78 Confidence in care: Exploring native pony management in Scotland and the role of experience and confidence in undertaking action

Preventative management practices are essential to help reduce native ponies’ risk of obesity, insulin dysregulation, and laminitis. Understanding how owners’ confidence in native pony care and their experience in management influences their use of weight management practices could aid the development of interventions promoting an improved preventative approach toward obesity. An online questionnaire was used to quantify the management practices of 709 native pony owners in Scotland. The role of confidence in experience and weight management approaches was tested using mediation analysis incorporating probit regression. The level of significance was set at P < 0.004 after Bonferroni correction to adjust for multiple comparisons within the 14 combined regressions. Results showed that having over 10 years of experience caring for native ponies was consistently associated with increased confidence in identifying obesity (b = 0.332, SE = 0.100, P = 0.001, z = 3.314, 95% CI [0.136, 0.528]), in decision-making around rugging, clipping and stabling for seasonal management (b = 0.377, SE = 0.093, P = < 0.001, z = 4.040, 95% CI [0.194, 0.559]), and in the provision of appropriate preserved forage (b = 0.492, SE = 0.091, P = < 0.001, z = 5.437, 95% CI [0.315, 0.670]). However, this confidence did not mediate a relationship with monitoring body condition, promoting seasonal weight loss, soaking hay, analyzingpreserved forage, or perceiving weight management as the most important outcome of exercise. There was also no independent association between having over 10 years of experience caring for native ponies and an increased likelihood of using these practices. However, independently of confidence, experience of caring for a pony with metabolic disease associated dietary requirements at the time of surveying was associated with owners promoting seasonal weight loss in winter (b = 0.363, SE = 0.101, P = < 0.001, z = 3.585, 95% CI [0.165, 0.562]) and autumn (b = 0.527, SE = 0.109, P = < 0.001, z = 4.839, 95% CI [0.313, 0.741]), soaking hay (b = 0.460, SE = 0.123, P = < 0.001, z = 3.751, 95% CI [0.220, 0.700]), and perceiving weight management as the most important outcome of exercising their native ponies (b = 0.643, SE = 0.122, P = < 0.001, z = 5.262, 95% CI [0.403, 0.882]). These results suggest that while confidence may increase with years of experience caring for native ponies, it was not associated with the use of certain management practices. Instead, those management practices that support a reduction in risk for laminitis and obesity in native ponies were more likely to be implemented by owners currently managing a pony with metabolic disease associated dietary requirements.