It is important to ensure and develop the Swedish model for riding schools, since the pupils at a Swedish riding school learn both to ride and to handle horses. There is a pronounced problem of stagnation and in some cases a reduced demand in several of the equine industry sectors including breeding with decreased coverings. The aim of this study was to cast light on how representatives from the horse industry looks at riding schools and their recruitment of horses in the next five years. The research issue was ?Will there be difficulties regarding horse recruitment in 2020 and in that case, what are the consequences?? The results of this work consist mostly of material from a workshop on how the riding school will be affected by reduced breeding in the future.

Equestrianism is a big sport in Sweden with many practitioners. It is a dangerous sport and it is important for the rider to be aware of the risks, to study equine ethology and know how to handle the horse, to avoid accidents. Today most people have their first contact with a horse through a horseback riding school. Ölmstad rid- och körsällskap is a riding school that provides their pupils with a different kind of lessons. The lessons are 90 minutes long and contain both riding and horse-knowledge education.

In the beginning of 2009 The County Administrative Boards assumed the responsibility of animal welfare, a task previously performed by the individual municipalities. This transfer was made with the aim of achieving more efficient and equivalent animal welfare controls across the country. Previous studies among animal owners have shown a somewhat negative image of animal welfare controls. This study focuses on investigating the experiences of the horse keepers in the County of Halland concerning animal welfare. The study is based on a questionnaire which was sent to 423 horse keepers in Halland, of which 130 were returned with information that laid the foundation of this study.

The aim of this work was to investigate possible risk factors for colic in horses, and to describe what horse owners can do to prevent this condition. The gastrointestinal system of the horse is constructed for continuous high fibre consumption for a period up to eighteen hours a day. Under those conditions, the continuous flow of digesta stimulates gut motility so that the intestines move constantly. When the diet is changed rapidly and the horse is being fed high rations of concentrates each day, the risk of getting colic is higher compared to when consuming less concentrates and giving the horse a stable diet. Lack or absence of access to water and restricted allowance to move freely every day increases the risk of colic. Changed management practices and decreased activity contributes to increased risks, as well as other critical risk factors such as breed, season and age combined with rapidly changed management. More knowledge and education is required of the horse owners about feed requirements in the horse, management routines and rapidly changed activity..

One way of signalling commands to the horse during riding is through applying tension on the reins to create bit pressure in the horse?s mouth (Terada et al., 2006; Clayton et al., 2011). The skilfulness of the rider in using the hands when applying bit pressure has consequences both for the horse?s performance and welfare (Manfredi et al., 2010). At the trot there are large vertical deviations of the horse?s body which the rider must adjust and adapt to (Terada et al., 2006) and an unsteady hand due to inability to follow the horse?s movement can be a source of discomfort and conflict behaviour in the horse (Heleski et al., 2009).

We choose to revise the need of dental care in horses. How important is the dental care for our horse´s use and for their health? The objective of this work was to see if there is a difference between Swedish veterinaries and educated horse dentists opinion concerning horse dental care. As horse owners, we have experienced that there is a conflict between the opinions of these two occupational groups. Some veterinarians say that there is a tendency to use to much treatments or instruments in horses mouths, while some horse dentists says that there is not enough treatments done in horses´ mouths.

Multiple Congenital Ocular Anomalities (MCOA) is a genetic disease that affects primarily Silver coloured horses of breeds such as the Rocky and Kentucky mountain horses. In these breeds the Silver dapple colour is very popular leading to an increase of affected horses. The major feature of the disease is ocular cysts of variable size. Large cysts also lead to a variety of secondary syndromes, for example retinal detachment. In previous studies the locus for MCOA has been mapped to an interval of 420 kb on equine chromosome six.

