A note on the effect of daily exercise and paddock size on the behaviour of domestic horses (Equus caballus)

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1 Applied Animal Behaviour Science 107 (2007) Short communication A note on the effect of daily exercise and paddock size on the behaviour of domestic horses (Equus caballus) Grete Helen Meisfjord Jørgensen *, Knut Egil Bøe Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, N-1432 Ås, Norway Accepted 13 September 2006 Available online 23 October 2006 Abstract In a 2 3 factorial experiment we examined the effect of exercise (no exercise/daily exercise) and paddock size (small: 150 m 2, medium: 300 m 2 and large: 450 m 2 ) 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 m 2, increased the time spent eating grass from under the fence and decreased the time spent standing passively. # 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Horse; Exercise; Paddock size; Behaviour; Turnout 1. Introduction Documentation on horse management in Norway is scarce, but in Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark most horses are kept individually with restricted turnout in paddocks (Bachmann and Stauffacher, 2002; Søndergaard et al., 2002; Statens Jordbruksverk, 2004). * Corresponding author. Tel.: ; fax: address: grete.meisfjord@umb.no (G.H.M. Jørgensen) /$ see front matter # 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi: /j.applanim

2 G.H.M. Jørgensen, K.E. Bøe / Applied Animal Behaviour Science 107 (2007) Horses in the racing industry (e.g. trot and gallop) are under heavy training and exercise regimes every day, but in comparison some family- and leisure horses only have little or no daily exercise. Results indicate that motivation for movement and play increases over time if horses are prevented from performing these behaviours due to insufficient space, individual stabling or isolation (Mal et al., 1991; Houpt et al., 2001; Christensen et al., 2002; Chaya et al., 2006). This is also found in domestic calves (Jensen, 2001). Swedish recommendations state that an individual paddock should measure at least 300 m 2 (Ventorp and Michanek, 1997), but Danish recommendations suggest 800 m 2 and in addition horses are recommended kept together in social groups (Søndergaard et al., 2002). There is, however little evidence to confirm that these individual paddock sizes are adequate for exercise and other activities. For Przewalski horses kept in groups, results indicate that horses in smaller paddock sizes perform more milling, pacing, aggression, and less resting, compared to when in larger paddocks (Boyd, 1988; Hogan et al., 1988). The aim of this experiment was to investigate the effect of daily exercise and paddock size on the behaviour of individually kept horses. It was hypothesized that the general activity in the paddock would decrease when horses were exercised, and that the horses would perform more running and playing in a larger paddock size compared to a smaller paddock size. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Experimental design The experiment was conducted during the summer of 2004, at the Norwegian Equine Centre (Starum), and it was designed as a 2 3 factorial experiment with exercise (no exercise/daily exercise) and paddock size (small: 150 m 2, medium: 300 m 2 and large: 450 m 2 ) as main factors. The no exercise treatment was imposed for 3 weeks in June/July and the exercise treatment was imposed in 3 weeks in August. In both these treatment periods, nine horses were exposed to all the three paddock size treatments (1 week for each paddock size treatment) for 2 h daily. The order of paddock size treatments was rotated systematically. The three paddocks measured 10 m 15 m (small), 10 m 30 m (medium) and 10 m 45 m (large), respectively, and had sandy soil ground with some grass and green plants growing on the outside of the fence, all around the perimeter of the paddock. Every day the horses were fed, exercised for 45 min daily in a circular walker (Kondi trainer, diameter 20 m) at a speed of approximately 75 m/min (only in the exercise period) and then turned out to the paddocks Animals and feeding Nine healthy horses (10 22 years old) from both cold- (CB) and warm-blooded (WB) breed types were selected. There were both mares (three) and geldings (nine) and all horses were normally used in schooling. The three CB horses were used for carriage-driving lessons and ranged in body weight from approximately kg, whereas the six WB horses were used in riding-lessons, ranging in body weight from 400 to 700 kg. The horses were stabled in tie-stalls measuring 1.87 m 2.50 m in the same building, and they were fed individually adjusted rations of good quality hay (6 8 kg per day) four times a day (07.00, 12.00, and h), in addition to oat grain and barley pellets, three times a day (07.00, and h) while housed. In addition the horses got a vitamin and mineral

