Horses are mainly kept in individual loose boxes but in the last decades, other types of husbandry systems have been increasingly used, including pasture-based systems. Welfare protocols have been developed for box-stabled horses while are lacking for pasture-kept horses. Even if pasture is considered to better meet the horses' ethological requirements, it is not free from welfare risks.

With these premises, the aims of this project are: 1) to develop an objective and feasible protocol to assess the welfare of pasture-kept horses; 2) to perform a first application of the developed protocol on Italian Heavy Draft Horses (IHDHs) kept at pasture in Italy. To develop the protocol the most indicative animal-based measures and resource-based measures will be selected analysing the literature. The protocol will be developed taking into account the five Domain approach. Once the protocol is developed, the first application will be done to test it in the field and to assess a significant number of herds (n=86 farms) of IHDHs kept at pasture in Italy. The project will last six months. During the first month, the protocol will be developed, then the following three months will be used for data collection (application of the protocol). Finally, the last two months will be spent analysing the data and writing the thesis. This project will contribute to enhancing the welfare of horses by proposing and applying an ad hoc welfare protocol. The main welfare issues and benefits of this type of husbandry will be identified and recommendations on how to better manage those horses will be provided. The breeders will be further educated on those recommendations and on how to use the protocol to self-evaluate the welfare of their animals.