horses compared to in humans.
The researchers asked 100 participants to judge whether faces – 30 photographs of humans and 30 photographs of horses – showed signs of pain. The participants ranged from those with no experience of horse care to seasoned equestrians, and their responses were compared against ratings from equine behaviour experts.
The study found that while participants were generally good at detecting pain in humans, overall they were far less accurate with horses.
However, having more years of horse-care experience was associated with a higher accuracy in detecting horse pain, with these participants more likely to recognise subtle cues such as changes in ear position, eye angulation and muscle tension – all key indicators of discomfort in horses.
The research team, which included experts from Bournemouth University and São Paulo University, as well as ARU Writtle , also explored whether psychological traits in humans, such as social anxiety, influenced pain recognition.
Interestingly, the study found that participants with higher levels of social anxiety had superior pain recognition abilities compared with those who were less anxious, but this only applied to judging pain in humans.
Rosa Verwijs , Senior Lecturer in Equine Behaviour and Nutrition at ARU Writtle, said: "Horses are very good at hiding their pain, which is an evolutionary trait to disguise their vulnerability and avoid predators, but this makes it harder for us to spot discomfort.
"Many people might not realise a horse is in pain until the animal's behaviour escalates to potentially dangerous levels. Therefore, helping to promote early recognition of pain by owners could mean quicker vet care and better welfare for horses.
"An interesting finding from our study was that people with social anxiety were accurate at identifying pain in human faces, but not in horses, often scoring horses as being in pain when they were not. This shows how human psychology may affect our interpretation of body language, highlighting that education and training on recognising pain in horses would benefit anyone with horses in their care."
Nicola J. Gregory, lead author of the study and Principal Academic in Psychology at Bournemouth University, said: "Humans depend on horses as work animals and are used in leisure and sport across the world. But the extent to which we can recognise pain in horses has never been studied. We showed that people are generally very poor at seeing pain in horses, but people who have a lot of horse experience were a great deal better at recognising these subtle signs of pain."
The researchers hope their findings will inform training programmes and raise awareness among horse owners and professionals to help improve equine welfare.
ARU Writtle, part of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), is one of the UK's leading providers of equine education. Alongside equine courses at college, undergraduate and postgraduate level, ARU Writtle has a number of indoor and outdoor riding arenas, an Equine Academy for talented riders and livery facilities for students' horses, with around 70 horses on campus at any one time.
