Professor Jan Ladewig of Copenhagen University gave a very interesting talk to a group of 30 participants last Saturday, on the topic “The other 23 hours in a horse’s day”, which looked at the way the majority of horses in Italy and elsewhere, live their lives, far from their natural environment.

Horses evolved living in social groups moving over vast plains, spending the 24 hours of each day slowly grazing. Their bodies and minds were shaped by these conditions - and thousands of years of domestication have barely changed them.

By stark contrast, the conditions in which most riding and working horses live are very different. In the majority of livery stables and private yards horses leave their stables for just a few hours per week: the lucky ones for one hour a day. They live separated from other horses, in closed structures, and receive two or three meals a day instead of being free to trickle feed. Even though today there is a growing tendency to let them out more frequently they are still separated from other horses, left alone in a flat space without any stimulus to do anything.

In the case of other domesticated social animals such as pigs and cattle, isolation is gradually being replaced by an open stabling system, but a similar choice has not yet been made, generally speaking, for horses – in part because many owners are concerned about the possibility of fights, and fear injuries. Interestingly, with regard to this concern, observation of wild horses has shown that while domesticated and wild horses both engage in the same type of play, the same games and interactions, non-domesticated horses actually play harder and rougher than their domesticated counterparts yet injuries are rare. One possible reason for this is that wild horses are better socialised, since they live together from birth with other horses and in groups composed of different ages and both sexes.

Consider too the fact that life closed in a stable can be the cause of numerous pathologies (respiratory diseases, colic, hoof problems etc) not to mention stereotypical behaviour – all of which are virtually unknown among wild horses.

If we care about the wellbeing of our horses and aim to have a healthy and balanced animal, we need to imitate as far as is feasible their natural environment and lifestyle, as well as learning much more about the process of socialisation: what is the optimal size for a herd? What are the effects of an over-large herd? How can we improve the environment in which we keep horses?

Jan Ladewig holds a degree in Veterinary Medicine from the Royal Veterinary University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and a Ph.D. in Animal Behaviour from the University of California, Davis. He has spent time as a Research Associate in Germany where he studied the psychology and behaviour of pigs cattle and horses when stressed. He has carried out operant conditioning experiments to measure the motiviation of pigs. Jan is particularly interested in the scientific background of horse training, specifically in how it relates to the wellbeing of the horse and the safety of the rider.


Prof. Jan Ladewig



group photo after the meeting