GUIDE FOR EVALUATING ANIMAL WELFARE IN ANIMAL-BASED TOURISM IN FINLAND Animal species: Horses

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Guide for evaluating animal welfare in animal-based tourism in Finland

Animal species: Horses

Over the last few decades, tourism has experienced continued growth, becoming one of the most important sectors in Lapland and other northern regions of Finland. Animals have played a very important role in support-ing this growth. Animal-based activities are not only very popular among tourists, but also one of the reasons for visiting northern Finland. Furthermore, animals such as sled dogs, reindeer, and Finnhorses have become an important branding element of Lapland and other tourism destinations in the North.

This document is one of four aiming to better guide the process of evaluating and communicating animal wel-fare in animal-based tourism activities in Finland. Their focus is on three main animal species: sled dogs, rein-deer, and horses. The documents are highly relevant at a time when animal welfare in tourism is being pushed forward due to consumer demand. While many tourists feel that close interaction with animals is an exciting way of spending a holiday, they also have become more aware of the negative impacts that tourism can have on animals. As a result, animal welfare is becoming a critical criterion used by tour operators to select their suppliers.

The document at hand provides a group of specific themes and focused questions to evaluate the welfare of horses involved in tourism operations. The document aims to help animal-based tourism companies, destina-tion marketing companies, tour operators, and other stakeholders to identify the issues that need to be consid-ered to guarantee the welfare of horses working in a Finnish tourism context. Moreover, this document builds a solid foundation for the future development of animal welfare criteria for auditing systems, certification, or other similar assessment tools focusing on horses as a tourism working animal.

The themes and questions included in this document are the outcome of an action research process conducted in the project “Animals and responsible tourism: promoting business competitiveness through animal welfare”, which was funded by Business Finland under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). In addition to public funding, 10% of the project budget is financed by 10 Finnish tourism companies: Lapland Safaris, Harriniva Hotels & Safaris, Ranua Wildlife Park, Arctic Reindeer, Arctic Husky Farm, Hetta Huskies, Lapland Husky Safaris, OFF-Piste Adventures, Polar Lights Tours and Ruska Laukka. The project was implemented by the University of Lapland, Multidimensional Tourism Institute (MTI) during the period 01.08.2016-31.07.2018. More information about the project can be found at www.animaltourismfinland.com

In addition to the 10 companies co-financing the project, a wide range of animal welfare and responsible tour-ism experts took part in the action research process. The following experts were involved in the development of the document at hand: Vicki Brown (Responsible Travel), Mia Halmén (The Finnish Association for Fair Tour-ism), Outi Kähkönen (Lapland University of Applied Sciences), Tiina Kauppinen (Natural Resources Institute Finland, The Finnish Centre for Animal Welfare), Satu Raussi (Natural Resources Institute Finland, The Finnish Centre for Animal Welfare) and Kati Pulli (Finnish Federation for Animal Welfare Associations). Also, refer-ences to the Finnish regulation, Government Decree on Horse Protection (588/2010) (Valtioneuvoston asetus hevosten suojelusta (588/2010)) are made.

This document was written and assembled by Meike Witt (Exploring Iceland), Researcher Tarja Salmela and Project Leader José Carlos García-Rosell, University of Lapland, Multidimensional Tourism Institute (MTI), Finland.

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Contents

1. Horse management ..........................................................................................................................................41.1 Containment areas .......................................................................................................................................................4

1.1.1 If horses are kept predominantly in open fields, free stables, or free stall barns: ...................................... 41.1.2 If horses are kept predominantly in stables: .................................................................................................... 5

1.2 Issues related to both containment area options ................................................................................................6

2. Horse health and record-keeping ..................................................................................................................72.1 Deworming practices and vaccinations ...................................................................................................................72.2 Veterinary check-ups....................................................................................................................................................72.3 Hoof and teeth management ....................................................................................................................................82.4 Accidents and sickness ................................................................................................................................................82.5 Other assessment of horses’ health ........................................................................................................................8

3. Feeding and watering..................................................................................................................................... 10

4. Weather conditions ........................................................................................................................................ 11

5. Working conditions ......................................................................................................................................... 125.1 Working hours .............................................................................................................................................................125.2 Working and training practices ................................................................................................................................125.3 Gear ................................................................................................................................................................................13

6. Life span ............................................................................................................................................................ 14

7. Staffing ............................................................................................................................................................... 15

8. Customers......................................................................................................................................................... 178.1 Customer education...................................................................................................................................................178.2 Customer transparency .............................................................................................................................................178.3 Customer evaluation ..................................................................................................................................................17

9. Business and tour management ................................................................................................................. 189.1 Route assessment ......................................................................................................................................................189.2 Accident prevention ...................................................................................................................................................189.3 Accident plan ................................................................................................................................................................199.4 Multi-day tours (if provided by the company) ......................................................................................................19

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1. Horse management

• What is the size of your company?

