The horse is a homeothermic animal and to keep a constant body temperature in winter season is important. Acclimatisation is to provide means for a good thermal insulation consisting of skin, hair, and an outer air layer. The skin covers the horses body and it is composed of three main layers where the top layer of the epidermis consists of dead keratinized cells that are constantly being sheed. The dermis is composed of collagen connective tissue that give the skin its strength. The bottom layer with subcutaneous fat provides a thermal insulation and can be used as an energy reserve in cold weather.

The digital flexor tendon sheath (DFTS) is an important anatomical and functional structure in the horse. Disorders of the DFTS can result in devastating consequences for the horse. During the last decade, the possibilities to diagnose and treat disorders of the DFTS have been argumented. The main purpose of this paper is to describe the technique of tenoscopy and it's applications. The aim is also to review the anatomy of the fetlock canal, the differnet types of tenosynovitis, proximal annular ligament constriction and to describe the ultrasonographic examination of the DFTS..

The horse was domesticated about 6000 years ago. Since then humans have used the horse for different purposes, such as work force and in sports. Horses are social, group living animals that spend around 16-17 hours a day on grazing. Horses are often kept stabled in single boxes with a limited feeding time. The forage usually contains grain-based concentrates and roughage.

An interview study of horsemanship has been conducted in the community of Ängelholm. The study is part of a larger project, where a further four students who are writing their thesis? have conducted interviews in Lerum, Hässleholm, Nyköping and Enköping, a total of 52 horse holders in 5 different communities. The collective results are summarised in "Hur hålls hästarna i Sverige och vilka är motiven" by Catharina Svala. The purpose of this larger report has been to examine why Swedish horsemanship is the way it is today through communication with the various horse holders.

Eventing is often called as the formula 1 in equestrian sports and comprises three disciplines: dressage, show jumping and cross-country. The sport provides excitement, challenge and joy and is the ultimate sport for intelligent riders and horses. Many are fascinated by the challenges the sport offers while other consider it foolhardy to ride a cross-country. Eventing is not a risk-free sport and has even been given the label of being one of the world´s most dangerous sports. What do those risks mean to the horse? And particularly, is it associated with good animal ethics to use the horse for eventing? Finding answers to these questions is not easy as it probably is not a clear and simple answer.

Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas (GHG) that contributes to the global warming. One of the largest sources of methane is livestock, preferably ruminants which alone counted for 30% of the total agricultural anthropogenic methane emissions in the year of 2000. The reason to why ruminants are such large contributors of methane are that the gas is produced in the rumen by enteric formation and leaves the animals by belching, exhaling or by the excreta.Diets high in concentrates can result in a lower emission of methane. Also diets with a high content of starch, such as alfalfa-grass, have a methane-decreasing. It is profitable to reduce enteric methane formation since that form of methane is unavoidably lost.

Every spring you can see newborn foals running on fields among the mare. But some unfortunate end up visiting the equine hospital requiring surgery. This is a challenge for the anesthetist because of the neonatal foal?s unique physiology. Therefore you need to take these differences under consideration when you anesthetize foals.

Fossil fuels are affecting our climate negatively and there is a limited amount of them in the world, which leads to the importance of finding alternative fuels. One alternative is biogas, which is produced though a digestion process of different organic materials in a biogasreactor. Organic substrate that comes from farms has the biggest potential to increase the production of biogas in Sweden. Primarily crops from farms, but also waste products like manure are of great importance.Today there is a calculated theoretical potential for biogasproduction of 14TWh per year, which is around ten times larger than Sweden?s production today.

At the farm Fride, in Lojsta at the Southern part of Gotland, my family runs a pig production with 80 part-integrated sows in a ?Familybox-system?. The main parts of the facilities are from the early 90´s and have done their job. The production results have the last years decreased because of new infections so we have to do something before shifting ownership! This degree thesis is meant to answer the question about which the optimal extension would be today. By studying literature, use my own experience and make lots of calculations, I try to find out different opportunities.

In this thesis, the flows of reactive nitrogen (Nr) in Scania were investigated and quantified. The thesis was also intended to form a basis for comparison between the urban nitrogen flow and other flows of nitrogen within Scania. The management of nitrogen in society has disturbed the natural nitrogen cycle. This is linked to a series of environmental problems such as eutrophication, acidification, global warming and smog. The method used was Substance Flow Analysis (SFA) for Nr. For calculation and flow charts Scania was divided into three subsystems; air, water and society.

Aquaponics is a food production system consisting of a consecutive cultivation of plants and aquatic animals, fish or shellfish, in recirculating water. The plants feed on the nutritious effluents from the fish tank and bacteria converts ammonia from the fish tank into nitrate that is absorbed by the plants. The plants receive nutrition and the fish gain purified water. The environmental impact of the production of fish meal and fish oil used in conventional fish feed includes a large consumption of fossil fuels with subsequent carbon dioxide emission. The aquaponic system can be made environmentally sustainable and self-supporting if supplemented with a vermicompost/vermiculture for the production of worm protein as a fish feed. Vegetable waste from the hydroponic part of the system can be reused as worm feed in the compost and the protein rich worms can be harvested, dried and grinded and brought back to the aquaculture as fish feed. As a first step in this direction, I have investigated the effect of recycling of vegetable waste in vermicomposts on the growth and number of earthworms (this was evaluated after harvesting). The hypotheses were that earthworms can be cultivated in the vegetable waste and that by adding manure to the vermicompost it is possible to obtain a nutrient content adequate to support a continuous worm harvest, in other words create a vermiculture. Eisenia fetida and Dendrobaena veneta were grown in 20 L bins containing peat mixed with either poultry or cattle manure. The proportions were 70% peat and 30 % manure. Discarded plant parts from lettuce cultivation was added to the vermicomposts (35 g per week) and water was supplied with 0.8 L per week.

Uppsats för avläggande av filosofie kandidatexamen iKulturvård, Trädgårdens hantverk och design, 15 hp, 2015.

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.

The interest in horses and equestrian sport is constantly increasing, and so is the will in both riders and trainers to learn more about the effect the rider and its equipment have on the horse. The last twenty years, more and more studies have been performed were the horse and its kinematics have been in focus. The access to more advanced technology has made it possible to study areas, which earlier have been hard to reach. The knowledge about kinematics in the horse, and how riders and their equipment interact with the horse?s movement, is also of great interest to veterinarians in equine practice.

This project was initiated by a veterinarian, that at stallion performance tests for breeding during a number of years, noted breed differences in various types of testicular disorders. Therefore it was of interests to examine the proportion of testicular disorders within certain breeds. The aim with the project was in a first part to study cryptorchidism in common horse breeds in Sweden. Information about castrations of stallions performed during a 10 year period (2000-2009) was collected from computerized case records at five animal hospitals. The case records showed the numbers of castrations, normal cases and cases preformed on stallions with cryptorchidism, abdominal respectively inguinal.