Equine Welfare – Why Is It So Important?

Equine Welfare – Why Is It SO Important?

Horses and equines are the superstars of our livelihoods, whether they be our companions, our workmates, or our business partners! This makes it so entirely important to make sure that they have the best welfare, and this includes in their daily lives, their health, how they are worked with, how we’re working with them and so many other important pieces of the puzzle. We know that we are continuously learning, and our horses are so forgiving, but we always have to strive to ensure that their welfare is at the foundation of everything that we do!

When we work with our horses, ponies, or donkeys, we really try to better the world through working with them, as we are sure that the majority of you out there are doing this as well. And even if you’re not specifically working with equines in a business setting, they are constantly there for us and helping us to better our own selves. The one thing that we have found time and time and time again, is that you can never ever know enough. You have to keep learning about horses and about different ways of communicating with them, about how they communicate, and different ways of understanding them and moving forward with them. When you stop learning, that’s it. If you continue to stick with one way only of working with these beautiful creatures, you miss out on so much! So open your mind, as you never know what you might learn to help take your partnership with your horse to the next level.

Have you ever heard someone say ‘we use our horses to do…’ We were there once too. But then, something hit us. This is terminology that NEEDS to change! We should be ‘working with’ our horses, not ‘using’ them as tools themselves. They’re living, breathing beings, and we need to work with them. We need to build a partnership with them. Just imagine being in an office and somebody says, “I’m going to use you for this today.” It doesn’t feel right, and that’s the same with our horses. When we’re working with our horses, we’re truly finding that partnership with them. And it really brings everything, including their welfare, in a much nicer way that we can all communicate and work together. In our programs that we run, it’s a necessity that we work with them. We have to understand their personalities, understand them better understand how they teach because all of those things are an absolute necessity.

And that really takes us into the health versus well being piece of all of this too. Because a lot of times people will think that if they have a healthy horse, then they’ve got a horse that’s taken care of. But at the end of the day, it’s their full well being that really needs to matter. And we were really introduced to this with through the Welfare Guide with Guelph University. And there’s so much to think about when you own a horse. Like, when are you being kind and when is it their time to be put down, maybe, or what do we do if they are they sick? Should they be segregated from the rest of the herd? Does this have an impact on their well being if they’re segregated? How do you bring herds together properly? There is so much to think about with horses to make sure that their well being and their true well being is actually being taken care of.

Join us on our journey of covering topics that range from equine health to equine nutrition, to mindset and connection, to equine training, to the difference between welfare and health, and dive way deeper into the importance of the Equine’s Welfare!

We answer loads of information on what the importance of the horse’s welfare is in the video below, take a listen!

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