This master thesis is discussing ten pony books from 2006 in relation to the heterosexual matrix. It contains a rather extensive research overview regarding Horse riding from a gender perspective, pony books, traditional feminist studies of girls? books and queer readings of girls? and children?s literature. The aim of the empirical study is two folded; firstly to show how the girl protagonists? Horse riding is presented in terms of masculinity and femininity (as defined by Natalie Koivula), secondly to analyze the relations between the girls appearing in the books from a queer perspective attempting to find some queer leakage in the depictions.

The purpose of this paper is to find out which characteristics the female and male characters have in five selected horse books in children's literature. I have analyzed five horse books by Professor Maria Nikolajeva?s gender roles schedule. I have chosen to do a qualitative text analysis and the questions I chose to ask for the books are: Which characteristics does the girls and the boys have in the selected horse books according to Nikolajeva?s gender chart? What is the relationship between the main characters and the horse/horses according to the theories of Backman? What does the typical horse book look like today? What I come to conclusion in my paper is that all the horse books I analyzed have female main characters, and the girls in these books about horses take a lot of space and demonstrate themselves strong.

Background Research concerning footing and its contribution to injuries has been conducted primarily in racing Thoroughbreds. Studies in UK and Japan indicate that some specific factors could be responsible for an increase in performance-associated injuries. Researchers in Sweden have performed studies on Standardbred trotters. More research is needed to be done on equestrian sports since requirements on footing are not exactly the same in riding and trotting horses. The lack of scientific evidence on the construction of equestrian surfaces has lead to anecdotal validation of designs.

Dressage schooling is not a subject that rests on science, it is a matter of dependable experience. So far there hasn?t been so much research about it, but more and more is done. Especially the interaction between rider and horse is a nearly uninvestigated field. Riding skills is much about having the right position, and having the horses head and neck in different positions, but there are no research done that support or deny that this old ?knowledge? is for the best for the horse. This study was performed to evaluate if the head and neck position of the horse, and the velocity, has any influence on the position of the rider.

Organizations are about people in interaction. Human itself is complex, and the complexity increases when people are grouped. When creating groups there is a need for a structure, an order between the people in the group. Companies have an organization - riding school is also a company and should have an organization. Many studies have been done related to the riding school but there is no documentation about organizations at riding schools, and a research is needed. The aim of the study was to clarify if riding schools in Sweden has a well considered organization.

The most common reason for a horse owner to seek veterinary care for their horse is related to the musculoskeletal system. Assessment of the horse's movement pattern is essential in the equine veterinary work. How uniformly veterinarians evaluate the lame horse may have both diagnostic and prognostic significance, such as follow up examination by the same or different veterinarian. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether there are between-veterinarian differences in assessing lameness in the same horse. In total 12 veterinarians evaluated 80 video sequences of 4 horses with induced lameness and made an evaluation of the affected limb as well as the degree of lameness.

The art of riding is a fugitive art, which signifies that the means available for documentation of performances are insufficient, and that the equipment used by the old masters are important clues for the understanding of their art. The most specialized tool used for riding is the bit, in particular the curb. As museum catalogues become accessible to the public through the internet, riders will look for information about bits. It is then important that the information provided in the catalogues is valid not just for the curator, archaeologist or art historian, but also for the rider.In this paper, I add context to the bits by explaining two opposing philosophies of bitting, and how they affect the design of the bits. This is followed by a brief history of the art of riding and how the bits have evolved since the 16?th century.

A large part of the interactions between horse and rider during horseback riding takes place through the reins and the bit and devices for measuring the tension on the reins, rein tension meters, has fairly recently been developed. To safeguard the welfare of the ridden horse riders need to be aware of the rein tension they apply and actively work to decrease it. Furthermore, there is a need to develop the study of rein tension through new techniques and refined analysis procedures. A good-quality rein tension meter should be small in size, sensitive, durable and as accurate for light rein tension as for strong forces. Rein tension meters used in research on horse and rider interaction commonly depend on strain gauge technique for generating rein tension data.

Background: The most common reason for veterinary care in horses is lameness. Lameness in riding horses is often difficult to evaluate and in many cases may require riding to come to a diagnosis. Evaluation of lameness has proven to be very subjective and depends on the examiner. There is a need to evaluate ridden horses in an objective way.

The genetic relationship between three Swedish horse breeds was investigated using microsatellite data from 144 loci in 30 horses. The North Swedish Trotter is believed to have been crossed with the Standardbred in the 1950?s to produce a faster trotter. If true, the North Swedish Trotter should be more alike the Standardbred than what the North Swedish Draught Horse is, from which they originate. This was investigated using F-statistics and Nei?s distance in GENEPOP and GENETIX and cluster assignment in STRUCTURE.

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..

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.

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.