Horses SHOULD NOT be confined to small spaces.

They need room to move. All day.

They need the space and the freedom to express their normal behaviour.

They need room to move WHILE they graze

Eating from stationary feeders and being confined to stables and small solitary yards can have deleterious health and emotional consequences

We should be famliar with the horses’ natural grazing sequence of place one foreleg forward, ‘bite off grass, chew, move head, bite off grass, chew, repeat’ around the extended foreleg, then raise head, progress opposite foreleg, repeat above sequence around new leading leg.

Watch Lucy Rees youtube video for a better explanation!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ObrV64MgAo

Preliminary findings of Lucy Rees/ Christina Salvany documented some 30 foreleg progressions per minute. When distance the foreleg moved was calculated, the figure came up to a possible 30km per day, with head down, stetched back/topline, grazing. 30kms GRAZING.

Lucy Rees posits if you take out the grass, inhibit the forward movement and make it faster – YOU HAVE WEAVING. Stereotypies come from thwarted natural behaviour.

So stabled horses that have no freedom to express normal behaviours often express variations of normal behaviour. These are sometimes called ‘vices”

Vices – another term we need to re-label

(merriam webster dictionary)

: moral depravity or corruption : wickedness

: a moral fault or failing

A moral fault or failing when the ‘vice’ occurs because THE HUMAN HAS FAILED to provide for the horses basic needs?

Unfortunately individual stabling and individual yarding is often looked upon as acceptable –

IT IS NOT.

ALL horse keeping MUST provide the basic needs for the horse, No argument. The ONLY exception is when Veterinary advice is recommended for Injury, or confinement for recovery.

We MUST provide for basic needs, and those needs cover MORE than food, water and shelter.

*Freedom to express normal behaviour MUST be accounted for*

Confinement and prevention of the execution of normal behaviour causes stress; which in many instances can lead to stereotypies.

Stereotypies are defined as repetitive behaviors with no obvious goal and function (Clegg et al., 2008)

Stereotypies have never been observed in free-ranging feral horses, but

Have been reported in more than 15% of domesticated horses (Luescher et al., 1991)

We need to stop normalising incorrect and unsafe horse keeping, for our horses emotional AND physical welfare.

Written by Vicki Conroy PPGA Equine sub-committee