Study links free turnout, forage access and company to better horse welfare

Researchers led by Professor Cathy Dwyer surveyed 1,501 recreational horse owners across the UK and Ireland to examine how three everyday management choices, nicknamed "friends, forage and freedom", relate to horse health and behaviour. The study, published in the journal Animal Welfare, used statistical cluster analysis to group respondents by their turnout routines, access to forage, and how much contact their horses had with other horses.

Three distinct management styles emerged. The largest group, covering nearly two-thirds of respondents, gave their horses 24-hour turnout, steady access to forage, and regular company from two or more other horses. A second group combined longer periods of individual stabling with shorter turnout, while a smaller group kept horses far more restrictively, often with turnout of only a few hours a day, little or no contact with other horses, and limited forage access. Horses in the most naturalistic management group were significantly less likely to show gastrointestinal issues, lameness, handling problems or antisocial behaviour than horses in the more restrictive groups.

For owners, breeders and yards, the findings put numbers behind long-standing advice on turnout, forage and social contact, and offer a practical steer when weighing up stabling routines: horses managed in ways closer to their natural behaviour patterns tend to show fewer of the health and behavioural problems that owners and vets commonly encounter.