• How many horses do you have?

• How long have you been operating?

• Do you provide multi-day rides, or do you focus on short rides?

1.1 Containment areas

• Are horses kept in stables or in fields/free stall barns?

1.1.1 Ifhorsesarekeptpredominantlyinopenfields,freestables,orfreestallbarns:

• How large are the pastures/fields that you provide for the horses?• Do fields encourage your horses to move?

» Versatile terrain, paths, feed, and water in different parts of the fields? Please describe.• How big are the herds that share one field (how many hectares is allocated to one horse)?

• What kind of fencing do you use? • What material is it?• Is the fencing appropriate to be used particularly for horses? Why?• What type of gates do you have? How have you ensured their safety?• Do you use electric fencing? Why?

• How do you make sure that feed, such as hay, stays clean?• How is it fed to the horses? • Do they eat from feeding boxes, metal rings, or right out of the plastic bales?• Why do you choose this method?

• How do you secure that horses that are low in the hierarchy get access to the feed, water, and a comfortable resting place when kept predominantly in open fields, free stables, or free stall barns?

• What kind of field hygiene do you apply to your fields, especially when it comes to infestation with parasites?• Collecting droppings at regular intervals, different types of animals interchanging fields, letting

fields rest from time to time?

• Open shelters (“pihatot”): • Describe the characteristics of open shelters that you provide for the horses:• How many open shelters do you have?• What is their size?

» According to the Finnish regulation Government Decree on Horse Protection (588/2010), the required size of the shelters depend on the height of an animal as measured at the withers. For example, a horse with 1.40 (max 1.48) meters of height must have a single stall of 7 square feet. A group stall (“ryhmäkar-sina”) accordingly must provide 7 square feet of space for one full-grown horse. The sleeping hall in a group stall must be 80 % of the area of a single stall for one full-grown horse.

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• Do shelters have two exits or one wide exit?

• What type of bedding is used in the shelters? Why do use choose this bedding?• How often are the beddings cleaned? • How do you ascertain that horses that are low in the hierarchy get space in the shelter?

• Do all the horses share the shelters, or do you divide the pack of horses into certain groups?• Does it depend on the time of year? (summer, winter) • How are the groups established? Explain how you make these decisions.

• Do you complement the man-made open shelter with forest or other natural shelters?• What are they like, and how many are there?

• Do you have boxes for sick horses? • What are they like? How big are they? Where are they located?

• Where do the horses usually sleep when they are moving freely in the fields and open shelters?

• How do you guarantee that the horses in the fields have access to salt, minerals, vitamins as well as fresh, unfrozen water (even in freezing temperatures)? (more about watering and feeding in later sections)

• Do your horses have summer itch? Do they wear flysheets in summer?

1.1.2 Ifhorsesarekeptpredominantlyinstables:

• Are the horses in boxes? Or are they together in a free stall barn or a so-called active stable (“aktiivipihatto”)?

• What is the size of the boxes/stalls (see the above information about Finnish regulation)?

• What commodities are provided in the boxes and stables?• Windows to look out, access to salt and fresh water?• Do the boxes or the stable afford access to daylight?

• How do you manage good air quality/good ventilation in the stable?

• What kind of bedding do you have in the boxes?• Straw, wood shavings, sand, peat, pellets, other? • Why do you prefer this kind of bedding? Is it breed-specific?

• How often are the boxes cleaned? Who does the cleaning?

• What kind of floor material do you have in the parts of the stable where the horses are prepared for rides and move outside their boxes? • Rubber mats or something else? Why have you chosen this material?

• Are the horses granted the right to conduct species-specific behavior, that is:• to socialize and move freely outdoors?• to graze on a cultivated or non-cultivated pasture or field?

