Table 1.

A proposed alignment framework for horse-related organisations to guide the development of sentience informed policies to promote positive horse welfare and well-being. The framework provides an evidence base for stakeholder engagement through a checklist that aligns the results from this study with relevant examples from the literature.

Alignment framework for organisations: Sentience
No	Checklist	Horse sector participant understanding (Results from this study)	Science, philosophy and ethics (examples)
1	Horses are sentient.	Recognising that horses are sentient, possessing emotions and feelings.	Sentience, pain (Mellor 2019; Mellor et al. 2020; Edelblutte et al. 2023). Perceptions relating to equid sentience, pain, and emotions (DuBois et al. 2018; Hötzel et al. 2019; Bornmann et al. 2021; Fletcher et al. 2021; Tolls & Carr 2021). Policy (Yeates 2022).
2	Horses are individuals.	Recognising sentient horses as unique individuals.	Horses are individuals with unique temperaments, personalities, preferences, and behavioural characteristics (Hausberger et al. 2004;Van Den Berg et al. 2016; Mellor 2019; Edelblutte et al. 2023; Haddy et al. 2023; Jaramillo et al. 2023; Jolivald et al. 2023; Kieson et al. 2023).
3	Horses are social and communicate.	Perceiving the sentient horse as social. Providing opportunities for social connection.	Equine sociality (Rørvang et al. 2018; Mellor 2019; Briard et al. 2021; Maeda et al. 2021; Edelblutte et al. 2023; Harvey et al. 2023). Perceptions about equine social factors (Birke & Thompson 2018; Hötzel et al. 2019; Bornmann et al. 2021; Merkies & Franzin 2021).