Lameness localized to the hoof is a common problem in Horses. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a diagnostic tool is becoming more common and is well suited for examination of the distal limb and the hoof capsule. Today there are two different methods of MRI where in one the horse is under general anesthesia and in the other the horse is standing and only sedated. In this study we have compared the visualization of the distal interphalangeal joint using these two methods in two different groups of Horses with unknown clinical problems referred to two different equine hospitals. The width of the joint structures including thickness of joint cartilage and joint fluid and also the width of the dorsal pouch of the distal interphalangeal joint were measured.

Equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) it?s a clinical condition that includes obesity, regional adiposity, insulin resistance (IR) and laminitis. A similar syndrome exists in human medi-cine, the metabolic syndrome (MS), were systemic hypertension also is a prominent fea-ture. The systemic hypertension seen in humans with MS is partly due to a vascular endo-thelial dysfunction with an enhanced endothelin-1 (ET-1) mediated vasoconstriction. There are indications that systemic hypertension might be a feature in EMS as well but if ET-1 is involved in the development of the systemic hypertension in Horses is not known.

Septic tenosynovitis involving the digital sheath is a relatively common problem in the horse and the prognosis has been considered as poor. However, there are only few studies confirming this. The purpose of this study is to increase the knowledge about the prognosis for septic tenosynovitis in the digital sheath. The literature indicates that half or a bit more than half of the treated Horses will return to previous use. The recommended treatment is debridement of the wound, lavage and sometimes application of drains and broadspectrum antibiotics. The prognosis is considered as worse when the infection is established.

The purposes of this study were to estimate genetic and phenotypic parameters for conformation traits in Swedish Ardenner, a heavy draught horse, and to investigate the inbreeding status of the population. Additionally, a breeding scheme proposal was created, based on the results achieved in the study. The data studied were obtained from the Swedish Horse Board and from the Swedish Ardenner Association. The data included 1632 three-year-old Horses, mainly mares, and 356 stallions, judged between 1986 and 2005 at conformation shows. The traits studied were type, head-neck-body, legs, walk and trot at hand, total score and height at withers.

Every year, the horse industry in Sweden is growing. Because of this growth, it wouldbe most beneficial for the people involved in the agricultural business in Sweden toimprove their horse skills.I have assembled a form that includes basic guidelines for professional horse care.History tells us that Swedish Horses have had a huge impact on the agricultural business.Before the arrival of the tractor, the horse played a very important role for the farmer.Today, Horses are kept primarily for pleasure, mostly as a hobby for non-professionalpeople. In Sweden, we are seeing the small horse farms become more and morepopular, which is keeping the countryside open and alive.I feel it is very important to improve the knowledge among farmers and others who willwork in close proximity to Horses. This will enable us to raise the standard of care ofHorses today and reduce the number of people who market themselves as professionalhorse specialists, even though they have no education or experience in the fieldIn this essay you will find information about the most common horse breeds in Sweden,including basic anatomy of the horse, feeding directions, hoof and dental care, commondiseases and their treatment. There is information relative to the safe transportation of ahorse as well as the rules pertaining to Horses in traffic.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the content of glucose, fructose, sucrose and fructan (WSC) varied in silage, haylage and hay harvested from the same field and at the same time of harvest. The study also investigated if differences in the WSC-fraction in the forages caused differences in composition of WSC in the colon of Horses fed the forages. Hay, haylage and silage were harvested in the first week of June 2005 and stored for about nine months before feeding. Horses that were fistulated in right ventral colon and caecum were used, but only the colon fistula was used for sampling. The fresh crop and the conserved hay, haylage and silage were analyzed for chemical composition and WSC-fraction.

More than 1000 Swedish Warmblood foals are shown every year at foal inspections which are arranged around the country. Six traits are evaluated at these inspections: type, head-neck-body, correctness of legs, walk, trot and canter. No previous genetic studies have been done on the data from these evaluations. The purpose of this study was to do genetic analyses of the traits which are evaluated at foal inspections. The purpose was also to see if there are any correlations between the results of the foal inspections and the results from the tests of three-year-old Horses.

The harness racing industry has roots hundreds of years back in time and breeders through time have changed the Horses to a mix of potential, harmony and speed. Breeding has changed the conditions and created a horse that perform better and better. A risk with high-performance Horses is that injuries related to training and racing may occur more often. In training and racing situations, lameness is the most common injury. There are many factors affecting the occurrence of injuries and lameness of the trotter Horses, such as how the horse is trained and raced, the surface condition of the racetrack, banking and angle of the curves of the racetrack and how fast injuries are discovered and treated.

