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October 2015 THE HORSE TheHorse.com
Historically, horses were prey animals that lived
in herds grazing for the majority of their days,
so it is not surprising that today's domesticated
horses experience a certain degree of stress from
modern-day practices such as stall confinement.
Horse owners might not pick up on or appreciate
many of these stressors, and equine researchers
say this can amount to a welfare issue.
"I believe that responsible horse owners es-
sentially 'owe' it to their horses to either reduce or
manage stress wherever and whenever possible,"
says Camie Heleski, PhD, an equitation science
researcher and instructor and coordinator of the
Ag Tech Horse Management Program at Michigan
State University. The onus is also on trainers and
handlers.
CHRIS
WARE
ILLUSTRATION
STACEY OKE, DVM, MSC
L
ife is stressful. We two-legged mammals owe our nail-biting and tense shoul-
ders to a slew of triggers—piles of bills, crying children, and too few hours in
the day, to name a few. Our horses experience stress, as well. They might not
balance a checkbook, produce progeny that wail endlessly, or live their lives
to the tune of an Outlook calendar, but their hearts pound and bodies suffer all the
same. Our job as their keepers is to understand what horses "stress out" over, recog-
nize when they're stressed, and more importantly, what to do about it.
I
Physiological stress can be an important
equine welfare issue
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