The horse - the fight or flight response
The ancestors of our domestic horses of today were steppe animals. Their food was the barren steppe grass. They had to travel many kilometres a day to get enough food and water. This trained tendons, ligaments and muscles, stimulated intestinal activity and cleaned the respiratory tract.
Why species-appropriate living conditions
During normal grazing, horses move about 12-15 hours a day and cover about 30km at a walk. Keeping a horse in a narrow box all day long and only taking it out for riding is therefore not at all appropriate to the species. In addition, the even movement throughout the day contributes to gymnastics, promotes blood circulation and stimulates the metabolism. Longer periods of standing still, on the other hand, rust and tense the horse's muscles, which are not designed for this. The social contact with conspecifics in the pasture, even "just" standing together without disturbing bars, also reduces stress and ensures well-being. Horses that are bored and cannot keep themselves busy permanently develop severe behavioural disorders, such as permanent scratching, cropping (air swallowing) or weaving.
Comparison of husbandry's
In the course of time the living conditions for horses have changed. In most cases, the daily mileage does not come close to the length a horse covers in the wild. Scientists (Widmann 1990, Zeeb 1998) have investigated the free movement of horses in different types of husbandry and came to the following results:
| Husbandry | Distance | Steps |
|---|---|---|
Nature-orientated keeping |
6 - 17km |
7.500 - 21.250 |
Day pasture |
3,5 km |
3.5 |
Open stable |
1,8 km |
2.25 |
Single box |
0,17 km |
578 |
These results clearly show what kind of movement potential the rider still has to cover every day! The table also shows that horses that are kept in an open stable have to be moved daily. Many of our leisure horses have too much free time, which can also make them ill.
Endurance and thermoregulation of the horse
Horses love to move for their lives. Above all, they are very strong spurs. The endurance at higher speeds, on the other hand, depends on the type of horse on the one hand and on the training condition on the other. On sprint tracks, speeds of up to 70 km/h are possible for some breeds. On a distance ride of 30 kilometres, a normally trained, healthy animal can achieve an average speed of about 12km/h at endurance trot. Horses are found all over the world, in many different climatic regions, in barren steppe landscapes, in humid-warm climates, in the mountains and in icy tundra. This shows how well horses can adapt to different climatic conditions and how capable they are of thermoregulation. In contrast to dogs and cats, for example, they can secrete sweat all over their bodies to cool themselves. In winter, on the other hand, they do not only get a winter coat: when horses freeze, the blood circulation of the muscles is stimulated and metabolic energy is converted into heat. The horse can therefore actively warm itself from the inside, which, however, increases the feed requirement. Of course, the overall blood circulation also depends on the movement. For example, the legs of box horses in the stable are much colder than those of other horses in the pasture. Of course, the ability to adapt to adverse weather conditions also depends on the type of horse, but above all on the type of husbandry: even a thoroughbred can easily spend a few hours in the pasture in winter if he has the opportunity to observe the weather and climate outside all year round. With predominant box keeping, heated stables and general "pampering", one usually does more harm to the horse than good. The immune system is more easily weakened, thermoregulation functions less and less and the overall sensitivity to weather increases.
