The horse is an animal that often becomes humanized. Despite domestication, the horse still has a need to interact with other horses, be able to move for the most of the day, and being able to graze. If these needs cannot be fulfilled, the horse can be negatively affected and develop abnormal behaviours. An example of abnormal behaviours is weaving; the horse performs a swinging motion in the front area of the body during a long time. This literature review aims to investigate how different stabling forms (box/stall) affect the incidence of weaving, and also how this behaviour can be prevented or limited.

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).

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..

This work is about euthanasia and how to use it on horses, dogs and cats. A description for each animal is done, about when it is time, why, which methods can be used and who is allowed to use them, how and where it shall be done. The methods we have concentrated on are: - Chemical destruction and the most common drugs for euthanatize horses, dogs and cats. - Physical disruption of the brain activity by a captive bolt, only for horses. The captive bolt only makes the horse unconscious and must always be followed by cutting off the vena jugularis. Then the horse dies because of loss of blood. No matter which method used for euthanizing, the animal must be declared to be dead by the operator before other measures. The testing criteria for death: muscle relaxation and cyanosis, cessation of reflex activity and pupillary dilatation, cessation of respiratory activity and cessation of all cardiac activity.

SUMMARYThe riding school horse is the base for the riding school. Riding schools are looking for a suitable horse that meets their demands for exterior, age, education, temperament, price and sustainability. Many different aspects may define the sustainability of the riding school horse; of them is how long life the riding school horse has in riding school activity. Previous studies have shown that the riding schools requirements are 8-12 years life span in the riding school.The purpose of this study was to describe the Swedish riding school horse life span in riding schools and at what age the riding school horses were recruited, disposed and the reasons for disposal. Information about the riding school horse life span in riding schools and reasons for disposal can provide important understanding regarding the importance of health for the riding school horse, riding school economy and profitability in the riding school.

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 purpose of this degree project is to investigate how horse keepers reasons about horse keeping and how the horse keeping looks like today. It is interesting to compare modern horse keeping with ancien recommendations and how the horses were kept then to understand how much in the horse keeping today that is based on traditions instead of research and science. The degree project was based on data from interviews of 52 horse keepers in five different municipalities. All interviews have been based from the same questionaire about how there horses are kept today, what they think about different housing systems, how they think horses will be housed in the future and what problems they think are the biggest in horse keeping today. The results shows that single boxes indoors are the most frequently used housing system today.

SUMMARYThe Swedish laws of animal welfare emphasize the social needs of the horse but nothing is said about how to fulfill this. Though there are few studies done in this subject it can be difficult to understand if the needs are fulfilled. The purpose of this study was to learn more about the horse?s social needs in box stable and to increase other people?s knowledge and understanding of the horse behavior to increase the welfare of the stabled horse. The questions where: How does the horse choose to place itself depending on what horse is next to it? How many attempts does the horse do to take contact and nose contact with the horse next to it? How does the box design affect the horse behavior?22Eight horses were videotaped during 24 nights.

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.

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.

The use of intramuscular injections of procaine penicillin G (bensylpenicillin procaine) in the horse is now and then associated with acute adverse reactions (penicillin-chock). The etiology is not yet clearly understood, but the theories are several. One possibility is that it can be caused by procaine toxicity. Procaine penicillin G is a salt which is quickly dissolved in plasma. Procaine is then metabolized by plasmaesterases to non-toxic metabolites, p-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) and diethylaminoethanol.

The purpose of this essay was to try to understand the relationship between the horse and man during the last part of the Iron Age and trough out the Medieval Age. To be able to get a result I investigated the horse's tending, work within agriculture, riding, warfare, breeding, to stable horses, oxen, sports and hunting, eating of the horse and age at slaughter and more. The results showed that the horse's position changed from the later part of the Iron Age throughout the Medieval Ages and in different ways for, respectively, the elite as for the peasant culture..

The purpose of this study was to gather knowledge about the functioning of the rein tension meter and test it for future studies of match and mismatch between rider and horse. We looked specifically into the possibilities to use a rein-tension meter to determine the quality of cooperation between horse and rider. We examined whether a rider shows a specific tension pattern and also if certain patterns could be recognised for a specific horse. During the study, a manual with pictures and text was written to support the practical use of the meter. The manual describes in a simple way the first steps in the installation and use of the meter.

In today?s horse keeping, there is an increasing awareness of the importance of movement and activity for the horses comfort and tenability, while tradition has it that horses should be kept in boxes and small paddocks. In order to develop housing systems that fulfils and optimizes the horses needs regarding movement and activity, we need to know more about factors that influence the activity patterns of horses. A first step is to be able to record and analyze the gaits in horses with an automated system. This could be done by use of accelerometer data.In this pilot study, existing accelerometer technique was used to characterize the different gaits in horses (walk, trot and canter) by studying how their respective signal patterns differ and how this is influenced by the size of the horse.The accelerometers being used in this study measures the movement in three different spaces; horizontal, lateral and vertical.

Västergarn is one of the smallest parishes on the island of Gotland. It?s a place of rich history and has been subject to numerous excavations throughout the years. The University of Gotland has conducted seminar excavations at Västergarn between the years of 2005-2012. During these excavations a lot of horse related finds have been found.