The Brooke - The Brooke: risk assessment

Risk Assessment is a science-based approach for the identification of the causes of equine welfare problems. It has been developed by the Brooke and Bristol University since 2003. Risk Assessment allows us to identify all of the causes of an equine welfare problem and to understand how those factors contribute to the presence, severity and duration of any welfare issue.

Why do we do Risk Assessments?

Historically, it would have been assumed that welfare issues such as lip lesions on cart pulling donkeys, were caused by the bit. This would then result in promoting a different bit design, but this would rarely, if ever, solve the problem. This is because the causes of welfare problems are usually anything but simple and are seldom caused by only one or two factors. Usually, they are caused by a whole suite of factors which interact with each other in complex and previously unpredictable ways. Acting on only one or two of these “Risk Factors” is likely to make little or no difference to the problem.

The Brooke began developing the Risk Assessment approach in 2003 and since then it has been helping us to understand exactly how specific welfare problems are caused - what makes them worse, what makes them better and what will prevent them from happening in the future. Such in-depth understanding of a problem means that we can develop intervention programs based on scientific evidence - instead of assumptions - and stand a real chance of eliminating specific welfare issues one by one.

The Aims of the Risk Assessment Process

To identify all of the causes of specific welfare problems being faced by particular equine populations.
To understand the ways in which such factors interact with each other.
To provide precise measurements of a welfare issue at one point in time, so that changes can be measured, monitored and evaluated.
To enable the development of fully informed, evidence-based intervention programs that target each of the demonstrated causes of the welfare problem and result in more effective and efficient use of resource.