• How often are the horses allowed to go outdoors?• What is the maximum time for the horses to be kept in boxes at one period?

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1.2 Issuesrelatedtobothcontainmentareaoptions

• Do horses exercise in vegetation-free paddocks?• What is the footing material in paddocks: is it sand, gravel, woodchips or other?

• Do the horses have access to a good place to roll after riding? What type of place?• With other horses or alone?

• Do you tie your horses to poles and trees? • Why? • For how long? • What is the maximum time that you keep the horses tied to a pole or a tree?

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2. Horse health and record-keeping

• Do you have records that permit ready identification of each horse and the precise amount of horses in the farm/deceased horses, including the following information: • the horse’s photograph, name, sex, breed, distinctive markings, birth date, possible date of acqui-

sition, and the date of death, if known?• possible horse’s registration, microchip or tattoo number?

• Do you have a horse healthcare plan?• The plan (which can take the form of a file/album or be in digital form) can include information about:

medical operations (with medical case summaries), descriptions of the ways the horses work and ex-ercise, medication bookkeeping, feeding records, vaccinations, rasps and other welfare-related oper-ations (such as massages). The upcoming questions related to horse health could benefit from being assembled into a concrete, practical plan that is well-documented.

• A healthcare plan is a sign of well-planned company operations. It provides reliability for third-party representatives that horses’ health is taken seriously in the company. It also enables a third-party rep-resentative to evaluate the state of the horses’ health more easily than if the information was scattered among different files and notes or at worst not provided/assembled at all.

• In case you have a horse healthcare plan, have you prepared it together with or introduced the plan to a practicing veterinarian?

2.1 Deworming practices and vaccinations

• Are horses given a dewormer? How often?

• Do you use fecal examinations to count parasite eggs?

• Against which diseases are the horses vaccinated?• How often?• Do you follow your country’s national vaccination program? Define it.

• Do you have deworming practices and vaccinations documented?• Electronically or on paper?• Are they easily accessible to be seen by a third party (auditor, veterinarian)?• Where are they kept? (consider the horse healthcare plan)

2.2 Veterinary check-ups

• Do you have regular check-ups with a vet to monitor the overall health of the horse?

• Do you have a contract with a specific practicing veterinarian who takes care of your horses?• Who?• If a contract veterinarian is not available to your company, do the veterinarians who visit your

company change? How often?

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2.3 Hoof and teeth management

• How do you maintain good hooves?

• Do you have a shoeing plan? Is it available as a written document?

• Who does the shoeing (including rasping (“vuoleminen”) of the hooves) in your company?• Is it a professional blacksmith or a veterinarian?• How is the shoeing conducted in practice?• How often is it done? Describe the details.

• Are the horses ridden barefoot (unshoed) or shoed? Is it horse-specific? Describe it.

• Are the paddocks very muddy in wet seasons? • Do horses stand in mud the whole day?• What are your actions to correct this situation?

• Do you have regular checks for the horses’ teeth?• Does the same veterinarian check the teeth on her/his regular visits? How do you arrange this?

• How often are the horses’ teeth rasped?• Does the practicing veterinarian do it during the regular checks, or do you have another type of

procedure for this? Explain.

2.4 Accidents and sickness

• Do you have a protocol in place in case of accidents? Who is responsible for evaluating the need for a vet?

• Do you have a plan for how to get a horse home if an accident happens away from home?

• Do you have a sick stable for injured or sick horses?

• Who is responsible for checking on the sick/injured horse during the day/night?

• Do horses get time to recuperate?

2.5 Other assessment of horses’ health

• Mental health:• Do you grant the horses the right to socialize and live with other horses (a crucial part of horses’

species-specific behavior as a social animal)? • If you keep the horses alone without other horses’ company, how do you ensure the horses’

mental welfare if they long for social interaction?• Do you systematically follow the horses’ mental welfare? Are they motivated to work? Changes in

behavior? What is done to correct the situation?• How do you monitor and react to horses’ deviant behavior?• Do horses have versatile work to enhance their wellbeing?

» Riding tours, dressage, groundwork with stretching exercises, walks, sleigh rides, etc.

