Management and welfare of the Italian Heavy Draft Horse

The Italian Heavy Draft Horse (IHDH) is bred for multiple purposes. This study aims to investigate the husbandry and welfare issues of IHDH and their associations via a questionnaire. A representative sample of 92 breeders answered. They were mainly middle-aged men who personally looked after animals (70.6%). Most of them had more than 20 years of experience (73.6%), which was associated with rearing horses in groups and for multiple purposes (p-values <0.05). Respondents fed horses hay and grain, and water was offered ad libitum. Horses were reported to be kept in several ways, namely extensively (42.9%), in groups (79.3%), in paddocks (45.7%), or at pasture (41.3%). However, 17.4% of respondents kept their horses intensively in individual boxes. Deworming was always performed, more often in semi-intensively reared horses (p-value <0.001). More than one-third (36.3%) of respondents reported their horses experienced at least one pathology, with diarrhoea, colic, and injuries being the most common. Univariable logistic regressions with the dummy variable ‘Presence of at least one pathology’ showed that the odds of having an unhealthy horses were increased when respondents owned more than 10 horses, reared horses in intensive systems and in groups, and reported no dental or hoof care (all p-values <0.05). Branding was practiced (85.9%) and extensively reared horses were less likely to be halter trained (p-value <0.001). Overall, group housing and ad libitum water were identified as good practices while no scheduled dental and hoof checks, hot branding and lack of basic training need improvement.