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- Hartmann, Elke, et al.
(författare)
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A Nordic survey of management practices and owners' attitudes towards keeping horses in groups
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Animal Science. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0021-8812 .- 1525-3163. ; 93, s. 4564-4574
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Keeping horses in groups is widely recommended but limited information is available about how this is implemented in practice. The aim of this survey was to describe how horses are kept in the Nordic countries in relation to sex, age, breed, and equestrian discipline and to assess owners' attitudes toward keeping horses in groups. Horse owners in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden were approached using a web-based questionnaire, which was translated into 4 languages and distributed online via equestrian forums, organizations, and social media. The number of respondents was 3,229, taking care of 17,248 horses. Only 8% of horses were never kept in groups, 47% were permanently grouped for 24 h/d, and 45% were stabled singly but grouped during turnout. Yearlings were most often permanently kept in groups (75%), mares and geldings more commonly during parts of the day (50 and 51%, respectively), and stallions were often kept alone (38%). Icelandic horses were more likely to be permanently kept in groups (36%) than warmbloods (16%) and ponies (15%). Twice as many competition horses (51%) were never grouped compared with horses used for breeding (20%) or leisure purposes (15%). The majority of respondents (86%) strongly agreed that group housing benefits horse welfare and that it is important for horses to have the company of conspecifics (92%). Nevertheless, not all horses were kept in groups, showing that attitudes toward group housing may not necessarily reflect current management. The risk of injury was a concern of many respondents (45%), as was introducing unfamiliar horses into already established groups (40%) and challenges in relation to feeding in groups (44%). Safety of people (23%) and difficulties handling groupkept horses (19%) were regarded as less problematic. Results suggest that the majority of horses have the possibility to freely interact with other horses, either as fulltime members of a group during 24 h/d or during turnout. Future research should address the extent to which being a part-time member of a group affects horse welfare. For permanent group housing to become more widespread, such as it is the case for most farm animals, future research could focus on solving some of the reoccurring problems perceived with keeping horses in groups. The dissemination of evidence-based information on all aspects around keeping horses in groups can ultimately stimulate further positive changes in the management of group-kept horses.
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| 2. |
- Hartmann, Elke, et al.
(författare)
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Comparison of 3 methods for mixing unfamiliar horses (Equus caballus)
- 2011
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Ingår i: Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research. - : Elsevier BV. - 1558-7878 .- 1878-7517. ; 6, s. 39-49
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Horses are likely to exhibit aggression when meeting for the first time. Therefore, this study compared 3 methods for mixing horses to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing aggressive interactions: (1) mixing pairs of horses in a paddock (P, 10 minutes, 15 tests), (2) introducing 1 unfamiliar horse to a pair of familiar, resident horses in a paddock (PP, 10 minutes, 15 tests), (3) allowing limited physical contact between pairs of horses for a short period of pre-exposure in neighboring boxes (B, 5 minutes, 16 tests) before mixing them in a paddock (BP, 10 minutes 16 tests). A total of 16 Swedish Standardbred mares, aged 6-18 years (mean age ± SD: 11 ± 4.4), were included in the study. Half of the horses were familiar with each other (resident horses, n = 8), whereas the other half were bought in from a variety of sources (unfamiliar horses, n = 8). Social interactions, consisting of behaviors from the sender, the receiver, and the subsequent sender’s response, were recorded continuously as frequencies. There were no differences in the frequencies of aggressive behaviors between the 3 mixing methods, including those aggressive behaviors in which physical contact had been attempted (kick, strike). Although resident horses were overall more aggressive (median number of aggressive behaviors per horse, 62; Q1, 36; Q3, 68.5) than unfamiliar horses (median per horse, 4; Q1, 2; Q3, 12.5) during all tests (U = 97, P = 0.003), none of the 62 tests needed to be terminated. Unfamiliar horses did not receive more aggression from resident horses in PP (mean per test ± SD: 5.1 ± 3.1) than in P (mean per test ± SD: 6.4 ± 4.9) (t = 0.63, P = 0.544). However, the behavior “attack” was more frequent in PP (median per test, 2; Q1, 0; Q3, 5) than in P (median per test, 0; Q1, 0; Q3, 1) (U = 282, P = 0.042), and “flee” was more frequent in PP (median per test, 6; Q1, 4; Q3, 8) than in P (median per test, 1; Q1, 0; Q3, 6) (U = 290, P = 0.018). Pre-exposure in boxes did not reduce aggression in BP (median per test, 7; Q1, 4.3; Q3, 11.8) as compared with P (median per test, 6; Q1, 2; Q3, 16) (U = 264, P = 0.767), but during pre-exposure in B tests, horses exchanged more nonaggressive (median per test, 2; Q1, 0.3; Q3, 4) than aggressive (median frequency of aggressive behavior, 0; Q1, 0; Q3, 1) (W = 71, P = 0.013) and mixed interactions (median per test, 0; Q1, 0; Q3, 1) (W = 92, P = 0.016) through the opening. Results suggest mixing an unfamiliar horse with 2 resident horses at the same time instead of one by one may be preferable. In this way, the total aggression received by the unfamiliar horse will potentially be less, even though aggressive interactions may be more intense
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| 5. |
- Hedhammar, Åke, et al.
