Table 2.

Illustration of the species-specific information required to assess welfare of free-roaming horses using the Five Domains Model (from Harvey et al., 2020 [4]).

Domain	Species-Specific Information Required
1: Nutrition	Water requirements: volume, frequency, preferred water sources, factors influencing water requirements, adaptations to and impacts of water restriction
	Nutritional requirements and preferences
	Common nutritional deficiencies and excesses and their causes, plant toxicities
	Assessing body condition, body condition scoring systems, optimal body condition score, factors affecting body condition
2: Physical environment	Habitat preferences, and factors affecting habitat selection and use
	Preferred underfoot substrate and terrain
	Thermoneutral zone, impacts of extreme climate events, signs of thermal discomfort
3: Health	Common non-infectious diseases and their clinical signs, risk factors, aetiologies, diagnosis and prognosis
	Common infectious diseases and their clinical signs, epidemiology, mode of infection, characteristics of infectious agent (e.g., life cycle, survival in environment, involvement of other species)
	Common injuries and their clinical signs, risk factors, aetiologies, diagnosis and prognosis
	Sickness and pain behaviours
4: Behavioural interactions	Social organisation and factors affecting it
	Population dynamics
	Reproductive physiology and behaviours; oestrous, courtship, mating, gestation, parturition, lactation, maternal and newborn behaviour
	Normal range of behaviours and time budgets
	Social behaviour (including ‘rewarding behaviours’, e.g., play) and communication