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• Do you have any ointment to protect the horses from midges and other insects?• Do you shave the horses’ fur from the parts of the gear to enhance ventilation and avoid the de-

velopment of moisture underneath the gear? • This can happen when the weather gets warmer, and the horses are ridden a lot.• Do you clip your horses? • If yes, in what way does it add to the comfort of the horse? Is it breed-specific?• Who performs these procedures? How do you plan their execution?

• How do you prepare for possible infectious diseases that the customers can bring to the farm?• Do you allow the customers to use their own helmets, shoes, and other equipment, or provide

the equipment for them?• Do you use disinfectants with the customers? How?• Do you wash your horses? How often and why? If needed, where do you wash them?

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3. Feeding and watering

• What kind of feed do your horses get? Is it breed-specific?

• What different types of food do you offer to the horses? • Horses with allergies, horses needing extra energy, etc.?

• Where do you store the food?

• Do you have feeding records to monitor the amount and type of food the horses are getting?• Where do you keep these records?

• Do you have fodder bookkeeping?

• How often are your horses fed? • Constant access to hay? Slow-feeding? • Low-energy food for constant feeding?

• Do your horses get low-energy feed for nibbling such as tree branches?

• Who is responsible for evaluating if a horse needs more or less feed because of weight loss or gain?

• How do you manage the special diet for particular horses, if they have constant access to hay when living in the fields and active stables?

• Do you use hay roll nets? • Using nets around the hay makes eating resemble grazing as it is natural behavior to horses, it

also reduces the amount of hay falling down to the ground and getting trampled.

• Do old horses get a special diet, for example, due to bad teeth?

• How do you deal with freezing temperatures and access to water in winter (heated water bowls)?• How many heated water bowls do you have in your premises?

• Do horses have access to warm drinking water, especially after a ride in winter?

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4. Weather conditions

• How do you manage slippery routes? • Do you cancel the ride? • Do you use screw-in calks, hoof boots with removable studs?

• Is there a temperature limit for rides? • Is the activity adjusted according to cold or very hot weather (shorter, slower)?

• If the horse is sweaty after the ride in cold weather, how does it get dry? Stabled, blanketed?

• Do you cancel the ride, if there is a storm coming?

• Are there rides when the insect season (midges, horseflies, etc.) is at its worst? Possibility of riding at night when horseflies calm down?

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5. Working conditions

5.1 Working hours

• How many days do the horses work in one week? What is the pace of their workweek?

• How many hours do the horses work per day in general (a full-grown, fully trained horse)?

• What types of activities do the horses do on different days? how do they vary and effect the pace of the workweek?

• If you provide different types of activities, do you plan the workweek so that the horses can recover from socializing with the customers and get to spend time with familiar people and other horses?

• If you provide one type of activity (horse rides), how do you deal with a possible intense working period during high season when it is contrasted with a possible longer period with no customers?• How do you take care of the horses’ welfare, so that the physical burden won’t get too intense

during the high season, and the physical condition won’t get too low during the quiet season?

• Do the horses get days off? How do they spend their days off?

• Are there seasonal changes in working hours, i.e., in regard to high/low season, weather, breed-specific or others?

• Do horses get holidays (multiple days off)? Is it season-specific? Please explain.

• If horses are stabled, are there designated “quiet times” when horses are left in peace to eat, lie down?

• In case you have multiple horses working in your company, do you have a protocol on paper or electronically to record the actual numbers of horses’ working hours/days off/holidays? • Who is responsible for the accuracy of the protocol? • Does it include information about shoeing, accidents/sickness and recuperation days?

5.2 Working and training practices

• How often do you train the horses from a young age and when entering your farm? What type of principals do you have guiding the training?• What types of training practices do you have?

• Do you ensure that the horses are not worked beyond their willingness, capability, or conditioning?

• Do you ensure that your training methods do not cause fear, distress, or pain to the horses?

• Do you ensure that the horses are not pushed beyond their natural abilities by administering drugs or medications to enhance performance?

• Do you use analgesics and anti-inflammatories only under the direction of a practicing veterinarian?

• Who is in charge of training? Is it a professional? Do horses have a training plan?

• Do you ask for advice from a practicing veterinarian or a horse behaviorist already at the early stages of a behavioral problem?

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5.3 Gear

• What characteristics do you consider important when selecting your gear? Where do you get your gear from?

