Cheval Bien-être is a utility, free, user-friendly and easy-to-use mobile application for assessing the well-being of horses, using scientifically validated objective indicators (physical and emotional). It is intended for everyone, professionals in the equine sector and private owners. The only application available today to assess animals, it complements the various tools offered by the sector, allowing owners to assess their best practices in the field of animal welfare (Guide to good practices of the Charter of well-being). to be equine, Equipass, labels…).The application is based on the Horse Well-Being protocol, published in 2020 on the IFCE website; the latter being the result of a scientific collaboration between IFCE, INRAE and the University of Milan.Using his mobile or tablet, the user is invited to enter, for each of his horses, around thirty indicators observed on the horses (such as the body condition score, the emotional state, the injuries, etc.) or in their environment (such as the daily quantities of fodder, the cleanliness of the water, etc.). The results of the assessment are provided in the form of graphs, representing the percentage of satisfactory horses, for each indicator, within the 4 main scientifically recognized principles of animal welfare: food, housing, health and behavior. At the end of the assessment, the user can, if he wishes, join a participatory science project by transmitting his data anonymously, on a secure platform managed by the IFCE.For the user, this application allows to acquire a better knowledge of the indicators in order to highlight the good indicators and those which can be improved. When the evaluation indicates that one or more indicators can be improved, the user can, using the various tools available to help implement good practices, adapt or modify their practices. He can thus follow the evolution of a group of horses over time, compare groups of horses or assess the effects of a change in his practices.Thanks to the transmission of their results by voluntary Internet users on its collaborative platform, the IFCE will be able to use the database thus constructed and obtain statistics over periods of time and selected categories (discipline, geographic location, age, etc.). These data will make it possible to establish the current situation, to monitor developments and to move towards suitable dissemination programs.
Cheval Bien Etre
