FAQ

You’ll love the E-BARQ dashboard and it’s easy to use:
Here is a quick guide

Whatever photo you upload, for example, if you take a perfect photo of your horse’s front profile for the whorls, will be stored on the E-BARQ server exactly as it was uploaded. At times, particularly if taken in portrait mode, the entire photo will not be displayed in the small icons on your E-BARQ dashboard. Don’t worry about this, it is better for the researchers that will be examining your horses’ whorls to have a larger image.

If your Share-&-Compare graph is not displaying properly, try changing internet browsers. Google Chrome works well but Firefox may not always perform correctly.

The light coloured bars on the graph show the average of the population. This average is being updated with each new horse that takes an E-BARQ questionnaire.

The categories are positively rated, meaning they represent desirable behaviors in our horses. For example, if your horse scores well on ‘Easy to load’, this is a good thing. The same applies for ‘Rideability’, ‘Trainability’ and so on.

Your horse’s current scores will be shown as a dark bar on the graph. The end of the beige bar is average so if your horse’s score is beyond that then your horse scored above the average (light coloured bar) of the population of horses that have taken an E-BARQ questionnaire to-date.

Here is a breakdown of the categories:

1) Trainability – how your horse learns from combined reinforcement (positive reinforcement and pressure-release).

2) Rideability (only for those horses that have been ridden/driven in the past 6 months) – your horse’s responsiveness to cues from the saddle or while being driven (the easier your horse is to ride, the higher your score).

3) Boldness – your horse’s reaction to the unfamiliar or unexpected (a very reactive or spooky horse will have a low score here).

4) Handling compliance – how happy your horse is to be handled (a high score indicates a horse that is happy to be handled).

5) Working compliance – how happy is your horse to be worked (a high score indicates a horse that is happy to be worked).

6) Easy to stop – this indicates a horse that is obedient to stop signals and does not run or pull through the handler/rider (a high score indicates a horse that is easy to stop).

7) Forward going – this indicates a horse that moves forward when signaled to do so (not a horse that moves too fast or moves when not signaled). A high score indicates a horse that doesn’t move back when signaled to move forward or rear.

8) Human social confidence – how your horse behaves when approached (a confident horse will have a high score on this item).

9) Non-Human social confidence – how your horse reacts to other horses and other animals (a high score indicates a confident horse).

10) Novel object confidence – this indicates how reactive your horse is to novel objects (a high score here signifies a confident horse).

11) Touch sensitivity – this measures how reactive your horse is to touch, including saddling (a high score indicates your horse is happy with these procedures).

12) Easy to load – this covers loading and unloading (a high score here indicates a horse that loads and unloads easily).

13) Independence – this measures how your horse reacts when alone (a high score indicates a more independent horse.

There are many good reasons to become an E-BARQ contributor, but the main reason is because it enables you to make an anonymous contribution towards improving horse welfare. Of course, if you complete all of the questions, you will receive a Share-&-Compare graph that you can post on social media and monitor your horse’s progress over time.

The survey should take about 20-30 minutes to complete.

You will be asked about the training and management of your horse, such as how often you ride or work with your horse and how your horse is cared for. You will also be asked about your horse’s behaviour, including behaviours related to handling or riding and your horse’s social behaviours. These questions help us understand the world that your horse occupies.

1. Your research questions must be discussed and approved by the E-BARQ Team.
2. You will be responsible for recruiting a negotiated number of E-BARQ participants who can provide data related to your area of investigation.
3. Once you have reached the target number of new respondents, the dataset will be made available to you.
4. The employment of the E-BARQ Team’s preferred statistician for your project is highly recommended. This colleague has unique familiarity with E-BARQ and C-BARQ data and charges very reasonable rates. It is anticipated that this colleague will be invited to co-author peer-reviewed articles using E-BARQ data.
5. Studies should be designed to result in an open-access publication, authored by the investigative and E-BARQ Team and funded by the guest investigators’ host institution.