"Is it abuse or neglect?" Sometimes law enforcement officials unfamiliar with horses or proper horse care have to make that call in an equine welfare case. Three equine researchers in California recently published a booklet to arm California law enforcement agents who might not be familiar with horses in detecting and describing neglect cases.

Grant Miller, DVM, a veterinary practitioner in Sonoma County, Calif.; Carolyn Stull, MS, PhD, an animal welfare extension specialist at the University of California, Davis; and Gregory Ferraro, DVM, director of the Center for Equine Health at UC Davis, teamed up to publish Minimum Standards of Horse Care in the State of California in late 2010.

According to Stull, despite equine welfare advocates' best efforts to educate horse owners about proper care, abuse and neglect continue to pose a significant threat to California's equine population. Stull has worked with several groups dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating neglected horses, and she recognized the need for a publication aimed at assisting law enforcement officials with identifying cases of substandard equine care. And after witnessing a large-scale seizure of 270 neglected horses in 2004, Stull said she became even more aware of the difficulties officials investigating such cases face.

"I started thinking, well, what is neglected and what isn't?" Stull said