Teaching horses at Harper Adams University (and across the educational sector) are used to teach students routine tasks and husbandry, such as putting on a head collar. Horses are expected to allow students, even those unfamiliar to themselves and equines in general, to practice placing a head collar on them. This is often repetitive with numerous students in a session and may be a welfare risk.

Research has hypothesized that greater understanding of animal personality can be used to improve animal welfare. Welfare is often categorised on a species or group level however, understanding individuals allows us to adapt welfare to specific preferences and needs. An individual's coping mechanisms may be important for its welfare as what one animals' cope with another will find detrimental. It has been found in humans that coping styles can be linked to stress related diseases.

Personality testing allows for a deeper understanding of an animal’s coping mechanisms and could result in improved welfare if management can be altered. When considering this in relation to teaching horses understanding equine personality could help to identify strengths, weakness and potential stressors, therefore improving their welfare overall if activity can be tailored to account for this. Personality is an important consideration in teaching horses' welfare due to its large impact on a horse's performance. For example, “fearfulness” would be undesirable as horses are expected to be handled by unfamiliar students who vary in experience. This study will determine behavioural profiles of teaching horses and how this impacts their response to a routine teaching task involving handling by unfamiliar vs familiar people. Horses are widely used for teaching tasks and this study’s findings could be utilised when considering protocols to identify horses most appropriate for teaching activities and therefore improve overall teaching horse welfare

You can read this blogpost about the experience of Ellie as a UFAW Scholar.