The Effect of Housing on Equine Welfare
Equine welfare is a critical concern for horse owners. One significant aspect that impacts a horse's well-being is its housing environment. As horses are natural herd animal, placing them in individual stables will have an affect on behaviour and welfare.
In a study representing 2536 horses, 83.5% were housed individually, with 1.2% (30 horses) getting no access to pasture. Stress related behaviours like neighing, pawing, nibbling and snorting were displayed more significantly in individually housed horses (Visser at al., 2008). It was also found that 67% of individually housed horses showed at least one stereotypical behaviour (box walking, weaving etc).
In a study investigating the effect of housing on young horse training (Sondetgaad, 2004), divided horses into grouped housing and single housing. The young horses were brought through stages of training, when they passed stage one they moved on to stage two, with a total of 43 stages. Grouped housed young horses “passed” more stages of training than the single housed horses. It was also seen that the single housed horses bit their trainer more frequently than grouped housed horses. Another study found that the longer horses spent in individual boxes, the more likely they were to express unresponsiveness to their environment (Ruet et al., 2019).
From these studies we can see that horses show more stress behaviours, stereotypical behaviour and can be more aggressive towards handlers during training when housed individually. Understanding these impacts can help horse owners and caretakers make informed decisions to enhance their horses welfare.
If you like my work and wish to support it, you can buy me a coffee :)
References
SONDERGAARD, E. (2004) ‘Group Housing exerts a positive effect on the behaviour of young horses during training’, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 87(1–2), pp. 105–118. doi:10.1016/s0168-1591(03)00312-5.
Visser, E.K., Ellis, A.D. and Van Reenen, C.G. (2008) ‘The effect of two different housing conditions on the welfare of young horses stabled for the first time’, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 114(3–4), pp. 521–533. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2008.03.003.
Ruet, A. et al. (2019) ‘Housing horses in individual boxes is a challenge with regard to Welfare’, Animals, 9(9), p. 621. doi:10.3390/ani909062