ESNZ has put together some guidelines that have especially been prepared for competitors going to the Defender Horse of the Year 2025. The Five Domains model of animal welfare assessment has been used by World Horse Welfare since 1994 and is based on an individual animal, or group of animals’ welfare at any point in time.
These Domains each contribute to an animal’s overall welfare and allow us to assess the Four Functional Domains, which impact an animals’ welfare, as either a positive or negative influence on the animals’ experience of its world in Domain five.
One of the most important strengths of the Five Domains is that it recognises that minimising or resolving negative physical, health or mental states does not necessarily result in positive welfare but may only provide a neutral state.
To help ensure animals have a ‘life worth living’ they must have the opportunity to have positive experiences. To enable this, those responsible for the care of animals need to provide them with environments that not only allow but encourage animals to express natural behaviours that they find rewarding. Management of animals requires that all negative experiences are immediately addressed; positive experiences are identified and provided for them, and barriers to positive experiences removed wherever possible.
This shift in understanding is the basis for the Five Domains model which incorporates the provision of positive welfare and recognises mental affective states. It centres on the following five categories with practical provisions:
They are Nutrition, Environment, Health, Behaviour, Mental State. See the IRT Horse Welfare Hub for more.