The human aspect of horse care: How the covid-19 pandemic impacted the wellbeing of equestrian industry stakeholders

Ashley Ward; Kate Stephen; Caroline Argo; Christine Watson; Patricia Harris; Madalina Neacsu; Wendy Russell; Dai Grove-White; Philippa Morrison

doi:10.3390/ani11082163

The human aspect of horse care: How the covid-19 pandemic impacted the wellbeing of equestrian industry stakeholders

Ashley Ward, Kate Stephen, Caroline Argo, Christine Watson, Patricia Harris, Madalina Neacsu, Wendy Russell, Dai Grove-White, Philippa Morrison^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

The Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

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Abstract

During the lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, equestrian stakeholders faced a dilemma whereby they were required to balance caring for the welfare of horses with adapting to the restrictions imposed to protect public health. The present study investigated the impact of the pandemic on the wellbeing of a sample of industry stakeholders, including horse owners, equine veterinarians, farriers and welfare centre managers (n = 26) using a qualitative methodology. Findings from the interviews indicated that the mental health and wellbeing of veterinarians and horse owners was negatively affected by pandemic-related obstacles to communication and limitations to horse– owner interactions. However, this study also identified several positive outcomes for wellbeing during lockdown resulting from pro-social activities that were engaged with by horse owners to overcome social isolation, the separation of the community and loneliness. These findings provide accounts of ways in which those caring for horses might be challenged during national emergency scenarios, pointing to areas that would benefit from future mental health and wellbeing interventions.

Original language	English
Article number	2163
Number of pages	16
Journal	Animals
Volume	11
Issue number	8
Early online date	22 Jul 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11082163
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding: This study was funded by Mars Petcare and is part of a PhD studentship funded by the Scottish Funding Council Research Excellence Grant (REG). Authors W.R. and M.N. receive salary support from the Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS). P.H. was involved in study design, data interpretation, and manuscript preparation.

Acknowledgments: We would like to extend our gratitude to the kind and willing interviewees who took part in this study. We would also like to thank Charlotte Maltin for her assistance with recruitment for this study.

Keywords

Equine
Interviews
Mental health
Pandemic
Qualitative
Welfare

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
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Cite this

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abstract = "During the lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, equestrian stakeholders faced a dilemma whereby they were required to balance caring for the welfare of horses with adapting to the restrictions imposed to protect public health. The present study investigated the impact of the pandemic on the wellbeing of a sample of industry stakeholders, including horse owners, equine veterinarians, farriers and welfare centre managers (n = 26) using a qualitative methodology. Findings from the interviews indicated that the mental health and wellbeing of veterinarians and horse owners was negatively affected by pandemic-related obstacles to communication and limitations to horse– owner interactions. However, this study also identified several positive outcomes for wellbeing during lockdown resulting from pro-social activities that were engaged with by horse owners to overcome social isolation, the separation of the community and loneliness. These findings provide accounts of ways in which those caring for horses might be challenged during national emergency scenarios, pointing to areas that would benefit from future mental health and wellbeing interventions.",

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The human aspect of horse care: How the covid-19 pandemic impacted the wellbeing of equestrian industry stakeholders

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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