Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Even though the horse (Equus caballus) has been domesticated for thousands of years it still has behaviours it is strongly motivated to perform. These behaviours have been important for the survival of the wild horse. Behaviours may relate to for instance social contact, grazing and movement. The legislation in Sweden is divided into different regulations called föreskrifter and the one concerning horses is called L101. L101 was written in 2007 by the Animal Welfare Agency, a governing body which was cancelled the same year. The Board of Agriculture is now the responsible division for all animal welfare legislation and regulations. The L101 contains requirements of how to keep and manage the horse and is a minimum demand although this does not guarantee the horse has a good welfare. The aim of this study was to gather scientific facts on social contact, feeding behaviour and freedom of movement of the horse and to investigate if L101 ensures the horse the possibility to perform behaviours in these contexts. The aim was also to analyse the research found to see how the welfare of the horse can be optimized. The method consisted of reading an amount of 65 scientific articles and reading L101 thoroughly. 42 scientific articles were picked, read and cited in the study. 5 paragraphs from L101 were picked to be analysed that contained either statements of social contact, feeding or freedom of movement.

The result from the scientific research shows that the horse needs to be in full body contact with other horses in order to fulfil its social needs. It also needs to have access to enough forage throughout the day and to be able to move freely some part of the day in order to express related behaviours and realise a good welfare.

L101 does not ensure the horse social contact since it is not a requirement to keep horses together. L101 does however require horses to have access to forage and to be able to move freely some part of the day, on the other hand there are no demands regarding the amount of forage or the length of time for free movement.

The conclusion of the study is that at least the paragraph mentioning social contact between horses needs to be adjusted. The result of this study shows how important social contact is and the paragraph therefore needs to be changed in order to allow horses to express their social needs. There are also suggestions done to make additions to the paragraphs concerning feeding and free movement that would ensure a better welfare for the horse. There is a need for more research in the subject to determine how to best keep horses. How to keep and manage competition horses and stallions is a subject that needs special attention since the keeping of these horses often is not well addressed in the legislation.