{"id":2843,"date":"2021-09-19T09:48:23","date_gmt":"2021-09-18T23:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2843"},"modified":"2021-09-01T16:53:23","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T06:53:23","slug":"abstracts-exploring-horse-owners-understanding-of-obese-body-condition-and-weight-management-in-uk-leisure-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=2843","title":{"rendered":"Abstracts: Exploring horse owners’ understanding of obese body condition and weight management in UK leisure horses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Background: <\/strong>Equine obesity is considered one of the most serious\nwelfare concerns in UK leisure horses, yet little is known about how horse\nowners conceptualise their horse’s weight as part of its health, or how they\nplan and carry out weight management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Objectives: <\/strong>This study aimed to further our understanding of leisure\nhorse owners’ perceptions of equine health and awareness of excess fat in order\nto clarify our understanding of successful strategies for managing equine\nweight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Study design: <\/strong>This study used a qualitative research methodology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Methods: <\/strong>Data comprised 16 threads from online UK equine\ndiscussion fora, 28 individual interviews with leisure horse owners, 19\ninterviews with equine professionals such as vets and nutritionists, and two\nfocus groups with a further 21 horse owners. Data were anonymised and analysed\nusing a grounded theory approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Results: <\/strong>Awareness of excess fat was a complex issue, with owners\nfinding it difficult to differentiate equine obesity from the shape they\nthought the horse was “meant to be”, particularly if the horse was a\nheavier breed such as a native pony or cob. Owners were not necessarily\n“aware” or “unaware” of fat, but instead equine body fat\nwas constructed as an integral part of the equine body. For example, owners\nmight say that they thought their horse was an ideal weight yet describe their\nhorse’s overall body shape as “like a Thelwell”. When owners became\naware of fat as a changeable part of the horse’s body, and\/or a threat to\nhealth, the presence of fat was articulated as a strong-willed adversary, and\nweight management was considered a “battle” or “war”.\nOwners found weight management difficult because they perceived that it had\nimmediate negative welfare implications for the horse, and this therefore\ninterfered with their preferred ownership practices and the horse-human\nrelationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main limitations: <\/strong>Interview data are self-reported, and people may not\nalways do what they say they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusions: <\/strong>This study has provided valuable insight into how owners\nconceptualise weight and weight management, yielding important information\nabout communicating with owners about weight, tailoring weight management\nstrategies, and promoting positive welfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamzin Furtado<\/a> <\/sup>1<\/sup><\/a>, Elizabeth Perkins<\/a> <\/sup>2<\/sup><\/a>, Gina Pinchbeck<\/a> <\/sup>1<\/sup><\/a>, Catherine McGowan<\/a> <\/sup>1<\/sup><\/a>, Francine Watkins<\/a> <\/sup>2<\/sup><\/a>, Robert Christley<\/a> <\/sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equine Vet J<\/em>.\u00a02021 Jul;53(4):752-762.doi: 10.1111\/evj.13360<\/a>.\u00a0Epub 2020 Oct 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1<\/sup>Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological\nSciences, University of Liverpool, Leahurst Campus, Neston, UK.2<\/sup>Institute\nof Population Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Background: Equine obesity is considered one of the most serious welfare concerns in UK leisure horses, yet little is known about how horse owners conceptualise their horse’s weight as part of its health, or how they plan and carry out weight management.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54,23,2217,55,2218],"class_list":["post-2843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abstracts","tag-abstracts-2","tag-equine","tag-obesity","tag-research","tag-weight"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":3,"name":"Abstracts","slug":"abstracts","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":237,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":237,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Abstracts","category_nicename":"abstracts","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"Background: Equine obesity is considered one of the most serious welfare concerns in UK leisure horses, yet little is known about how horse owners conceptualise their horse’s weight as part of its health, or how they plan and carry out weight management.","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"3":{"name":"Abstracts","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=3"}},"tags_names":{"54":{"name":"abstracts","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=abstracts-2"},"23":{"name":"equine","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=equine"},"2217":{"name":"obesity","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=obesity"},"55":{"name":"research","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=research"},"2218":{"name":"weight","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=weight"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2844,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843\/revisions\/2844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}