A Survey of Housing and Management Conditions
for Horses in Denmark
Eva Søndergaard and Janne Winther Christensen
Department of Animal Health and Welfare
Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences
Research Centre Foulum, PO Box 50, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark 
Voice +45 89 99 13 19      Fax +45 89 99 15 00
Eva.Sondergaard@agrsci.dk

Introduction

In Denmark the horse is primarily a sports and leisure animal and relatively few Danes are economically dependent on horses. Thus there are no economic incentives to keeping horses in intensive management systems, such as those applied to production animals, and most horse owners are interested in providing the best possible conditions for their horses. Still the basic needs of horses are not always met in modern housing systems and many behavioural problems are thought to relate to housing and management conditions.

Physical conditions include space to perform normal maintenance behaviours, such as lying down, getting up, and body care, which may be impeded by tethering in straight stalls. During the last decade, however, stabling in loose boxes has become more widespread than straight stalls. Loose boxes provide the animals with limited freedom of movement and some degree of contact with neighbouring horses, depending on the partitions between the boxes. In open boxes the horses have access to free tactile contact above a solid wall; in bar separated boxes the horses have access to nasal but no other physical contact; and in closed boxes horses are separated by a full solid wall preventing tactile as well as visual contact. Studies have shown that horses show a rebound in locomotion and social behaviours after a period of deprivation, suggesting an accumulation in the motivation to perform these behaviours (Mal et al, 1991; Christensen et al, 2002). Expensive sport horses are typically kept singly in both stables and paddocks due to fear of injury when in groups, as are many other private riding horses, which are stabled at riding schools or stud farms. In contrast, some horses are kept extensively in groups, typically with free access to an outdoor area. In between these extremes there seems to be a range of management systems, in which, for instance, horses are kept individually in stables at nights and in paddocks with other horses during the day, or for a period of the day.

Feeding serves to keep the horse in a proper nutritional state, but optimal feeding should also consider the natural feeding behaviour of horses. Under free-ranging conditions horses spend much of their time eating and their diet consists mainly of roughage. In modern horse management many horses are fed concentrates, leaving them with much surplus time, which may induce feed-related oral stereotypies, and an increase in the occurrence of unwanted wood-eating (Willard et al, 1977; Houpt and McDonnell, 1993; Cooper and Mason, 1998). 

The prevalence of various stabling and management systems in Denmark is presently unknown, as is the number of horses with behavioural problems and the relation between these. Previous studies have found correlations between increased visual horizons, social contact, and reductions in stereotypic behaviour (McGreevy et al, 1995; Cooper et al, 2000).

The present study aims to survey housing and management conditions of horses in Denmark in order to evaluate to which degree the basic needs of the animals are considered in Danish housing systems.

Methods

            Questionnaire. The questionnaire contained questions on the property, buildings, individual horses, management routines, and horse behaviour. Concerning the property, questions were asked on category (stud, riding school, horse pension etc.) and use of area for horses, whereas specific questions on buildings concerned several technical issues. Individual horse questions were on breed, age, sex, use, housing (stall, box, loose housing) and measures, bedding material, opportunities for social contact when housed, access to paddock (how often, how much, alone or in a group), exercise (how often, how much, type), feeding (type and amount of roughage and concentrates), abnormal behaviours (type and time spent performing the behaviour), and number of veterinary visits. Some issues, such as social contact, access to paddock, exercise, and abnormal behaviours had a number of specific reply options listed. 

Questions on management routines were related to summer grazing and feeding. Additionally, questions were asked on operations or other precautions taken to avoid the performance of abnormal behaviours, and whether horses performing such behaviours did so when arriving at the facility. Also, respondents were encouraged to make a rough sketch of the facility and to indicate where horses performing abnormal behaviours were placed.

Subjects. The aim was to cover a broad range of horse establishments in Denmark. The problem was that we did not know the exact number of horse establishments and hence, could not decide on a certain coverage. Estimated number of establishments in each category, number of questionnaires handed out, criteria used when sending out, and percentage receiving a questionnaire are shown in Table 1.

Data summary. Summary statistics were calculated using SAS (SAS Institute, version 8.0, 2000).

Results

By February 2002, 152 questionnaires involving information on 1,631 horses had been returned. This number is expected to increase as some of the questionnaires delivered by foal branders were handed out only in January /February 2002. Responses by category are shown in Table 2. Categories in Table 2 are different from the ones in Table 1, since categories are defined by respondents in Table 2. Of the 1,631 horses 764 were riding horses; 30 were heavy draught horses; 203 were small horses (Icelandic, Fjord, Haflinger etc.); 228 were large ponies; 117 were small ponies; 58 were thoroughbreds, 86 were trotters; and for 145 horses no breed was mentioned. 

