Equine Management and Housing

What is equitation?

The art and practice of horsemanship and horse riding

• Interaction of rider (or driver for harness) with the horse

**Need to be aware of unwanted behavior possibly due to lameness or pain

How do bits function?

• Apply pressure to a horse’s mouth

  • Different ways, soft or harsh, also bitless bridles

• Sits in the interdental space

What makes up the saddle tack?

• Numnah

• Girth

• Saddle

• Stirrups

Why are horse “rugs” used?

• Protection against cold, wet, especially if clipped

• Protection against flies

What is the purpose of clipping?

• Stops overheating / excess sweating when exercised

• Many different styles: hunter clip, blanket clip, trace clip

What are some different styles of riding?

English, Western, Racing

• To do with rider posture and control

What is “lunging”?

• Unridden horse moves in circle on end of a lunge line

• Often used to exercise horses

What are some ways horses can be kept?

• Outdoor: grass kept

  • turn-out or pasture

  • Allows grazing - evolved 17 hours a day

• Indoor housed: stable or barn

• Combination of outdoor and indoor

  • Varies on the season, resources, size and number of fields

What are some types of premises that horses might be kept at?

1.) Private Premises

• Field to a stable or large yard

• Racing stables, training yards, producing/professional yards

• Stud Farms

2.) Riding Stables

• Licensed by local authority

3.) Livery Yard

• Boarding establishment

• Different levels of livery

What are the important factors for managing horses at grass?

• Check horses at least once daily, ideally twice

• Good water supply

• Shelter

• Fencing

  • Ideally post and rail, tension wire or barbed wire not idea

  • Electric fencing

• Horse grouping, dictated by owners

  • Horses will have social groups, with hierarchy

  • Often separate mares and geldings

What are area allowances for managing horses at grass?

• Max one hectare (HA) per horse per year

• 2.47 acres (10,000 m2)

• 0.4 HA / horse in grazing season from spring to early autumn

If managing horses on grass, what diet considerations need to be made for each season?

Spring to Early Autumn

• Rarely need additional feeding

• Risk of obesity

• Grazing height should be ~6cm

• If needed, restrict grazing by

  • Stabling, strip grazing (electric fence), grazing muzzle

Autumn / Winter

• May need additional feed (Forage / concentrates)

• Field shelters

• Rugs

• May be 24/7 but often combined with housing

What pasture management decisions must you make when managing horses at grass?

• Horses cause poaching/bare paddocks

• Consider parasite control

• Consider poisonous plants, ragwort (liver toxicity), sycamore trees (atypical myopathy)

What are the main reasons horses are stabled?

• Grazing

  • Limited grazing available, prevent over grazing or poaching (horse hooves do a lot of damage and waste grazing)

• Monitor or control health more easily

  • Control feeding, exercise, recover from, prevent injury

  • Prevent disease, exposure to parasites or flies

• Shelter from elements

  • Easier to maintain clipped in winter, easier to ride

  • Convenience

• Avoids Bullying

What are some disadvantages when stabling horses?

• Stabling isolates horses, cannot exhibit normal behavior, may not trickle feed, poor ventilation

• Increased time mucking out and feeding

What are the basic housing needs for horses?

• Well drained site

• Services - water, electricity

• Stables

• Additional Buildings

  • Food, bedding stores (separate from stables)

  • Tack room

• Muck/manure heap

  • Away from, downwind of stables

What construction considerations should be made to produce a beneficial type of housing for the horse?

What are some types of housing?

• Well ventilated, draining, sociable, space, light

Flooring

• Good drainage, no build up of urine or ammonia

• Optional rubber mats, reduce quantitiy of bedding

Walls

• Brickwork or block work, often rendered smooth, wood

• Often need kick boards 1.2m above ground level

• Ventilation

Roof

• Ventilation

• Roof windows

Types of Housing

• Stalls, stables, loose boxes, american barns, loose housing

What are the features of loose box housing?

• Open fronted

  • Need additional ventilation points, windows at back plus/minus vents in the roof

• Often in a line

  • Individual airspace but horses cannot always see each other

What are the features of american barn housing?

• Large building with everything under one roof

  • Often stables opening into a central passageway

  • Often communal airspace

  • Horses can be separated by solid partitions of vertical bars

  • Might be difficult to ensure sufficient ventilation

• In the UK, often old agricultural buildings or former dairy farms converted

What are the features of loose housing?

• Same principal as for farm animals, not that common

• Often deep litter with straw

What are the size requirements of stables?

• British Horse Society recommends:

  • Horses: 3.65m x 3.65m

  • Ponies and Donkeys - 3.05m x 3.05m

  • Foaling Box (5m x 5m)

• At least 1m open space above horse’s head when standing

  • At least 1.2m wide, fully open doors or puts risk of injury

How can we provide equine housing with proper ventilation?

