Q: One of the challenges with equine pain management is often simply detecting a horse in pain and to what extent. From a behaviorist’s point of view, what signs might indicate a horse is in pain, and what can owners do to better pick up on them?

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A: I have come to view undetected pain, the misunderstood behavioral manifestations of physical discomfort, along with the "if we can’t find a source of pain, it must be just bad behavior," as one of the biggest persisting threats to domestic horses’ welfare.

You would think that a reasonable, caring, and observant caretaker ought to know when a horse is uncomfortable or painful, and we sure would think an equine veterinarian doing a good physical examination would be able to recognize that a horse is physically uncomfortable. Certainly for many injuries and medical conditions signs of discomfort are clear enough that caretakers recognize pain immediately, and we or our veterinarians can quickly pinpoint the likely cause. But very often horses suffering from painful conditions are fairly stoic and their discomfort is difficult to detect. And often owners and managers working with their horses day-to-day pick up on changes in behavior and complain that something is wrong, but neither they nor their veterinarians identify a cause. The difficult truth is that horses can and often do "hide" pain for a long time. While we certainly know that horses–just like people–vary in their threshold for exhibiting behavioral changes in response to painful injuries and conditions, in general horses qualify among species as "stoic to the max