(författare)
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Energy-intake and activity risk factors for owner-perceived obesity in a defined population of Swedish dogs
- 2010
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Ingår i: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 96, s. 132-141
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Our main objective was to obtain baseline data on daily metabolisable energy (ME) intake, activity, and risk factors for obesity in a population of 460 privately owned Swedish dogs in 1999. A previously validated mail-and-telephone questionnaire was used (Sallander et al., 2001a). The dogs were of 124 breeds, 1-3 years old, and had body weights (BW) between 1 and 75 kg. The ME intakes of this population could be described with the equation ME(intake) (kilojoules, kJ/d) = 554BW(0.66) (r(sp) = 0.73, P=0.0001). The energy intake originating from commercial foods was 79% (median, range 45-97). Table foods generally had a higher fat content (median 13 g/megajoule, MJ, range 1-122) than commercial foods (median 8 g/MJ, range 2-18; P = 0.0001). The median energy density was 1603 kJ/100 g (median; range 1106-2105).Almost all (97%) dogs were taken for walks, and there was a significant difference between the duration of the walks during weekdays and weekends (medians 60 and 90 min/d, respectively, P = 0.006). Sixty percent of all dogs were trained in activities such as obedience (31%), hunting (27%) or tracking (18%) for a median of 35 min/d (range 1-146).The final regression model for obesity included the factors sex, appetite and feeding a home-made diet/table foods. Dogs that were perceived to have good or very good appetite had 3.42-fold greater odds for obesity than individuals with bad or very bad appetite (95% CI 1.19-9.80; P = 0.022). Females had 2.17-fold greater odds of being obese than males did (95% CI 1.30-3.70; P = 0.003). Also, dogs fed table foods or home-made diets had 2.06-fold greater odds of obesity than those that were not given these food items (95% CI 0.97-4.35; P = 0.050). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 6. |
- Hedhammar, Åke, et al.
(författare)
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Feeding patterns and dietary intake in a random sample of a Swedish population of insured-dogs
- 2010
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Ingår i: Preventive Veterinary Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-5877 .- 1873-1716. ; 95, s. 281-287
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We used a validated mail and telephone questionnaire to investigate baseline data on feeding patterns and dietary intake in a random sample of 460 Swedish dogs. In 1999, purebred individuals 1-3 years old in the largest insurance database of Sweden completed the study.Most dogs were fed restricted amounts twice a day, and the feeding patterns seldom were changed after the age of 6 months. Typically, the main constituent of the meals was dry food [representing 69% of dry matter (DM)]. Four out of five dogs also got foods that (in descending order of the amount of energy provided) consisted of vegetable oil, meat, sour milk, bread, potatoes, pasta, lard/tallow, sausage, cheese, rice and fish.The heavier the dog (kg), the more dry dog food was consumed (g DM/d). The dry-food intakes (g DM/d) increased linearly with body weight (BW, in kg): intake = -15.3 + 8.33 BW (P = 0.0001; r = 0.998), a clear relationship that was not observed for other commercial foods.The non-commercial part of the diet had higher fat (13 and 8 g/megajoule, MJ, respectively; P = 0.00001) and lower protein (12 and 16 g/MJ, respectively; P = 0.00001) compared to the commercial part of the diet. Six out of ten dogs were given treats, and one-fourth was given vitamin/mineral supplements (most commonly daily).Most dogs consumed diets that were nutritionally balanced. No dogs in the study consumed diets that supplied lower amounts of protein than recommended by the NRC (2006). Only two individuals (<1%) were given total diets that were lower than the nutrient profiles in fat. Few dogs consumed total diets that were lower than recommended by the NRC (2006) in calcium, phosphorus, and vitamins A, D and E (2, 1, 3, 5, and 3% of the individuals, respectively). A few individuals consumed higher levels of vitamins A and D (<1 and 4%, respectively) than recommended.Diets that deviated from recommended levels were those consisting of only table foods with no supplements (too-low in vitamins and minerals) or commercial foods + no table foods supplied with extra vitamin and mineral supplements (too-high in vitamins and minerals). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 7. |
- Jansson, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Koprofagi
- 2009
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Ingår i: Foderbladet Häst. - 1652-683X. ; , s. 2-2
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)
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