3 168 G.H.M. Jørgensen, K.E. Bøe / Applied Animal Behaviour Science 107 (2007) supplement once a day and had free access to salt blocks and water from automatic drinking vessels. In the evening feeding, all horses were offered some 3 kg of newly cut forage grass, in addition to the regular amount of hay. The horses were fed approximately 1 h before turnout to the paddocks. All horses were familiar with each other since they previously had been held together in an enclosure for summer pasture Behavioural observations Direct observations were done by a present observer located in a nearby building overlooking the paddock area, for 2 h in the paddocks at the last 2 days of each paddock treatment period (equals 12 observation days). The following mutually exclusive behavioural classes were scored using instantaneous sampling at 1-min intervals: standing (the horse stands inactive with all four feet in contact with the ground or with one foot hooked up in a resting position, relaxed position of the ears and head, but with eyes open); walking; running (any form of trot, canter or gallop); vigorous play (any form of jumping, buck kicking, rearing or kicking with the feet); exploration (the horse is standing or walking slowly with the neck horizontally or lower, smelling the ground or an object); eating grass, standing alert (the horse stands with ears and eyes focused; from Strand et al., 2002); self-grooming (an act of integumentary care (e.g. licking, scratching) in this case an animal grooming itself, from Hurnik et al., 1995); rolling (an activity characterized by lying down and rolling onto the back accompanied by rubbing movement against the ground, from Hurnik et al., 1995); defecation; standing asleep (the horse stands in a resting position, on all four legs or with one hindleg hocked, with the head low and eyes closed, dozing); digging the ground (pawing, a scooping front leg movement, generally on the ground, from Hurnik et al., 1995); eating/licking soil; eating/licking the wooden fence. Observations from 1 day during the non-exercise period had to be excluded due to heavy rain and wind. In order to simultaneously score the position of the horse in the paddock (position of front hoofs) the paddocks were divided into squares (3.3 m 7.5 m) marked with spray paint on the ground. This allowed us to calculate the number of squares crossed during the 2 h and to give a rough estimate of the distance travelled by the assumption that the horses moved from the centre of one square to the centre of another. This will of course overestimate the approximate distance travelled Weather conditions Every day air temperature, wind speed and precipitation was recorded for every observation session and categorised into four categories according to the chilling effect: (1) C, strong

4 Table 1 Effect of paddock size and exercise on horse activity Behaviour (mean S.E. % of observations) Paddock size Exercise Interaction Small Medium Large P-value No exercise Exercise P-value P-value Standing a b c < d e Walking d e Exploration a b Eating grass a b c < Stand alert a b Self-grooming d e Eating/licking soil/fence d e No. of squares crossed a b c < Distance travelled (m) a b c < d e Means with different letters differ significantly (a,b,c) P < and (d,e,f) P < G.H.M. Jørgensen, K.E. Bøe / Applied Animal Behaviour Science 107 (2007)