Opioids are considered the "golden standard" in pain management for both humans and small animals, but is used less often in equine medicine - probably for fear of side effects. Are there any studies that suggest that side effects are a major problem, or is it lack of experience which is the greatest obstacle to use? As early as 1937 it was shown that morphine and morphine derivatives provide analgesia in Horses. For species other than Horses used opioids often both pre-, intra-and postoperatively. They relieve pain effectively and are often included in the anesthesia protocol.

The purpose of this trial was to evaluate the possibility to use sampling of faeces, urine and plasma, and measurements of blood pressure as methods of discovering hypomagnesemia in Horses, as well as the application handiness of these methods. The most commonly used method of checking the magnesium status of a horse is to analyze samples of serum or plasma. The trial was of a switch-back design, in which the Horses were used as their own controls. The animal material was five Swedish warm blooded trotters between six to ten years old, and weighing between 485-620 kg. The trial consisted of three periods that were two months each.

The main purpose of this study was to study the heredity of osteochondrosis (OC) in fetlock-, hock- or stifle joints within the Swedish half-bred population, using data from the regional animal hospital in Helsingborg. A large number of Horses with clinical symptoms, for example lameness, are radiographed every year at the regional animal hospital in Helsingborg. In addition, many clinically healthy Horses are radiographed in order to be sold (inspection radiographed / export radiographed). This study is based on electronically stored data from Horses in both of these groups of patients that underwent joint radiography at the regional hospital in Helsingborg during the years 1992-1999. The first file (inspection file) contained 1035 observations from 983 Horses that had their fetlock-, hock - or stifle joints radiographed for inspection or export. The other file (clinical file) contained 6121 observations from 3800 Horses that were radiographed due to clinical symptoms in the fetlock-, stifle or hock joints.

Outdoor housing of Horses? best fulfils the Horses? need for physical activity and it is an alternative to the more cost and energy demanding indoor housing in stables. Furthermore, if outdoor housed Horses have access to shelter they can generally cope well with adverse weather conditions such as high or low ambient temperature, heavy rain or strong winds. In this study, the daytime shelter-seeking behaviour of three groups of Horses housed outdoors was studied during the summer. The aim was to evaluate whether shelter use is related to weather variables (e.g., ambient temperature and wind speed) and insect harassment. The shelter-seeking behaviour was studied for three different groups of Horses: Group 1) eight individually housed Horses in paddocks that had access to three different shelter types (C: closed on three sides with roof, R: open on three sides with roof, W: closed on three sides without roof), Group 2) 25 group housed mares with foals on pasture with access to shelters C, and Group 3) ten mares without foals on pasture without access to shelter. Each group was studied for eight days.

This thesis considers the development of the software for an, newly developed, embedded real-time control system, based on a Periferal Interface Controller (PIC). The control system is developed to be used for several different applications. In this thesis work, software for two different applications are developed. The first task is a time controlled system, while the other task is implementation of aPI-/PID-controller. A user interface is also developed and implemented.The time controlled system is an automatic horse feeder, which is used for feeding Horses at certain predefined points in time.

The Swedish Warmblood riding horse is a popular horse for sport in Sweden, and the breeding goal is to produce competitive Horses in both show jumping and dressage. The breed has its origin in native Swedish cavalry Horses but has been highly influenced by foreign stallions throughout the years. Breeding values are estimated based on the results from young horse field test, which are held for 3- or 4-year old Horses, and competition data. The young horse field tests are highly correlated with later performances in competition. The total proportion of Horses with own observations to include in the genetic evaluation are slightly under 50 %, and in most cases their pedigrees are known.

Today, many veterinary hospitals offer rehabilitation as a service. We think that this is an interesting subject and therefore we want to find out what rehabilitation methods that are available in Sweden for dogs and Horses. We want to give animal nurses and other persons who have animals as an occupation an survey that shortly describes how the methods are performed, what physical effect they have in the body and to give examples in what conditions they are used. To find out what rehabilitation methods that are available we sent out two different questionnaires, one to hospitals/clinics for small animals and one to hospitals/clinics for Horses and other companies that works with rehabilitation of Horses. The information about the methods described in our project we have found in literature and on the Internet.