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. 2019 Feb 5;14(2):e0211852.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211852. eCollection 2019.

Could posture reflect welfare state? A study using geometric morphometrics in riding school horses

Emilie Sénèque  1 , Clémence Lesimple  1 , Stéphane Morisset  2 , Martine Hausberger  3
Affiliations

Could posture reflect welfare state? A study using geometric morphometrics in riding school horses

Emilie Sénèque et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Despite the fact that animal posture is known to reflect emotional state, the presence of chronic postures associated with poor welfare has not been investigated with an objective tool for measuring, quantifying and comparing postures. The use of morphometric geometrics (GM) to describe horse posture (profile of the dorsum) has shown to be an effective method of distinguishing populations that are known to differ in terms of welfare states. Here we investigated photographs of 85 riding school horses differing in terms of welfare state, in order to determine if a specific posture (modelled by GM) is associated with altered welfare. The welfare state was estimated with the prevalence of stereotypic or abnormal repetitive behaviours, depressed-like posture and the ear positions. ANOVA results show that horses with stereotypic or abnormal behaviour, and to a lesser degree horses with depressed-like postures, tend to have a flatter, or even hollow, dorsal profile, especially at the neck and croup levels. These altered profiles could represent an additional indicator of poor welfare, easy to use in the field or by owners.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Location of the different points used for the mixed method.
The landmarks are represented as crosses and the SSL as red points, and points used for the study of parts of the dorsal outline.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Deformation grids corresponding to the three first principal components of the SSL and mixed method on the dorsum without neck rotation, when standing motionless.
Grey = consensus, red = minimum of the axis, blue = maximum of the axis. Arrows show the part of PC which includes the more individuals expressing SB/ARB (when result of the ANOVA is statistically significant).
Fig 3
Fig 3. Deformation grids corresponding to the three first principal components of the SSL and mixed method on the head and neck when standing motionless.
Grey = consensus, red = minimum of the axis, blue = maximum of the axis.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Deformation grids corresponding to the three first principal components of the SSL and mixed method on the head and neck when hand walking.
Grey = consensus, red = minimum of the axis, blue = maximum of the axis).
Fig 5
Fig 5. Deformation grids corresponding to the three first principal components of the SSL and mixed method on the croup and back when standing motionless.
Grey = consensus, blue = minimum of the axis, red = maximum of the axis).
Fig 6
Fig 6. Deformation grids corresponding to the three first principal components of the SSL and mixed method on the croup and back when hand walking.
Grey = consensus, blue = minimum of the axis, red = maximum of the axis.
Fig 7
Fig 7. Photographs of two types of riding school horses.
(A) Photographs of riding school horses presenting characteristic elements of posture associated with poor welfare. They all express SB/ARB and show “depressed-like” posture too. (B) Photographs of riding school horses which don’t express SB/ARB and “depressed-like” posture and without characteristic elements of posture associated with poor welfare.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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