The following tables show a limited part of the data material since many aspects including feeding have not yet been analysed.

Table 1.

¹ Members of the Danish Equestrian Federation
² Members of the Horse Dealer Union
³ Any studs with at least one approved stallion
⁴ Questionnaires were handed out by foal branders 
⁵ Three questionnaires were sent to each of 80 members of the Horse Farrier Union to hand out to customers which are either private horse owners, i.e. not member of any breeding association, or which are running a horse pension

Table 2.

In Table 3 housing within each horse type is shown. The total number of horses differs between tables since some respondents did not answer all questions for all horses. 

Table 3. Type of housing (number and percentage within rows)

Table 4 shows the amount of social contact within the type of housing. Note that some respondents have misunderstood this question since group box/loose housing necessarily allows unlimited contact.

Table 4. Amount of social contact within the type of housing

Table 5 shows the level of access to paddocks during winter season for the various types of housing.

Table 5. Access to paddocks within type of housing

Listed abnormal behaviours were wind sucking/crib biting, box-walking, weaving, tongue playing, grinding teeth on fixture, and other behaviours such as wood-chewing, pawing, agitated behaviour at feeding, aggressive behaviour towards humans, and frequent kicking. Additionally, some people have listed other unusual behaviours like frequent aggression towards other horses, shyness, etc., i.e. behaviours, which are not traditionally regarded as abnormal behaviours. By this definition abnormal/unusual behaviour was shown by 136 horses (8.3 %) of the 1,631 horses. The distribution on horse type was 10 thoroughbreds (17.2%); 77 riding horses (10.1%); 15 small horses (7.4%); 19 large ponies (8.3%); 10 trotters (11.6%); 5 of unknown type (3.5%), and none of the small ponies or heavy draught horses.

Discussion

We attempted to make a representative survey of the Danish horse population but various factors impeded this goal. Firstly it is hard to reach all types of horse keepers, since many private horse owners with a few horses only do not use an approved farrier and they are not members of a breeding association. Secondly, the low reply percentage further impairs the goal, and we are aware that the horse owners who did return the questionnaire are more interested in these issues than the ones who did not. Therefore, data probably does not give a valid picture of the general situation in Denmark. Bearing this in mind, we still find it a useful set of data for looking at differences within populations and for correlations between housing systems, feeding, and occurrence of abnormal behaviours.

The predominant housing system for riding and racing horses was individual stabling in loose boxes, whereas small horses and ponies were primarily stabled in loose housing systems. Most of the small horses were Icelandic horses and most of the small ponies were of the Shetland type and thus data indicate that these breeds are typically kept in more extensive systems. The level of social contact between neighbouring horses indicates that loose boxes are typically separated by bars, allowing for nasal but no further physical contact. Straight stall stabling applied to 11 percent of all horses, and although infrequently some of these (1 %) were not allowed on pasture. Surprisingly, most horses in the survey (97%) were allowed on pasture nearly every day. This may indicate that the respondents are aware of the importance of pasturing and thus release their horses on pasture more frequently than assumed average horse owners, or that they have envisaged the 'best' answer and ticked this, although it may not reflect facts.

The occurrence of abnormal or unusual behaviours in this survey is rather low (8.3 %) compared to previous surveys where stereotypies or other abnormal behaviours occurred in approximately 20 % of all horses (reviewed by Nicol, 1999). Occurrences of the most common stereotypies in the present survey were 1.4 % for windsucking/ crib-biting (4.1 % in Nicol, 1999); 0.5 % were weavers (3.3 % in Nicol, 1999); 0.1 % were box walkers (2.2 % in Nicol, 1999). The occurrence of wood-chewing was 0.9 % in the present survey, compared to 11.8% in Nicol (1999). Again this may indicate that the respondents are aware of basic needs of horses, or that they do not want to admit behavioural problems in their stable. Additionally, some horse owners may not be aware that their horse is performing a stereotypy since we listed some abnormal behaviours without describing them. 

The data material allows for comparisons between surveys, and for investigations on correlations between different housing, feeding, and management systems and abnormal behaviours, which may contribute to the debate about the link between management factors and the development of stereotypies. 

Acknowledgements

This study was part of a literature survey of housing and management conditions sponsored by Hans Kiers Fund and conducted at the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Denmark.

References

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