5 170 G.H.M. Jørgensen, K.E. Bøe / Applied Animal Behaviour Science 107 (2007) wind and moderate to heavy rain (n = 9), (2) C, no or slight wind, moderate rain (n = 45), (3) C, no or slight wind, no rain (n = 30), and (4) C, no or slight wind, no rain (n = 18). Some days we experienced heavy rains, especially during the non-exercise period Statistics In order to test the effect of different paddock sizes and exercise on the horses activity, a GLMmodel was used including the class variables paddock size (small/medium/large), exercise (exercise/no exercise), day of observation (day 1/2), week (1/2/3), weather (category 1, 2, 3 or 4) and individual animal (Hatcher and Stepanski, 1994). Least square means was used to test differences between means. 3. Results In the non-exercise treatment period the horses walked significantly more, they travelled a longer distance, explored more and stood more alert in the paddock than in the period with exercise (Table 1). The horses stood more inactive, showed a higher frequency of eating/licking soil and eating/licking wooden fence and a lower frequency of self-grooming in the period with exercise (Table 1). Running (mean S.E. % of tot obs.; %), vigorous play ( %), digging the ground with one front foot ( %), defecation ( %), standing asleep ( %) and rolling on the back ( %) were rarely observed and were not affected by exercise treatment or paddock size. The recorded behaviours did not change over time (from weeks 1 to 3) within the non-exercise period, nor within the exercise period. The horses were more active in the large paddock compared to the medium and small paddock (Table 1), and they also travelled a longer distance. The main reason for this increased activity was that the horses ate more grass from under the fence. The horses also stood inactive more often in the small paddock compared to the larger ones, but none of the other behaviours were affected by paddock size. Fig. 1. Effect of weather on walking in individual paddocks (mean + S.E.). Means with different letters differ significantly (a,b) P < 0.05.

6 G.H.M. Jørgensen, K.E. Bøe / Applied Animal Behaviour Science 107 (2007) Fig. 2. Effect of weather on standing alert and digging the ground in individual paddocks (mean SE). Means with the same behaviour bars with different letters differ significantly (a,b) P < There were no significant interactions between paddock size and exercise treatment for any of the behaviours. At low temperatures and rain (weather category 1), the horses were more restless, and walked significantly more than in warmer weather (weather categories 2 4) (Fig. 1). Although digging the ground with one front foot generally had a low frequency, this behaviour was more prevalent during cold weather (P < 0.05), and the horses also stood more alert at low temperatures (P < 0.05) (Fig. 2). These findings could not be explained by any obvious disturbances in the paddock surroundings. On the other hand, the horses tended to be standing more asleep at warm weather (category 4, %) compared to weather category 1 ( %), weather category 2 ( %) and weather category 3 ( %) (P = 0.06). 4. Discussion As hypothesised daily exercise significantly reduced the general activity as shown by decreased time spent walking, decreased distance travelled, less exploring of the environment and less standing alert. In comparison, Caanitz et al. (1991) found that horses under training were more relaxed at the stables than horses without training and Chaya et al. (2006) found an increased activity in horses turned out for only 2 h/week than horses turned out for 12 h/week. There is however, important to distinguish between forced exercise (e.g. riding, pulling, and mechanical walker) and free exercise (paddock or pasture). Even though both the results from the present experiment and Caanitz et al. (1991) suggest that forced exercise reduce the motivation for movement and activity, it will not necessarily imply that the horses do not have an additional need for free exercise. While the present experiment found a low frequency and no significant increase in running or vigorous play in the non-exercise period, Chaya et al. (2006) found that horses turned out for 2 h/week were more likely to trot, canter and buck than horses turned out for 12 h/week. Similarly, Jensen (2001) found that calves performed more trotting and locomotor play after 3 days of confinement compared to calves with only 1 or 0 day in confinement. Possible explanations for the low frequency of running and playing in our experiment may be the high age of the horses and that these horses had been at this farm for several years and hence were

