Gotland ponies on extensive pastures – a welfare assessment

Sammanfattning: Swedish farmers have the possibility to be subsidized by EU rural development programme for grazing animals on pastures to promote the biodiversity of flora and fauna. The environmental remedy sometimes does not allow supplementary feed and at the same time the Swedish Animal Welfare Act and the Swedish Agricultural Board’s regulations for animal welfare and protection states that animals, in this case horses, shall be fed with food of good quality and adapted for the species. The regulations also state that they should have an individual feeding regime that enables them to maintain a normal body condition. The aim with this master thesis has been to investigate if it is possible to keep Gotland ponies on extensive pastures, during late spring and summer and still maintain animal welfare. The horses were assessed every fourth week using a welfare assessment protocol developed in line with the Welfare Quality® project (submitted, Viksten et al) where physical, behavioural and resourcebased parameters were observed. Twelve one-year old stallions of the breed Gotland ponies purchased from different breeders were used in the study. They were divided into three groups and released in equivalent enclosures of the size eight to ten acres, consisting of one third field and two third forests. The study was performed during May to August 2014 as a part of the larger project “The Gotland pony as a conservationist – a way to promote the biodiversity and to conserve an endangered breed” which started in 2014 and is estimated to run over two years. The physical assessment consisted of body condition scoring, registration of signs of lesions, skin problems, chafing, mane/tail- and coat quality, respiration, thermal comfort, eye- and nostril discharge, hoof health and lameness. The behavioural assessment was performed by a human approach test and an avoidance distance test when the horses were approached and their interest in humans was recorded as well as if it was possible to touch the horses or if they were avoiding people. The results showed that most of the studied parameters were affected as the study proceeded. However, which group the horses belonged to had no effect. Body condition score increased for all individuals with time. The prevalence of broken hairs in mane/tail as well as skin problems increased with time. Number of lesions decreased and coat quality was improved. The horses did not show any welfare problems regarding their respiration, their thermal comfort or lameness and there was no indication of severe welfare problems. With time the horses got easier to handle and only one group of horses showed avoidance pattern. The study showed that Gotland ponies can manage on extensive pastures with maintained good animal welfare during late spring and summer, but further tests have to be carried out during fall and winter to study the welfare under harsher conditions.