The effectiveness of methods used to identify and monitor weight and condition in the leisure horse and the development of future methods

By brionymitchell

Your news

15 September 2011 19:46

Current studies and statistics indicate that overweight horses are a growing problem, reflecting the same trend in people and other domestic animals. It is an extremely important problem in horses that has been under-reported. Recent research by World Horse Welfare reports 35-45% of horses in the UK to be overweight or obese, over 80% of leisure horses being overweight (World Horse Welfare, 2011). Thus, making this a major problem affecting horse health and welfare. This situation could be attributed to a number of factors, a major element being a lack of knowledge and accurate methods with which to monitor weight change. A further survey by world horse welfare suggesting over a third of horse owners could not recognise an obese horse and do not know what the correct weight of their horse should be. Moreover horses owners do not have an accurate definition of what overweight is for a particular animal, so values obtained from current weight and fat estimation methods are often misleading or of little value. Therefore, further research focused on the evaluation of existing methods and development of new methods of weight and condition monitoring is required. 

As a result of this I am conducting research addressing these matters. I am a Masters student at the Royal agricultural college currently undertaking this research as part of my thesis. The main objectives of the study will be the following: 

·      To determine which methods if any are used by horse owners to monitor weight and condition and how these methods are undertaken and for what purpose, in doing so identifying limitations associated with the current methods used.

·      To conduct research into methods used in humans and other animals and if these could be applied to the horse with perhaps improved accuracy than current methods.

·      From this further research to apply practically in some form of product development or proposal. 

As part of my research I have designed a questionnaire largely focussing on UK horse management. If you could spare some time to fill out my questionnaire which takes about 15 minutes your email address will be entered into a prize draw to win your choice of either a £50 Robinsons voucher or a written consultation for one horse by equine nutritionist Clare MacLeod MSc RNutr. The following link takes you to the survey. 

 http://tinyurl.com/3k587n9

Thankyou in advance for your time!