7 172 G.H.M. Jørgensen, K.E. Bøe / Applied Animal Behaviour Science 107 (2007) very familiar with both the paddocks and the daily activities. As commented by Fraser (1992), play behaviour mostly occur in young horses. Our hypothesis that a larger paddock size would increase running and playing was not confirmed, but time spent eating grass, the number of squares crossed and the distance travelled per se increased in addition to decreased passive standing when increasing the paddock size. Interestingly, the increased activity in the larger paddocks was mainly due to an increased time spent eating grass from under the fence. The longer fence perimeter of course exposed the horses to more grass. As the horses were fed just before turn out, the increased activity was probably not related to nutritional needs per se, but rather that grass was an interesting stimulus. It is possible that the effect of decreased passive standing could be extrapolated if increasing the paddock size further, however it is questionable whether increased paddock size under the present conditions would entail more running and playing (Danish recommendations: a minimum of 800 m 2 ). During heavy rain and strong wind the horses increased the time spent walking, standing alert and digging the ground. Both the observed digging and repeated walking in the present experiment might be a behaviour expressing frustration of the weather conditions and impatience to get away from it. Rugs or blankets is often used in traditional horse keeping and will obviously reduce the climatic impact. However, the benefit of keeping a horse in a small paddock without shelter on days with heavy rain, eventually combined with strong wind is questionable. In conclusion, daily exercise significantly reduced the general activity in the paddocks. Increasing the paddock size to 450 m 2, increased the time spent eating grass from under the fence and decreased the time spent standing passively. Acknowledgements We would like to thank the Norwegian Equine Centre, Starum for lending us the horses and facilities to complete these experiments. We also would like to thank Dr. Inger Lise Andersen for valuable comments on this manuscript. References Bachmann, I., Stauffacher, M., Housing and exploitation of horses in Switzerland: a representative analysis of the status quo. Schweiz. Arc. Tierheilkunde 144, Boyd, L.E., Time budgets of adult Przewalski horses: effects of sex, reproductive status and enclosure. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 21, Caanitz, H., O Leary, L., Houpt, K., Petersson, K., Hintz, H., Effect of exercise on equine behavior. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 31, Chaya, L., Cowan, E., McGuire, B., A note on the relationship between time spent in turnout and behaviour during turnout in horses (Equus caballus). Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 98, Christensen, J.W., Ladewig, J., Søndergaard, E., Malmkvist, J., Effects of individual versus group stabling on behaviour in domestic stallions. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 75, Fraser, A.F., The Behaviour of the Horse, 1st ed. CAB International, Wallingford, UK, 288 pp. Hatcher, L., Stepanski, E.J., A Step-by-Step Approach to using the SAS 1 System for Univariate and Multivariate Statistics. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, 552 pp. Hogan, E.S., Houpt, K.A., Sweeny, K., The effect of enclosure size on social interactions and daily activity patterns of the captive Asiatic wild horse (Equus przewalskii). Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 21, Houpt, K., Houpt, T.R., Johnson, J.L., Erb, H.N., Yeson, S.C., The effects of exercise deprivation on the behaviour and physiology of straight stall confined pregnant mares. Anim. Welfare 10, Hurnik, J.F, Webster, A.B, Siegel, P.B., Dictionary of Farm Animal Behaviour, 2nd ed. Iowa State University Press, 210 pp.

8 G.H.M. Jørgensen, K.E. Bøe / Applied Animal Behaviour Science 107 (2007) Jensen, M.B., A note on the effect of isolation during testing and length of previous confinement on locomotor behaviour during open-field test in dairy calves. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 70, Mal, M.E., Friend, T.H., Lay, D.C., Vogelsang, S.G., Jenkins, O.C., Behavioral responses of mares to short-term confinement and social isolation. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 31, Statens Jordbruksverk, Ny hästräkning genomførd. Pressemelding, Sverige, pressekontakten/pressemeddelanden/pressemeddelanden/ b71008e0e5daa html (April 18, 2005). Strand, S.C., Tiefenbacher, S., Haskell, M., Hosmer, T., McDonnell, S.M., Freeman, D.A., Behaviour and physiologic responses of mares to short-term isolation. Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci. 78, Søndergaard, E., Clausen, E., Christensen, J.W., Schougaard, H., DJF rapport nr 39. Oppstalding og hold af heste. Danish recommentations. Danmarks Jordbrugs Forskning, 105 pp. Ventorp, M., Michanek, P., Att bygga Häststall: en idèhandbok. The Agricultural University of Sweeden, Lund, 432 pp.

Do Horses Prefer Certain Substrates for Rolling in Grazing Pasture?

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