During an endurance riding competition the onset of metabolic disorders leading up to elimination from the race are common. As many as 8,7 % of the horses participating in international endurance riding competitions are eliminated due to metabolic causes such as tachycardia, absence of borborygmi, hyperthermia and dehydration. To prevent the onset of metabolic disorders in the horse the rider must be able to determine the physiological and physical status of his or her horse. This requires good knowledge in nutrition, physiology and performance training. The risk of developing metabolic problems is reduced through the right feeding management and training.

Background: Evaluation of lameness in horses is traditionally performed by a veterinarian who subjectively evaluates the movements of the horse. Accordingly, lameness diagnosis varies with the veterinarian and circumstances for which the horse is examined. Research within the area has long tried to establish an objective and standardized method for lamenessevaluation in horses. Several methods have been shown to be reliable and are used regularly within research, for example measurement of forces between the hoof and ground, and measurement of movements with high speed cameras or accelerometers. However these methods require considerable preparation, standardization, and expensive equipment as well as produce large amounts of data that are incomprehensible for the clinician.

This essay derives from the concern that horses ridden with a bit in their mouth can be subjected to strong pressure from the bit if the horse and rider do not understand each other. The horse's mucosa membrane and the tongue are very sensitive tissues (Cook, 1999; Manfredi, 2005; Oliveira, 2005; Terada, 2006) and the bit can then be a source of pain and discomfort. The training of the horse should therefore always be a step by step process and as the horse develops difficulties are increased. Oliveira (2005) suggested that high demands can be placed on the horse but to be successful in the training it is essential to be content with small progress and reward the slightest desired response from the horse. This corresponds with the principles of operant conditioning with negative reinforcement.

Thoroughbred racehorses have suffered from exercise-induced haemorrhage for over 300 years. Almost all competing horses develop exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage (EIPH) at some point but most horses don?t suffer from reduced competing capacity due to the disease. The cause of the exercise-induced haemorrhage is unknown. The most believed theory today is that EIPH is induced by pulmonary stress failure caused by pressure over 100 mmHg in the pulmonary arteries during exercise.

Wounds on horses are common and sometimes difficult to treat. The wounds are often big and could be discovered too late for primary sutures, which have to be applied within 8 hours from time of accident, before bacteria has been able to infiltrate the surrounding tissue. The healing is often complicated by delayed healing and wound infection with consequences like phlegmone, fistulation and proud flesh formation.To avoid these consequences, the traditional practice has been to administer systemic antibiotics alone, systemic antibiotics in combination with topical antibiotics or topical antibiotics alone. Because few antibiotics can be used in horses, is it important to household with the few substances that are available. In veterinary medicine today, the increasing resistance amongst pathogenic microbes such as MRSA presents a growing problem.

The aim of the project was to study the effect of oral administration of glucose and leucin on the resynthesis of muscle glycogen after intense exercise in Standardbred trotters. In a crossover design, 11 Standardbred trotters performed a standardized exercise test on two occasions in order to deplete muscle glycogen. The exercise test comprised a warm up period, 7 repeated bouts of exercise on an uphill 500 m slope, and a recovery period. After the exercise test horses received: 1) a solution of glucose and leucine via a nasogastric tube at 0 minutes and at 240 minutes post exercise and a single bout of glucose at 120 minutes post exercise or 2) water (placebo) at 0, 120 and 240 minutes. Blood samples for measurement of glucose and insulin concentrations were collected at rest, when the horses returned to the stables directly after exercise and throughout the 6 hour recovery phase. During the first recovery hour, samples were collected every 15 minutes and then every 30 minutes over the next 5 hours.

By limiting our horse?s freedom of movement, we restrict their opportunity to forage, which is one of their most important needs. If their need of forage is not fulfilled it can lead to frustration, which might manifest itself in abnormal behaviour, like the oral stereotypies for example crib-biting. It is a held belief that the horse swallows air while crib-biting, which they don?t, and that swallowed air causes colic, and the belief that other horses can copy the behaviour, leads to the use of many methods to prevent the behaviour.

In the Swedish market, there is a wide selection of herbs as supplement to the horse´s feed. A trend today is that many companies are marketing herbal remedies with allegations of medical effects. If you want to sell the product for that purpose it must be verified and approved as drug or natural remedy by the Medical Products Agency. Some herbs may contain active substances. Nevertheless, only a few studies have been conducted on single herbs to investigate safe doses for horses.

Horse owner?s knowledge about horse feeding and nutrition is directly linked to the horse?s health and welfare. According to several studies, both Swedish and foreign, horse owners generally have inadequate knowledge about horse feeding. The housing systems and feeding routines of today differs in many ways from what horses have adapted to through evolution. Wild horses live in harem herds and roam on large open fields, spending about 60 % of the day grazing, mainly grass and herbs.

