Equine Relate

09/04/2025

Friends, Freedom and Forage. The basic essentials of a happy life for a horse. 🐴

20/03/2025

Here’s another great idea from Equine Enrichment
I often recommend using cardboard boxes for hiding treats, but hadn’t thought about using paper feed sacks. 🥕 🐴

28/01/2025

This is just lovely 🥰 I had to share. What a great friend ❤️

21/01/2025

There was a dangerous article circulating last week, detailing a very poorly conducted study implying that stabling has no negative effects. This one shows how stressful it is to mind and body when horses are first confined after living a more natural lifestyle. They don’t need to be outwardly showing signs of stress for stabling to be negatively impacting their wellbeing. A suppressed horse is not a contented horse. 🐴

INDIVIDUAL STABLING FOUND TO ALTER IMMUNE RESPONSE

Research has found that horses moved from group housing to individual stabling showed changes in their white blood cell counts and plasma cortisol levels. These changes could mean they are at a higher risk of infectious disease.

Equine scientists at the University of Hohenheim in Germany studied 12 warmblood geldings aged 2-3 years old during several management changes, monitoring their behaviour and immune response.

The horses used were all living in a group, turned out at pasture. For the first part of the study the group was then split into two, each kept in a separate paddock so that the horses in one group could not see the others. After a trial period of eight days all the horses were returned to their original group, living together. They were then were left out at pasture for eight weeks.

For the second part of the study the horses were all moved into individual stables, where they could see and touch their neighbours through bars. During the first week of being stabled, the horses were given 30 minutes of turnout in an indoor area. From the second week onwards, the horses were lunged.

Throughout the study the research team collected blood samples from the horses to analyse their immune cell numbers and cortisol concentrations.

The results showed that moving the horses to individual stabling led to acute stress-induced immune changes. However, dividing the larger group into two smaller groups at pasture did not.

“The number of eosinophils, monocytes and T cells declined, whereas the number of neutrophils increased resulting in an increased N:L ratio. This pattern of change resembles the well-known picture of an immunomodulation induced by acute social stress."

The plasma cortisol concentrations didn’t change after dividing the group into the two smaller groups at pasture, but there was an increase in cortisol concentrations one day after stabling which then returned to the previous levels eight days later. However, the researchers reported that “Although cortisol concentrations returned to baseline level after 8 days, the alterations in most immune cell numbers persisted, pointing to a longer-lasting effect on the immune system of the horses."

The team also found that some of the horses started to perform stereotypical behaviours as soon as one week after stabling.

The team reported that the results “strongly indicate that social isolation is a chronic stressor with negative impact on welfare and health of horses and highlight the advantage of group housing systems in view of immunocompetence."

The researchers concluded that “relocation to individual stabling represented an intense stressor for the horses of the present study, leading to acute and lasting alterations in blood counts of various leukocyte types. In contrast, fission of the stable group did not result in behavioural, endocrine or immunological stress responses by the horses."

This sudden change from group turnout to individual stabling with training being introduced is a very common scenario for horses being started for the first time. This study gives us yet more evidence that stabling horses individually is stressful for them and detrimental to their physical and psychological wellbeing. The majority of the horses I see are stabled for the bulk of the day. I do wonder how much evidence is needed before horse owners, yard owners and professionals act on this information and change their management to increase turnout and group living...

The research is free to access and is a very interesting read: Schmucker S, Preisler V, Marr I, Krüger K, Stefanski V (2022) Single housing but not changes in group composition causes stress-related immunomodulations in horses. PLoS ONE 17(8): e0272445.

17/01/2025

SCARED HORSES ARE PRETTY HORSES

My friend Katie and I share a love of horses, good discussions, and, as you'll come to learn, photo opportunities.

A while back, my old cattle dog, Fiver, needed to wear a 'cone of shame' after having surgery. Not thinking too much about it, I let Fiver out to come up to the arena with me. Fiver wandered off while I caught my mare Viveza. As you may have guessed by the picture with this post, Fiver wandered back into view just as I was bringing Viveza into the arena.

Viveza, to the best of my knowledge, had never previously seen a dog wearing a bucket collar, and she viewed this new beast as a potential threat. Her sympathetic nervous system, the 'flight or fight' response, was triggered, preparing her body to escape what her brain had just determined to be a potentially dangerous situation:

• adrenaline was released, increasing blood flow and nutrients to her muscles so that she could flee or fight as needed
• her pupils dilated to allow more light to enter her eye, so she could better see the threat
• her heart rate and breathing increased, better allowing for the delivery of energy and oxygen to her body during this encounter
• the unpleasant emotion of fear was triggered, causing her only to be concerned with getting away safely

While we couldn't see the physiological changes occurring inside Viveza's body, we could see changes in her body language. Her muscles became taught, she stood squarely, her neck arched, her head elevated, and her gaze fixed on the dog.

