Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Today there is a research project undertaken by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences along with Wången (a highschool specialized in trotter training), which focuses on trotting horse training, performance and health. The project investigates how exercise intensity and feeding strategies affect the development of growing horses.

The project includes two groups of horses where all 16 horses are fed in the same way. One group of eight individuals are trained 100% compared to conventional training and the other group are trained 20% less than the other group. All horses are trained twice a week and are out at pasture beyond that. The horses in the project are fed only with roughage.

The background of the study was that at the beginning of this project, the horses received some injuries when they were divided into the two groups. Thus the aims of the study are to investigate the activity of the horses in the pasture.

Horses are adapted to spend much of their day eating and foraging, and they spend 50-70 % of their waking hours with performing this behaviour. During 20-30 % of their time they are resting and during the remaining time they are moving and performing other active behaviours. Studies have shown that horses which are trained more than others are being more active in the pasture than horses that are trained to a lesser extent.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how exercise affects the behaviour of horses at the pasture and if the level of activity and aggression differ between the horses depending on how much they are being trained. The study also examines the proportion of time the horses devote to the following behaviours: standing still, walking, running or foraging.

The results show that horses that are trained to a greater extent perform a higher number of active behaviours in the pasture than the group that was trained 20% less than the other group. The group, which was trained to a lesser extent, showed more aggressive behaviours than the group that was trained 100%. The results show that the horses forage during 55% of the time. Besides foraging, the proportion of time the horses devoted to other behaviours were as follows; standing: 27 %, walking: 6 %, lying down: 4 %, wrestling: 2 %, running: 0,7 %, drinking: 0,4 %, and finally they were playing 0,1 % of the time.

These results are consistent with the scientific literature that has been presented in this work. Further studies over a longer period of time should be made for more accurate results. The two groups trained with different intensities should also be separated into different pastures for a more accurate study because when held together, as was the case in the present study, they affect each other’s behaviours.