These new devices meet the demands for optimum animal welfare while keeping human management capacities in mind.
Switzerland is at the forefront of ensuring good equine welfare, so it comes as no surprise that they’ve made strides in developing a variety of welfare-friendly innovations. A Swiss researcher recently presented 21st century equine husbandry materials that are meeting modern demands for optimum animal welfare while keeping human management capacities and time constraints in mind.
“A better understanding of equine welfare has led to new questions and new problems that needed answers and solutions in managing horses,” said Anja Zollinger, BSc, of Agroscope, the Swiss National Stud’s research institute in Avenches, during a presentation at the 2015 French Equine Ethology Day, held April 9 in Saumur. “We need to ensure feeding that’s consistent with the horses’ needs, organize group housing that’s welfare-friendly for all horses in the group, encourage horses to move sufficiently, and facilitate social contacts among horses housed individually. So people in the industry have become more inventive to respond to these needs.”
And the resulting inventions are popping up all over Switzerland in boarding stables, private properties, and even the National Stud itself. New feeding systems allow horses access to forage at regular intervals throughout the day with slow feeding via nets and mesh grills that extend feeding times over 12 to 16 hours per day, Zollinger said. Many of these are electronically operated, allowing owners to fill the hay once a day and then set the machine to open and close periodically over a 24-hour period so the horse never goes more than two or three hours without forage access. Other systems distribute the feed, as well, and calculate how much the horse has consumed. Some can even be programmed to inform the owner about consumption data via real-time text messaging.
In the group housing realm, designers have come up with wall systems that allow low-ranking horses to eat and rest peacefully without being bullied by higher-ranking horses in the group. Zollinger said low-ranking horses might be allowed more time lying down if there are two or three independent walls set up in the middle of a large group stall. These independent walls shouldn’t touch the actual stall walls because that could create corners that might trap the low-ranking horses. But having a sort of “hiding place” for these lower-ranking individuals allows them to escape the pressure of the hierarchy while still being able to benefit from a group environment.
To facilitate more social contact among individually housed horses, designers have developed various kinds of stall structures that allow horses to touch each other with minimal risk of injury. Open stalls—with no bars or walls above about four feet high—are becoming more common and working successfully in many stables. A “box-terrace” design, with rows of stalls that have individual paddocks adjoining them, also allows social interaction and is becoming more popular. The fences between the paddocks have no electric barriers, permitting closer contact between the horses.
Designers have also developed a new inter-stall barrier system particularly designed for “risky” horses like stallions. The barriers include vertical bars spaced about a foot apart, which horses can get their heads and necks through, but not their shoulders.
“So far the only injuries we’re seeing with this system are rubs and scratches from the horses hitting themselves against the bars, but not from injuring each other,” Zollinger said.
Additionally, more farms are installing “active farm” systems, which encourage horses to spend more time moving. Systems like Paddock Paradise, a design developed by American farrier Jaime Jackson, are gaining favor in Switzerland, Zollinger said. Swiss National Stud research has shown that in open-paddock housing, horses move about 5 km (3 miles) per day, but in an “active” pasture they’ll go more than twice that.
“The mission of applied research in the domain of modern horse husbandry is to take on the new challenges, revealed through a better understanding of horse behavior and welfare, and develop realistic, practical solutions that keep both the horse and the farm manager in mind,” Zollinger said.
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