The painful face of the horse The Horse Grimace Scale (HGS) in the practice test

摘要

Recognizing and evaluating pain in horses is still a challenge for horse practitioners, as it is for horse owners. The Horse Grimace Scale offers an innovative approach to pain assessment. Six individual criteria are used to assess the facial expression of the patient. Each criterion can be evaluated with zero to two points. The total score is intended to provide information about degree of pain of the horse. This method is time-saving and economical, but also brings some difficulties. It remains unclear how the distinction should be made between suffering" and sleeping" horses, which would be of great importance due the significant agreement in the facial expressions of both groups. In addition, the sometimes large discrepancy in the scoring by different reviewers makes it difficult to determine a default value that can provide a reliable statement about the pain condition of the horse.