Helping or Hindering. Many competitive horses are essentially stabled for everything except their actual training sessions. Many owners excuse for this is that it protects them from injury and they are therefore acting in the horses best welfare. Stall confinement has a significant effect on a horse’s behaviour both during times they are confined and also undergoing training. A study was conduced at the University of Goettingen, Department of Animal Science to see what effect allowing even short term turnout had on equine behaviour.
Using German Warmblood horses they tried 3 different regimens. Two hours of turnout before training, 2 hours turnout after training and no turnout. The researchers used video recordings, personal observations and GPS devices to monitor behaviour. At the completion of the study, the conclusions were as follows.
Stall Behaviour. Horses receiving no turnout were significantly more restless and even more aggressive than horses receiving turnout. These horses spent more time “doing things” (good and bad) than turned out horses. Horses in the turnout after training group stood alert and also dozed off more than horses with no turnout.
Turnout Behaviour. The horses turned out before training were considerably more active than when turned out after training. Horses turned out after training rested more. At the same time horses turned out after training covered less distance during turnout than horses turned out before training, however even trained horses covered more than 1 kilometre during turnout suggesting that that training did not necessarily fill the horses exercise needs.
Training Behaviour: It was noted that horses in the turnout before training group had a tendency towards being more willing to cooperate with the trainer’s requests resulting in shorter training times. The no turnout group showed less inclination to cooperate and required longer training times while the turnout after group were rated as “normal” in cooperation.
The conclusions: A horses stall and training behaviour is more relaxed when turnout is offered. They suggest that all horses be supplied with some degree of turnout. Very active or more difficult horses may benefit from turnout before training while quieter personality horses may do better with turnout after training. If you are concerned with potential injury, the researchers suggest turnout after training when horses demonstrate less activity.