Cooperative Care in Zoo, Livestock, and Companion Animals and Positive Reinforcement in Horses: A Scoping Literature Review

Cooperative care, training an animal to voluntarily participate in care procedures using positive reinforcement, may improve welfare and lower stress in horses. This scoping literature review synthesizes two bodies of research to analyze existing scientific evidence on cooperative care and explore its potential application for horses. Two literature searches were conducted in ScienceDirect, CABI Digital Library, PubMed, and Google Scholar using predefined search terms and eligibility criteria. Publications were reviewed against two sets of inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of 1,518 records were identified, and 24 met the inclusion criteria for final analysis. Included studies fit into two categories: 1) cooperative care in non-primate mammals and 2) positive reinforcement training in horses. All included studies involving cooperative care reported successful acquisition of target behaviors, while equine positive reinforcement research reported outcomes including increased motivation, increased desire to interact with humans, reductions in undesirable behaviors, and improved training efficacy. While many studies exist on cooperative care in livestock, companion, and zoo animals, current evidence of cooperative care in equids exists primarily outside of peer-reviewed scholarly articles.