Animals living in captivity are often subjected to various kinds of stress. Individuals within species can respond differently to the same stressor depending on differences in coping style and physiology. Active and passive coping is a common way to describe different coping styles in animals and it is likely that these strategies have a high heritability. Individuals with an active coping style are characterized by an urge of control and a higher level of aggression than individuals with passive coping style, who in general are more flexible and respond to stress by immobilisation to a greater extent. The aim of this bachelor?s thesis is to investigate the presence of different coping styles and personality types in dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and horses (Equus ferus caballus) and to find fields of application for this information.

Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is considered a specific and a sensitive biomarker of cardiac disease, and due to a high inter-species sequence homology; human cTnI assays can often be used in veterinary medicine. The main aim of this study was to perform an initial evaluation of a human cTnI test, the Meritas Troponin I test, for measurement of equine plasma cTnI, in order to investigate whether the test could be a possible subject for a more comprehensive validation. The hypothesis was that the test could measure equine cTnI, as there is a good homology between equine cTnI and human cTnI. The evaluation included a dilution parallelism, an intra-assay precision study and measurement of plasma cTnI healthy horses. In the dilution parallelism and the intra-assay precision study, equine plasma with previously established high cTnI concentration, according to another cTnI assay, was used. In addition, cTnI concentration was measured in plasma, collected from 19 horses, without signs of disease at physical and ECG examinations. The obtained curve in the dilution parallelism was linear, indicating that the Meritas Troponin I test can be used to measure different concentrations of equine cTnI in plasma.

Thermography is the assesment of the surface temperature of the horses body and it falls into the categori of physiological imaging. Thermography allows us to portray inflammation and changes in sympathetic tone in a graphical manner. The purpose of this study was to review thermography in equine medicine and to evaluate thermography as an aid in the diagnosis of lamness in horses. Thermography has been helpful to identyfy sprains, stress fractures, shin splints and soft tissue, tendon, ligamentous and nerv injuries and to monitor healing processes during rehabilitation. Routine thermography may reveal inflammatory responses prior to clinical signs. In present study thermograpy gave especially valuabel information in two cases. In one horse reduced blood flow in a. saphena due to a thrombosis were visualised and in the other horse bilateral thoracolumbal radiculopati was diagnosed.

The EU Water Framework Directive has led that management follows the boundaries of natural catchments.The Swedish waters suffer from a nutrient overload that originates mainly from diffuse sources such as agriculture and the subcatchment of Hackstabäcken in Vallentuna Kommun, just north of Stockholm, has been chosen for this study because of its high nutrient load and because it has undergone obvious changes in land use through the years.In this study, the land use in 1902 is compared with the land use in 2011 in order to investigate if it has influenced the ability of the landscape to produce ecosystem services related to nutrient removal. These services will continue to be produced as long as the system is stable and resilient, but when landuse changes and manure from horses increases it will lead to disturbances that can convert a system from one regime in to a completely different one. That will result in loss, or degradation, of ecosystem services such as denitrification, phosphor sedimentation and adsorption, vegetation uptake and infiltration.The results of this study are based upon area calculations of landuse from old maps from 1902 and 2011. Through these maps it becomes clear that the forests in Hackstabäcken, has increased with 170 ha together with an urbanization of 311 ha, at the same time as wetlands and arable land has diminished and lakes has suffered from reductions. Wetlands have been reduced with 76 ha and the ones remaining are of insufficient quality from a nutrient removal perspective.Data from 1902 and 2011 regarding number of horses and bovines indicated a decrease in bovines and an increase in horses.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect on growth of foals on two different diets, either a forage-based diet or a diet containing approx. 40 % concentrate. The report also includes a review of the pertinent literature on the effects of diet on mares? milk and growth of horses. The hypothesis of the study was that a forage based diet will result in a similar growth pattern as a diet including more concentrates if the diets contain the same amount of energy, crude protein, lysine, calcium and phosphorous.

Eight healthy 3-day-old foals were given repeated injections of trimethoprim-sulfadiazine intravenously for 3 days, at a dosage of 15 mg/kg bodyweight (2,5 mg trimethoprim and 12,5 mg sulfadiazine). Blood samples were collected prior to each administration and for the following 24 hours after last administration. Serum concentrations of trimethoprim and sulfadiazine were measured and the pharmacokinetics for the substances were studied. The elimination half time (t½) and clearance (ClB) for trimethoprim and sulfadiazine for the foals did not diverge from adult horses. According to these data it is possible to assume that the same dose interval and dose can be used for foals as for adult horses.