01/10/2021
Edit to add: this post is not about guilt tripping anyone for not having 24/7 group turnout. You donât need to justify your horsesâ living situations. The perfect ideal for a grazing herd animal is turnout on large plots of land with friends but we donât live in a perfect world. This is about being aware of, and making adjustments as needed, to better the lives of horses living in modern barns and boarding establishments by not continue to build said places with the intent of limiting all contact between horses, well intentioned or not. Open air stalls that allow for horse-horse contact are very much possible even in an unideal 24/7 stall situation and have been shown in studies to improve welfare and lower occurrence of stereotypic behaviours. There are ways to enrich and improve living even in circumstances that are abnormal for herd animals to live in. I think it is silly for horse people to be so afraid of being wrong that they wonât acknowledge some of the shortcomings of modern horse care or feel attacked by posts that simply outline some of the well documented issues in said care. This is not an attack, but we cannot grow and learn if we donât discuss the realities of the horse world.
We need to start to completely revolutionize the manner in which we view the construction of horse farms. We need to start questioning the whys behind a lot of the traditional layouts frequently depicted in our day to day adventures at riding farms or within movies and TV shows.
When you start to look a little closer, youâll realize how often the intent behind the structures of stalls or paddocks is to increase the isolation of the horse. We board up stall walls to the ceiling, no windows and no ability for the horse to see or touch their stall neighbour, unless, perhaps, they can just look out a front window at the horse across a wide aisle way from them.
We build paddocks with gaps between them thwt do not allow for horses to touch each other over the fence. The closest the horses can get to each other is merely interacting via sight or sound. They can vocalize and they can stare, but they canât engage in some of their most prevalent calming and bonding herd behaviours like mutual grooming or playing with each other.
More often that not, we also encourage the concept of isolated turnout on top of this, viewing group turnout as too dangerous or risky for potential of injuries and when this is done, it is often done without comment about the negative implications associated with complete isolation of a herd animal.
These are all things that are so normalized and ingrained in us that not many question it. Even the entire concept of stalls is a funny one, something many horse people view as for the horse but in reality, the horses donât need stalls, the humans do. Horses merely need shelter and if we were following species specific protocol, such shelter would be provided with available space extending past a 12x12 average.
I understand the world is modernizing and that space in many cities is limited but the problem with how widespread the lack of realization of how far off equestrian center architecture is from promoting the needs of the horse is that if people arenât even aware of the shortcomings of said farms, they canât think to enrich the lives of their horses. Youâre not going to think about improving on something you canât see an issue with in the first place.
While, in a perfect world, horses would be in group turnout in herds 24/7 in large fields with access to shelter, thereby giving them full autonomy to seek said shelter, there are things we can do to make traditional living healthier for the horse. For example, building more open air stalls with bars between stalls that allow horses to see and interact with each other. Shared fence lines on paddocks whenever possible so that even in individual turnout, it isnât completely isolated. Less structured feed times, more free choice hay. There are options out there but we need to actually look critically at why the change is necessary.
People also justify this isolation and cooping up of horses to prevent socialization on the basis of horse to horse aggression. âMy horse doesnât like other horsesâ or âif they can see the horse beside them, theyâll attack themâ and once again, this is yet another example of WHY we need to learn and start to incite change. This aggression and these stress behaviours that are often present and driving the aggression exist for a reason. Stereotypic behaviours are more rampant in facilities that isolate horses and prevent adequate movement for a REASON. We canât keep viewing the symptoms of the problem as separate from a problem.
