Publikasjoner fra andre institutter

Many horse owners tend to group horses according to gender, in an attempt to reduce aggressive interactions and the risk of injuries. The aim of our experiment was to test the effects of such gender separation on injuries, social interactions and individual distance in domestic horses.

A total of 66 horses were recruited from 4 different farms in Norway and Denmark and divided into six batches. Within each batch, horses were allotted into one mare group, one gelding group and one mixed gender group, with most groups consisting of three or four animals. After four to six weeks of acclimatisation, a trained observer recorded all social interactions using direct, continuous observation one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon for three consecutive days. Recordings of the nearest neighbour of each horse were performed using instantaneous sampling every 10 minutes. The horses were inspected for injuries before grouping, day one after grouping and after four to six weeks.

No significant effect of gender composition was found on social interactions (P > 0.05), spacing (P > 0.07) or injuries (P > 0.23). Eighty percent of all aggressive interactions recorded were threats, not involving physical contact. Horses with the smallest space allowance showed the highest mean number of aggressive interactions (28.6 +/- 6.1 interactions per 6 h) compared to the mean of all the other batches (8.3 +/- 1.0 interactions per 6 h). Very few injuries were found and most were superficial.

In conclusion, gender composition does not seem to have any effect on aggression level, spacing or injuries. However, the early social experience of horses, management of feeding and space allowance probably represents more important factors for successful group housing of domestic horses.

Antall hester i Norge er i dag anslagsvis 50 000, og tallet er økende. I lys av forskriften om velferd for hest som ble vedtatt i 2005 med tilhørende retningslinjer, ønsket vi å få en oversikt over hvordan travhester i Norge oppstalles og hvilke uteområder som står til rådighet for hestene. Vi ønsket også å kartlegge hvilke ventilasjonssystemer som benyttes i norske staller med travhester.

I en undersøkelse ble spørreskjemaer sendt tut til 442 staller registrert i lokale travlag over hele landet. Svarprosenten var 61. Hestene ble som oftest oppstallet enkeltvis, enten på bokse (84 %) eller på spiltau (2 %) innendørs. Hele 96 % av stalleierne oppgav at hestene fikk komme ut i luftegård hver dag. Bare 3 % av stallene hadde utegang med leskur eller rom som hovedoppstallingsmetode. Stallbygningene var ofte gamle, og kun 8 % var bygget etter år 2000. Flere enn halvparten av bygningene med oppstallingsmuligheter hadde tidligere vært benyttet til andre formål. Dette kan bidra til å forklare at takhøyden varierte fra 1,8 til 7,5 meter, til tross for at anbefalt takhøyde i oppholdsrom til hest er over 2,5 meter. Ut fra opplysningene som ble gitt, var trolig ventilasjonen i de fleste stallbygningene mangelfull. Selv om hele 50 % av stalleierne oppgav at de hadde mekanisk ventilasjon med vifte, var det flere som oppgav at vifta sjelden ble brukt, og kun i 10 % av stallene med mekanisk ventilasjon ble inn- og utganger til stallrommet holdt lukket hele året. Videre oppgav 5 % av stalleierne at de manglet ventilasjon. Enkelte luftegårder og beiter var bare 30-50 m2, mens anbefalt lufteareal er minst 300 m2 pr hest.

Background
The risk of injuries is of major concern when keeping horses in groups and there is a need for a system to record external injuries in a standardised and simple way. The objective of this study, therefore, was to develop and validate a system for injury recording in horses and to test its reliability and feasibility under field conditions.

Methods
Injuries were classified into five categories according to severity. The scoring system was tested for intra- and inter-observer agreement as well as agreement with a 'golden standard' (diagnosis established by a veterinarian). The scoring was done by 43 agricultural students who classified 40 photographs presented to them twice in a random order, 10 days apart. Attribute agreement analysis was performed using Kendall's coefficient of concordance (Kendall's W), Kendall's correlation coefficient (Kendall's τ) and Fleiss' kappa. The system was also tested on a sample of 100 horses kept in groups where injury location was recorded as well.

Results
Intra-observer agreement showed Kendall's W ranging from 0.94 to 0.99, and 86 % of observers had kappa values above 0.66 (substantial agreement). Inter-observer agreement had an overall Kendall's W of 0.91 and the mean kappa value was 0.59 (moderate). Agreement for all observers versus the 'golden standard' had Kendall's τ of 0.88 and the mean kappa value was 0.66 (substantial). The system was easy to use for trained persons under field conditions. Injuries of the more serious categories were not found in the field trial.

Conclusion
The proposed injury scoring system is easy to learn and use also for people without a veterinary education, it shows high reliability, and it is clinically useful. The injury scoring system could be a valuable tool in future clinical and epidemiological studies.

The aim of this study was to investigate how difficult it was to halter and separate a horse (Equus caballus) from a group for riding or training purposes, and to describe how human-horse interactions could affect this common procedure.

A total of 20 different horse groups, with a minimum of five horses in each, were studied on 14 farms in Norway, from June to October 2007. On each farm, information about the facilities, the horse and the handler was recorded. In each group, the horse owner or keeper (handler) was asked to enter the group, approach his/her horse, halter it and lead it out through the gate, then keep the horse standing out of sight from other horses for two minutes. The entire procedure was video recorded and the behaviour of the target horse, handler and other horses was subsequently scored.

Only one of the 100 horses moved away from the handler when approached. Ninety-six percent of the target horses followed their handler without showing any resistance. In 75 % of the tests, the other horses did not interact with the target horse and/or handler. At the gate, 26 % of the handlers did not turn the target horse around before closing the gate, thereby placing themselves in a vulnerable position, with their body in very close proximity to the horse's hind legs.

In conclusion, separating a horse from its group can be considered relatively safe and unproblematic, provided good management practices and trained handlers.

The aim of this study was to investigate the use of items intended to provide enrichment during turnout, both for individual and group kept horses, in an attempt to reduce the amount of passive behaviours.

The study was divided into two parts, where study 1 involved eight horses rotated through eight individual paddocks, each containing one of seven enrichment items and one paddock being kept without item, functioning as a control. The horses’ item-directed behaviours, passive behaviours or other non-item related activities were scored using instantaneous sampling every minute for one hour at the beginning and the end of the turnout period.

Study 2 involved six horse groups (3–6 horses) and the same scoring methods and ethogram as in study 1. The four items that the horses interacted the most with during study 1 (straw STRA, ball filled with concentrates CBALL, branches BRAN and scratching pole POLE) are investigated in study 2. In addition, the amount of social interactions was recorded.

Both the horses kept individually (P < 0.05) and in groups (P < 0.0001) performed significantly more item-directed behaviours towards edible items like STRA and CBALL than other objects. There was, however, no overall relation between the numbers of item-directed behaviours and the number of passive behaviours observed, indicating that the enrichment items did not alone reduce the amount of passive behaviours during turnout periods. Such a reduction was, however, only apparent when horses spent more time eating green leaves growing on the paddock surface (R = −0.97 study 1, R = −0.67 study 2, P < 0.0001). Access to STRA in group kept horses also seemed to reduce the amount of agonistic behaviours (P < 0.0001).

In conclusion, if grass is not available in paddocks, the provision of roughage reduces the amount of passive behaviours in singly kept horses and it also reduces the risk of agonistic interactions between horses kept in group.