Cross sectional epidemiological study of the severity of buccal ulceration and sharp enamel points in ridden and unridden horses

ABSTRACT

The process of domestication of the horse introduced changes limiting accessibility to graze land and roughage while increasing highly digestible carbohydrates content of meal-fed rations. We have tested whether the effect of a higher degree of human contact impacts horses’ welfare by assessing the development of sharp enamel points (SEP) and buccal ulcerations (BU) in ridden and unridden horses. We were able to fit logistic regression models significantly differentiating the impact of these two conditions in both groups of horses (p < 0.001 for SEP and p < 0.01 for BU). The impact is higher in ridden horses for both conditions. These two conditions were found to correlate positively (ρ = 0.63, p < 0.001). We argued that human contact may impact on horses’ welfare. Further studies may help to clarify this impact with more detail. Dentistry may be helpful to provide improved welfare conditions; however, without regular access to grazed land, the stabled horses’ welfare may be at stake.

KEYWORDS:

• Buccal ulceration
• equine dentistry
• horse behavior
• horse welfare
• sharp enamel points

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sympathies to all the Potters Abattoir team for allowing and facilitating this study, as well as to the Central Equine Vets, Edinburgh, UK, for allowing the use of the photo. We would also like to express our gratitude to FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia for supporting CISAS – Centre for Research and Development in Agrifood Systems and Sustainability through the projects UIDB/05937/2020 and UIDP/05937/2020.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.