Publikasjoner fra andre institutter

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 1 h 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 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.

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.

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.

In a 2 × 3 factorial experiment we examined the effect of exercise (no exercise/daily exercise) and paddock size (small: 150 m2, medium: 300 m2 and large: 450 m2) on the behaviour of horses. In both these treatment periods nine (three cold blood and six warm blood) adult horses were exposed to all the three paddock size treatments for 2 h daily, for 1 week in each paddock size, and the order of paddock size treatments were rotated systematically. In between turnout in paddocks the horses were all housed in tie stalls.

In the non-exercise period the horses walked significantly more, they travelled a longer distance, explored more and stood more alert, than in the period with exercise. The horses stood less passively in the large paddock compared to the medium and the small paddock, and they also travelled a longer distance in the larger paddock sizes. At days with heavy rain and wind, the horses were more restless and walked significantly more than in warmer weather. In conclusion; daily exercise significantly reduced the general activity in the paddocks. Increasing the paddock size to 450 m2, increased the time spent eating grass from under the fence and decreased the time spent standing passively.