A nonsense mutation in the DMRT3 gene has been shown to have a large impact on pattern of locomotion in horses. Horses that can perform several other gaits in addition to the normally occurring gaits, walk, trot and canter, are often hetero (CA)- or homozygous (AA) for this nonsense mutation. Horses that only can perform walk, trot and canter are often homozygous for the wild-type gene (CC). For example the Icelandic Horse is a gaited breed. Five-gaited Icelandic horses can perform both flying pace and tölt, except for the normally occurring gaits, walk, trot and canter, and are often homozygous for this nonsense mutation (AA).

This study aims to investigate how value is constructed in horse business, in order to increase knowledge and contribute to development of theory in this field. This is important since the horse plays a significant role in the rural development in Sweden. The study assumes that value is something created through relationships in the social network. Therefore theories of sensemaking are combined with a discourse analytic method. By interviewing customers to two companies, one with orientation on trotting horses and one with orientation on showjumping horses, it was found that value is constructed through retrospective stories.

In Sweden the breeding organization for the Swedish Warmblood horse uses a traditional scoring system when evaluating horses. The horse is scored subjectively in relation to how good each trait is in relation to the breeding objective. Other countries, for example the Netherlands, instead use a linear scoring system. The linear scoring system evaluates the horse on a scale between two, for the breed, biological extremes which makes the evaluation more objective since the judges personal values does not influence as much. The breeding organization for the Swedish Warmblood is today planning a change towards a linear scoring system.

The horse has been domesticated for several thousand years. It has gone from being used primarily for food and transportation, to become one of the most popular pets in Sweden. With over 150,000 practitioners, horseback riding is one of the biggest sports in Sweden and there is a variety of specializations to choose from. One orientation is western riding which is a broad sport with several disciplines where most originate in cattle work and other ranch tasks. Western riding is a growing sport in Sweden with an increasing number of practitioners and with many different organizations and associations, it is important that the correct knowledge of the equipment used is disseminated. Artificial aids are available in a variety of designs and the most common variants used by western riders in Sweden is draw reins or some forms of martingale.

Many pedigree dogs are suffering from inherited diseases or personality disorders caused by selective breeding. The Swedish lapphund is a breed that has been suffering from some loss of genetic variation due to the heavy use of only a few males. Concerns have arisen and crossbreeding has been discussed as a way to manage gene loss. Four breeds has been taken into consideration for this purpose; schipperke, finish lapphund, Norwegian buhund and Norwegian elkhound, black. These breeds has been tested theoretical by a comparison of mentality and health.

Skiascopy is used to objectively determine the refractive power of the eye. Except for a Swedish study in 2007, where 93 horses of different breeds and ages were examined with respect to their refractive status, most studies on equine refraction were published about one century ago or more. The objective of this study is to examine the refractive status of healthy warm-blooded trotting horses. Skiascopy was performed in 117 horses in total, aged 3 days to approximately 22 years old. In a pilot study, it was determined whether young horses were able to accommodate or not during skiascopy. The horses in the pilot study were all younger than 14 months. In foals younger than 1,5 months we saw a significant difference in the skiascopy result in the right eyes before and after topical atropine was instilled, but not in the left eye.

In Swedish sheep industry it is desired to have lambs slaughtered evenly distributed over the year. Swedish sheep are generally seasonal breeders with lambs born in the spring and slaughtered in the autumn. Some of the breeds, e.g. Swedish Finewool and Roslag sheep breeds have shown ability to lamb out of season. For increased knowledge on the possibilities to breed for out-of-season lambing in Swedish sheep breeds, the aim of this master thesis is to study the variation in frequency of two alleles in the MTNR1A gene in the three breeds; Gotland, Swedish Finewool, and Roslag sheep.

Horse keeping is gaining an increasing interest in Sweden. During 2004 to 2010 the number of horses increased with 10 - 20 %, and was estimated to be 362 700 in 2010. Julmyra Horse Center (JHC), situated in Heby municipality, is a gated community for people sharing a large interest for horses and a vision of a sustainable horse management has been formulated. This study evaluates how the horse keeping of today at JHC, and how an expansion of the horse keeping may affect the risk of enhanced phosphorus load to the nearby lake system Vansjön ? Nordsjön.