• Provided via door, window hoppers, side wall, roof

• Make use of stack effect

  • Warm air rising and exiting via outlet drawing fresh air in

  • Air movement essential

• Need at least 4 changes/hr

• Has to extend where horse actually is, we are interested in their breathing zone

What considerations need to be made for stable fittings in equine hosuing?

• Want to keep to a minimum, no sharp edges

• Water (automatic drinkers)

• Rings on wall

  • To hang haynets, hanging buckets

  • Tying horses (Through string)

• Hay low down (Better position to eat)

What are the features of equine bedding?

• Should be:

  • Warm, dry, insulate floor

  • Comfortable and encourage lying down

  • Keeps the animal clean

  • Not detrimental to hooves

  • Low in respirable particles (no dust)

• Choice depends on…

  • Cost, ease of disposal, ease of management

  • Sometimes compromises horse’s comfort

What are the main types of equine bedding?

• Highly absorbant…

  • Woodshavings/chip (Dust must be extracted)

  • Paper/cardboard

    • Can be hard to dispose of

  • Peat Hemp

• Drainage…

  • Straw

    • Many horses seem to prefer

    • Greater amounts of respirable organic particles

    • Can be used as forage (rare in developed world)

• Rubber Mats / Tiles / Flooring

  • Used in combination with other bedding, very easy to clean

  • Can be slippery

How should equine bedding be managed?

• Depth of bedding maintained

• Muck out once or twice per day

  • Remove feces and urine soaked bedding

  • “Skip Out” - quick removal

• Deep litter

  • Horses lie down on more

  • But poorer drainage and get bacterial/fungal growth

  • Greater respirable organic particles

    • Don’t muck out as much, builds up

• Remove horse from stable when mucking out

What are the main systems we use to give horses water?

Buckets

• Should be plastic or rubber

• Labor intensive, re-filled and checked 3-4 times daily

• Easy to monitor fluid intake

Automatic Drinkers

• Beware frost malfunction

• Less labor Intensive

• Some horses do not like to use

**Free access at all times

How much water does a horse need per day?

• 60 mls/kg/24 hours

• 500 kg horse - 25 - 30 liters a day

• Some comes from diet, especially grass

What are some types of forage?

How should it be provided?

• Fresh Grass

• Hay

• Haylage (Silage)

Ideal is adlib forage:

• Always able to trickle feed

• Never left with nothing to eat

• Can be difficult if need to restrict diet to control obesity

Describe key features of hay.

• Describe the DM content and why this is important.

• Should be preserved with DM content of >85%

  • To reduce fungal and microbial growth

  • Often baled and stored with higher moisture content

  • Could be a source of respirable organic particles and allergens

  • UK principally grass hay, elsewhere can get alfalfa

What is hay soaking and the purpose?

• Hay soaking required full immersion 30 - 60 mins to reduce respiratory challenge

  • For example in animals with equine asthma

  • Can also steam

• 24 hours to help manage obesity

  • Leaches nutrients and reduces nonstructural carbohydrate levels

  • Leachs vitamins and minerals so supplement via feed needed

Describe key features of haylage.

• Describe the DM content and why this is important.

• Lower concentrations of allergens and other respirable particles

• Need to cut at correct time to achieve dry matter content between 50 - 70%

  • Bale with sufficient wrapping to create airtight conditions

  • Prevents unwanted fungal and bacterial growth

  • Ensures high moisture content to reduce dust

Why is silage generally not used for horses?

• Greater fermentation (less sugar) and acidity, many will not eat

• Greater chance of unwanted bacterial or fungal growth that can cause significant disease

How do we feed forage to equines?

• Feed using nets or racks or from the floor

• Hay Nets

  • Safety issue, but can stop horse eating too quickly

• Floor feeding

  • More natural head position aids..

  • Mucocilliary clearance from respiratory tract

  • More natural dental grinding, akin to grazing

What are the crude guidelines for feeding equines?

• Aim for 2% of body weight dry matter in total per 24 hours

  • E.g. 500kg horse would eat 10kg dry hay a day

  • For maintenance, but if increased energy needs due to exercise - supplement with concentrates

• Mainly only need forage

  • + / - supplementary feedstuffs for extra calories or proteins if requires

  • Minerals / vitamins often in form of balancer

    • Known as bucket feed or concentrates or hard feed

What are some types of supplementary feedstuffs used with equines?

• Compound Mix

  • Formulated for different horses

• Hay replacers

  • Fiber nuts, especially for poor dentition

• Short-chop forages

  • Chaff, alfalfa

• By-products

  • Sugar beet-pulp