• Where do you store your gear? How is your storage organized?

• Do you have designated gear to individual horses?

• If you do not have gear designated to individual horses, how do you guarantee that the gear is suitable and fits all horses?

• Do you have additional gear, such as brushes, possibly also designated to individual horses to avoid, for example, mallophagan or fungal infections?

• How do you monitor that none of the equipment causes discomfort or injury, and that it is in good repair?

• Do you use blankets on the horses?• Do you have multiple types of blankets? What type of blankets and for what purpose are they?• All the time or just during certain times of the year? Why?• How many hours per day? • Is there a difference between seasons (i.e., at nighttime due to midges/flies/horseflies in summer)?• In case you use blankets with the horses, do you pay particular attention to drying the horses

after having physical exercise before wearing the blankets?

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6. Life span

• Do you breed your own horses? In case you do, do you have a breeding plan? • Is it documented electronically or on paper, and is it easily available to be seen by a third party

(such as an auditor/practicing veterinarian)?

• When you buy horses, where do you buy them? What characteristics do you value in a horse?

• What age are the horses that you buy? Why are they this certain age?

• At what age can you start using the horses commercially? Do you avoid using horses under five years of age to work with customers?

• Up to what age do you use the horses commercially?

• Do you buy horses that have been used for a different purpose, such as trotters?• How do you ensure that they are suitable to work with your customers?

• How do you calculate your business to cover for the early years of the horses, when they do not yet make profit for your company?

• Do you sell horses from your premises? In what types of situations?

• What happens to horses that are not suitable for the business (too excited, shy horses)?

• What happens to old horses? If you keep old horses in your farm, what do they do?

• Do you have a policy guiding your evaluation of the appropriate time for the possible euthanasia of old horses? Who makes the decision of euthanasia?

• Who carries out the euthanasia? A practicing veterinarian in all cases?

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7. Staffing

• Do you have a stable manager? Is s/he a professional?

• Do you have a line of command? Who is responsible for calling the vet, organizing supervision of sick horse, etc.?

• What kind of education does your staff have and receive while they are working for your compa-ny? Do you offer clinics like in Animal First Aid? How to spot a sickness like a colic or feeding?

• Do you have a structured educational program for new employees and seasonal workers? What is it like? Are there certain stages that everybody goes through?• The content and practical execution of the educational program depends on the size of the company.

For smaller companies, it is natural that the educational program is put into practice, for example, through mentoring; for large companies with more employees and greater turnover of the staff, for example, in the form of seasonal workers, the importance of a detailed educational program grows.

• Who pairs the horses with customers? • Is it ensured that (s)he knows the horses well and is able to make decisions about which custom-

er suits which horse?

• Does the staff treat horses as individuals? For example, which horses like to eat or walk close to each other?

• Do you employ volunteers? • Where do they usually come from/what is their background? • What type of work do the volunteers do? How do you audit and monitor them?• Do you provide lodging and food for them? How long do they stay on average?

• Do you give your staff the environment to speak openly and critically? Are they encouraged to speak up?

• Does your staff speak the languages of your clients? In case they do not, how do you manage these situations? If the customers do not understand your instructions due to a language barrier, what do you do? Do you refuse taking customers unable to understand the instructions to ride the horses?

• Does your staff have good knowledge of history, geology, cultural aspects (folk tales) of the trails? Do you work actively at improving your staff´s skills in these matters?

• Do you have common meetings (such as coffee breaks or others), where you discuss work-relat-ed issues together, and the members of the staff get a chance to speak up?

• How do you take care of the staff’s welfare?• Do you have well-planned working schedules both for the animals and the staff members to en-

sure their recovery?• Do you share work shifts with the staff, so that the same members of the staff will not have to

work from morning until late evening?• Do you plan work schedules well in advance? Do you try to guarantee longer free periods after

the high season for the staff? » Proper planning enables the possibility for the staff to plan and enjoy their personal lives.

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• Do you provide the opportunity for the staff to say their opinions of the planned schedule? Is the schedule available for them to see and comment on/propose their wishes?

• Do you provide practical means for the staff to write down important facts during their shift to inform others? A notebook, something else?

• In case you have a small company, how do you guarantee that you are able to recover in your work?

• Do you have the opportunity to get help in case you are sick or need time for recovery?

