Lying behaviour of group-housed horses in different designed areas with rubber mats, shavings and sand bedding

Abstract

Summary: One of the biggest concerns about group housing of horses is insufficient or interrupted lying behaviour, which might lead to sleep deprivation, and as a consequence thereof reduced performance and health. To address this concern the lying behaviour of 56 horses in a modern group housing system over four seasons was studied. This paper focuses on the lying behaviour of horses on different bedding materials. The reason behind is that rubber mats instead of natural bedding material have recently found an increase in the lying areas of group housings. Previous studies showed a reduced daily lying time on pure rubber mats. Therefore investigations were made on the lying behavior on sponge-filled rubber mats (7.5 cm in height, HIT-Softbed ® plus) in combination with a minimal amount of shavings (ca. 1 cm in height) and additional lying materials such as pure shavings (ca. 15 cm in height), both in three lying halls, sand in a shelter and sand in an open paddock. A particular concern of the study was, if rubber mats in combination with a minimum amount of shavings meet the horses demands as bedding material and provide a good stable climate. Moreover we investigated: preferences for different lying areas, individual differences in lying behaviour, influence of lying space, horses rank, daytime, and interruptions by group members. The mean daily total lying time per horse was significantly the longest on shavings (74.3 ± 2.87 minutes) and rubber mats (62.3 ± 2.27 minutes) both in the halls (in total 91.1± 2.7 minutes allocated on 3.2 ± 0.1 lying bouts) followed by sand bedding in the shelter (43.0 ± 2.33 minutes) and sand in the open paddock (26.7 ± 2.93 minutes). Despite horses laid down the longest in the lying halls, the shelter with sand was used more per surface area for resting recumbent, especially by low-rank horses. Hence, shelter is recommendable as an additional lying surface in group housings. No more than 50 % of the horses laid down simultaneously, although the lying space met the minimum requirement of the guidelines with 3 ×wither height 2 per horse (FMFAC 2009). A more diverse number of horses used the biggest lying hall for recumbency more often and for a longer daily period than the two smaller lying halls. Furthermore 32.7 % of the horses did not lie down every day. The horses of low rank showed a significantly shorter length (69.31± 3.9 min per horse per day) and a lower number of lying bouts (2.58 ± 0.1 per horse per day) when compared to horses of higher rank (90.9 ± 4.5 min high rank and 92.7 ± 3.6 min middle rank with 3.35 ± 0.1 and 3.12 ± 0.1 lying bouts per horse per day). Previous studies showed no differences in daily lying time if the lying space is twice the guidelines (FMFAC 2009). Therefore a lying space 6 × wither height 2 per horse is advisable for group-housed horses. Horses laid down synchronously and with 71.8 % of lying bouts (N = 1730 of 2410) mainly between midnight and 6 a.m. Non-eatable bedding material instead of straw only lead to 16.5 % interrupted lying bouts by g...

Effects of stacked wedge pads and chains applied to the forefeet of Tennessee Walking Horses for a five-day period on behavioral and biochemical indicators of pain, stress, and inflammation

“…Lying times were not quantified while these horses were within the paddock, which may explain the differences observed in lying time between that study 34 and the present study. In a study 33 examining the effect of housing type on lying bouts and lying time, maximum lying time was approximately 90 min/d for group-housed horses, which is similar to the posttreatment lying times in the present study. We believe that these results collectively indicate that the lying behaviors of the control and treated horses did not reflect diminished welfare.…”

“…32 The lying behavior of horses has been used to establish the welfare implications of housing horses in groups on wood shavings or rubber mats with shavings, in a shelter with sand, or in a sand paddock. 33 Lying time has been used to assess stress induced by housing horses in tie stalls, box stalls, or groups. 34 Results of these studies 33,34 indicate that behavioral changes can be used to assess the stress or pain induced in horses by various managerial strategies.…”

“…33 Lying time has been used to assess stress induced by housing horses in tie stalls, box stalls, or groups. 34 Results of these studies 33,34 indicate that behavioral changes can be used to assess the stress or pain induced in horses by various managerial strategies.…”

Lying behaviour of horses depending on the bedding material in individual housing in boxes with or without adjacent pen

“…This was also mentioned in a study of Zeitler-Feicht and Muggenthaler (2013) with horses in a group housing system, who preferred significantly an area with shavings for lying down and as place of residence than rubber bedding mats. This was confirmed by Baumgartner et al (2015), who found out that the daily total lying time per horse was significantly longer on shavings than on rubber mats with shavings covered. Factors such as depth, softness, texture, smell and insulating properties of the bedding material also influence the lying behaviour of horses (Rieman Pedersen et al 2004).…”

Challenging Subjects: Towards Ethnographic Analyses of Animals

“…In the wild, horses move about in herds grazing for 20 or more hours a day and sleep for very short amounts of time, usually standing up. Equine ethologists say that domesticated horses only sleep for 3 hours a day, and usually only for very short periods of time, but that stable conditions affect the details of horses' sleep patterns (see, for example, Baumgartner et al 2015). I have often (quietly) witnessed horses lying down to sleep for more than 30 minutes especially in the afternoon or evening.…”