I managed the situation (I had accidentally created) as best as I could, getting Fiver in a building to minimize the chances Viveza suffered either a physical or behavioural injury.

After the metaphoric dust had settled, Katie and I looked at the picture she had snapped right as Viveza saw Fiver. One of us said something we have discussed previously, 'scared horses are pretty horses'. This wasn't meant to minimize the fear Viveza felt, nor do we think frightened horses are prettier than calm horses. Rather, we have talked previously at length about images shared on social media where the person sharing feels the image shows a 'pretty' horse--but all we can see are the signs of stress or fear.

Images of stressed or frightened 'pretty' horses aren't a new, social media phenomenon. Wander around a city, and you’ll see a statue of a long-dead general on a stressed horse. Visit a museum, and view centuries-old artistic depictions of frightened horses. For hundreds of years, people have been desensitized to images of stressed or frightened horses. It's totally normal, and accepted, for stressed horses to be seen as pretty.

When we learn more about horse behaviour and begin to train our eye to recognize signs of fear or stress, such images begin to lose their pretty status. And that's OK.

25/12/2024

Merry Christmas everyone! 🎅 🎄 Hope you and your herd have a lovely time. 🐴 The boys and I had a Xmas selfie shoot this morning 😆

19/11/2024

Foal facts: from birth to weaning

Foals have 4 stages of development before natural weaning:

Dependent period (first month)
The mare stays close to the foal, there is frequent suckling both day and night, energetic bursts of solo play, exploratory foraging behaviour and resting.

Socialisation period (2nd and 3rd month)
Rapid increases in social behaviour towards other herd members, mostly other foals. And increasingly selective grazing similar to the dam’s diet.

Stabilising period (4th to 7th-9th month)
Preweaning period (8th-10th month)

These two overlap a little and are more individual. During the pre-weaning period the foal's "time budget" becomes more like a yearling's with increased foraging, less resting and less spontaneous play which characterises the earlier stages of development.

It is important to provide access to pasture and a suitable social group to optimise the foal’s development.

Foals can be safely trained from three to four weeks of age alongside their dam utilising the
training principles of the International Society for Equitation Science (ISES) unless specific veterinary needs require earlier intervention, in which learning theory principles should still be adhered to.

Natural weaning happens spontaneously at around 9 to 10 months of age.

No artificial weaning method has ever been found to be stress free.

Foals weaned at the traditional time of around 5 to 6 months of age are at significant risk of gastric ulceration and of developing crib biting.

Stress caused by weaning can be eliminated or reduced by:

• Allowing natural weaning to occur

• Delaying weaning to past 9 months of age and using a progressive method where mares and foals are gradually familiarised with short separations where they can still see, smell and touch each other in the month leading up to weaning.

• By weaning foals into a familiar environment in the company of familiar adult horses.

• Feeding a high fibre diet and adding oil where additional energy is required before, during and after weaning.

18/11/2024

I have a few small bottles of Christmas scented mane and tail sprays available containing pure and safe essential oils. They are 100ml and £10.50 each. Can be posted for £3. Pm me if you’d like one 😃 🐴 Every horse deserves to smell like Xmas 😆 and they do love it too! 🎄

06/11/2024

This is so lovely 😻
Young horse training without force.
No pressure, no force or fear, no spurs or whips, just clear communication and reward. One happy, relaxed, keen to please horse 🐴
It doesn’t need to be a drama 🎭 or a battle.
It should be fun for human and horse. 😃

21/10/2024

I have one last minute space available on a
"Basic Massage for Horse Owners Workshop"
This Wednesday at 10.30am - 1pm

Pony provided for the workshop, in a lovely calm environment, with lovely calm people!
PO18 area
Would anyone like to join us?

Please ping me a message if you'd like the space!

10/10/2024

My Biscuit 🍪 was traumatised when coming off the moor 😢 Things really should change. Let’s hope these ponies find loving homes today. 🐴

Most of the ponies from Dartmoor we have worked with over the years have experienced trauma in some form just by being born on the moor. Separation from herd during the drift, losing their mum's or losing their foals year after year, hot branding too name a few. It's quite unbearable that in today's society flight animals are treated this way.

Today 398 little souls awaits their fate at the pony sale. We hope improvements have been made so that ponies have at the very least their basic needs met. We hope that genuine loving homes take the ponies in and give them a Life of love. But isn't it time to reduce breeding and look for an alternative way to find foals/youngsters homes other than traditional methods ?