Horses’ resting behaviour in shelters of varying size compared with single boxes

Kjellberg, Linda; Sassner, Hanna; Yngvesson, Jenny

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105715

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

2022

DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105715

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Horses’ resting behaviour in shelters of varying size compared with single boxes

Linda Kjellberg

Hanna Sassner²,

Jenny Yngvesson³

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2024

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Cited by 2 publications

References 23 publications

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Global distribution and gap analysis of equine housing research: The findings so far and where to go next

Robertson,

Thomas,

Starbuck

et al. 2024

Anim. welf.

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As a free-ranging, social species, the housing of horses (Equus caballus) may limit their opportunity to display natural behaviour, compromising well-being. This review records and presents studies that have investigated horse housing design, evaluates the location and number of studies carried out to date, and reports the methods used to assess impact on equine well-being. A Boolean search was conducted in two databases: Web of Science and Scopus, filtered according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol, resulting in 60 peer-reviewed papers for evaluation. Key findings are that a significant amount of work to date has been carried out in Europe and the USA, and the frequency of horse housing studies has steadily increased over the last 33 years, with 52% of them occurring in the last eight years. Health and welfare measures indicate benefits of housing horses in more natural management systems, particularly with conspecifics. Generally, the studies reviewed were only conducted in the short term, therefore future research should aim to increase the length of time over which housing is evaluated, particularly to ensure studies continue beyond an adaptation period. The review also highlights a requirement for more standardised methodology in housing welfare evaluation to allow for more meaningful comparisons to be made. Studies seeking to improve horse welfare in existing housing systems, in the face of limited space or other management constraints, are of high value to the end user and are encouraged. The studies reviewed here represent a significant and diverse body of work from which gaps in knowledge and future research directions can be determined.

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Global distribution and gap analysis of equine housing research: The findings so far and where to go next

Robertson,

Thomas,

Starbuck

et al. 2024

Anim. welf.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Comparing lying behaviour of young riding horses on days in an individual indoor box, on an outdoor paddock alone, or in pairs and in the following night

Helmerich,

Bachmann,

Gygax

2024

Equine Veterinary Journal

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BackgroundHorses must lie down to go into vital rapid‐eye movement (REM) sleep. If they are not lying down for sufficiently long periods they can become so sleep‐deprived that they collapse uncontrollably, which results in a risk of injuries.ObjectivesTo investigate how recumbency as a prerequisite to REM sleep on the experimental days and the following nights was influenced by changes in social and spatial environment throughout the day.Study designCross‐over design in which subjects experienced each experimental condition twice.MethodsObservations were conducted on a horse farm. Ten young horses in training were observed on days when they were alone indoors in a box, on an outdoor paddock alone, on the same paddock in pairs, and in the following night stabled alone. The number of lying bouts and the total lying duration throughout the day and night were assessed automatically using 3D‐accelerometers and data were evaluated using mixed‐models.ResultsHorses had a higher number of lying bouts during the days (p = 0.05, by a factor of 1.21 [95% CI: 1.00–1.45]) and longer lying duration at night (p < 0.001, by a factor of 11.25 [6.47–18.40]). On average, the number of lying bouts and the duration of lying increased from being indoors alone, to being outdoors alone, and outdoors in pairs although this could not be statistically supported (bouts: p = 0.5, by a factor of 1.08 [0.84–1.36] and 1.17 [0.91–1.48]; p = 0.6, duration: by a factor of 1.39 [0.73–2.93] and 1.38 [0.68–2.78]).Main limitationsA small number of horses were observed and there was large variability between days within horses.ConclusionsWe found some indications that open space and a social companion throughout the day increased time lying down in the day as well as during the following nights thus allowing for more REM sleep.

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Horses’ resting behaviour in shelters of varying size compared with single boxes

Cited by 2 publications

References 23 publications

Global distribution and gap analysis of equine housing research: The findings so far and where to go next

Global distribution and gap analysis of equine housing research: The findings so far and where to go next

Comparing lying behaviour of young riding horses on days in an individual indoor box, on an outdoor paddock alone, or in pairs and in the following night

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