Equine welfare describes the acceptable conditions of life and use for domesticated horses, in contrast to suffering produced by voluntary or involuntary actions of others, whether through physical abuse, mutilation, neglect, or other forms of ill treatment. Debates about the welfare and abuse of horses are recent. In the nineteenth century, when the sight of a horse dying while working was commonplace, the first wave of awareness was born with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the publication of the novel Black Beauty in England. France followed suit with the creation of the French League for the Protection of the Horse and the passage of the Grammont Law in 1850.  (Wikipedia)

---