Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Horses naturally live in groups. Despite this, many horses are kept individually in boxes and outside. Today you can find many different housing systems and the most common is still an individual box with individually outdoor paddocks. Open barns are becoming more popular and a relatively new open barn system with automatic feeding stations is called Active Stable®. The reason for keeping the horse alone is often the owners fears for an injured horse. This way of keeping the horse does not meet its natural needs for social contact and physical activity. There is little or no knowledge of why injuries occurs and if the injuries increase when several individuals go together in the paddock.

The aim of this study was to compare the frequency and character of the injuries in different housing systems to enlighten and encourage horse owners to keep their horses in groups. The research issues were if there are any disparity in injuries in the different housing systems and if the horses get various kind of injuries depending on housing system.

The study included two different smaller studies; one retrospective that compared the injuries during the years 2011 – 2015, using medical journals. The other study was a prospective study during three months in the autumn of 2016. For that part, students of Swedish National Equestrian Centre Strömsholm helped to gather the information.

Both studies compared injuries between three groups of horses. One group was housed in the Active Stable®, the second group were housed in individual boxes and spend part of the day alone in a paddock and the third group were housed in individual boxes and spend part of the day in smaller groups in the paddock.

The result showed no differences in amount of injuries depending on housing system but with a tendency to more injuries when horses were housed in groups on a minor area. The pattern of injuries seemed depending on the housing system. Both studies show that the injuries in Active Stable® is of a minor character.