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8. Customers

8.1 Customer education

• Who makes the reservation for a ride?• Do they have enough experience in asking preliminary information? For example, if the customer

is scared of horses, a surprise tour is not a good present.

• Do you give your customers a thorough introduction?• Do you tell them about the breed, training, management? Do you tell them about safety?

• How do you cope with language problems?

• How have you ensured that the customers know what is allowed to do and what is not?

• Do you have a code of conduct for the customers? • Do you tell them what they should not do with the horses? Smoking, feeding horses, taking pic-

tures on horseback, tying horses to fences, overtaking or speeding without permission, etc.? • Do you have a document explaining this? In English and in Finnish? Where is it?

• Do customers need to respect biosecurity measures? For example, disinfection rules? Informa-tion of what they can and cannot bring to the company premises? What kind of equipment , such as spurs, whips, will you not accept?

• Do you have a weight limit? Do you make this clear to the customers beforehand, when booking?

• Do you have any policies concerning riding under the influence of alcohol or any other narcotics?

• How do you evaluate their riding experience, if the tour is for experienced riders only? Do you evaluate it both during the reservation and during the preparation for a ride?

8.2 Customer transparency

• Is your customer invited to all sites of your premises? • Are there areas/times when customers are not welcome? Why?

• If you have an information board about sick animals, treatment, working hours, is it visible to the customer?

8.3 Customer evaluation

• Do you have a questionnaire where customers can rate the welfare of animals at your place? • If not, what type of tools do you have to get feedback?

• Do you have work sessions with your staff to evaluate and improve matters that have received criticism?

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9. Business and tour management

9.1 Route assessment

• How do you evaluate the safety of the routes? • Do you have busy roads to cross or ride along? • Are there water crossings? Soft terrain such as swampy areas?

• How do you define which group of customers are ready to go riding on a more challenging route, and which group should take the easier route? • Who does this evaluation? What if the group is varied?

• What if a customer appears to be really nervous and frightened at the beginning of a ride, and you have allocated only one guide to go on the ride with the group? How do you react?

• Do you have a risk assessment plan?

• Are there paddocks for the horses to rest properly during the ride or safe ways to tie them?

• Is there fresh water for the horses (rivers, creeks, farms) during a long ride, especially in summer?

• Are there areas where there is no phone connection?

9.2 Accident prevention

• In case of busy roads: Can you enhance safety by using safety vests (first and last rider), by stop-ping traffic through guides or extra staff?

• If riding along busy roads: can you enhance safety by having a car driving slowly behind a group with a sign or even emergency lights flashing to make sure that drivers that overtake the group drive slowly and do not disturb the horses?

• How many guides do you have with your groups? • A good rule is at least one head guide and one helper who rides last in line to make sure nobody gets

lost and to intervene, if problems come up in the back of the line, which might go unnoticed by the head guide riding upfront. But the number of guides depends on group size, route, and type of clients (more guides for children, inexperienced riders).

• Do the guides have a system to check on loose girths, ill-fitting saddles and other malfunctions of tack?

• In areas where there is no phone connection, you might need to have a system in place, where you call in/out to the office home when you enter/leave such an area.

• Do all guides have valid First Aid certifications (should be renewed every 2 years) and first aid equipment? A very good course for Wilderness guides is this one: https://www.outwardbound.fi/kurssit-ja-koulutus/ammattilaiskurssit/

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9.3 Accident plan

• Do you have a system for how a guide in a no-signal area could contact emergency services? Shoot up emergency flares, satellite phone, emergency beacon, one guide stays with the group while the other rides for help?

• Are all guides and helpers familiar with this plan?

• Do you have a backup plan in place to replace injured/sick horses? Transportation or farms nearby?

• Do you have a First Aid Kit for people and horses? Are the guides professional enough to spot sickness and treat for it, such as colic?

• What plans do you have in place if a horseshoe is loose during the tour? What if a horse loses its horseshoe altogether?

9.4 Multi-daytours(ifprovidedbythecompany)

• On multiple-day tours, where do the horses stay at night? • Is it safe? • Is it comfortable, so the horses can get a good rest (free from midges/flies, wind/rain shelter)

• Does the resting place have access to fresh water and salt (very important on long riding tours)?

• Are the horses supervised during the night?