Professional Care Horsemanship
Trainer of Young Horses: Training Should Never Be an Assault
Malgré Tout PR
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Have you ever wondered how much your horse actually moves when it's in the paddock? Well, you needn't ponder anymore. A research project carried out by an undergraduate student named Eleanor Mackenzie from Hartpury University in England aims to investigate the activity level of horses in the paddock. The project also explored whether the length of paddock time, the size of the paddock, and the season influence how many kilometres horses cover each day. This has yielded a number of interesting results.
Numerous horses of different breeds, ages, heights, sexes, and uses were used for the study. There were also variations in the different horses' paddock time. Some were in the paddock for around five hours, whilst others were outside for most of the day. The researcher measured the distance each of the horses covered whilst in the paddock. In addition, she measured how fast the horses moved. Everything was measured with GPS trackers, which were attached to the horses. In total, she collected over 5,000 hours of data.
The GPS coordinates revealed that the horses mainly moved in the same places, as shown in the image below.
The analyses revealed that the size of the paddock did not influence how far or how fast the horses walked. However, the trials showed that the distance covered and average speed varied depending on whether it was winter or summer. You might think this is logical since winter for many horses means muddy paddocks that do not invite play and activities. Although there may be some truth to this, the horses actually moved the least in summer. In autumn and winter, the horses, on average, moved 7.4 km per day, while in summer, they only moved 3.7 kilometres. For comparison, wild horses move an average of 28.3 kilometres per day.
Also read: Recognising the Signals of Horses in Stressful Situations
The effects of reduced movement in humans are well documented in terms of weight gain, joint, muscle impact, and even mental health. Although this has not been examined to the same extent in horses, most horse people probably agree that horses need to move to thrive both physically and mentally.
Even though the study was a pilot study - meaning a study still in the experimental stage - it still tells us something about how essential paddock time is for horses. It also bears witness to how important it is that paddock time is supplemented with other physical activity daily, if the horse is to reach a level of activity that even slightly resembles that of a wild horse.
Science Equine: The activity of horses turned out at pasture using Trackener
