FEI Code - Welfare
Welfare is one of those words that mean many different things to as many different people. The concept of welfare can be viewed in a scientific manner, where the physiological and psychological results of environmental stress, and the impact of it on an organism, is measured and a scale produced with 'very good' at one end and 'very poor' at the other but, even when a technical directory of measurement, cause and effect is to hand, the basic question remains unanswered, and that is the why of it rather than the what.
The importance of providing good welfare is an ethical or moral issue; it has no real existence in the physical world; it is subjective and entirely open to definition.
The task is made easier by the fact that more and more official bodies are producing welfare codes, from the European Community to the Fédération Equestre Internationale.
Of all the elements of the code, the most wide ranging and open to debate is the second, which is repeated below:
"The well being of the horse shall be above the demands of breeders, trainers, riders, owners, dealers, organisers, sponsors or officials."
Before going any further, we are going to have to look for a definition of just what 'well-being' means, particularly since its use is often interchangeable with 'welfare'. In some cultures there is only one word, which does the job of both but, since it is a conceptual term and therefore varies in its usage from culture to culture, this should not surprise us. According to the concise English dictionary 'well-being' is defined as: Happiness and good health'. Well-being is also said to have a "stronger connotation of subjective feeling in its use. It is used to refer more to the individual’s perception of its state itself. Well-being can be used to mean the feelings which an individual has about both its environment and the consequences of interactions with it."
