Healthy
Healthy
Healthy
LIVING CONDITIONS
It has been scientifically proven that inadequate and inappropriate living conditions cause psychological trauma and distress, and severely impact physical health and soundness in zoo animals. Living conditions include space, nature of terrain, type and quantity of available feed, social interaction, and sanitary conditions, including air quality. Essentially, the more natural an environment a zoo animal is presented with, the more “natural” this animal will behave and the healthier it will be. Although one would think this to be nothing but common sense, the way many of our domestic horses are forced to live seems to call for recognition of this research.
Now, I realize that our horses are not zoo animals, and that they have been domesticated for thousands of years, but ancestral genetic makeup is still very much in place in our modern horses and they too require proper living conditions for both their physical and emotional health.
So what is a natural environment for a horse? What environmental elements correspond to and compliment their genetic makeup?
Horses evolved to live in wide open spaces, with relatively sparse vegetation. If left to roam freely they live in family groups, except for bachelor bands of young stallions who were expelled from their respective family groups and have yet to establish their own harem. Each herd has a large territorial range which it traverses regularly. Horses thrive in the open; their bodies are perfectly designed to tolerate diverse and severe climactic conditions, although they do seek shelter from wind in cold and inclement weather. To accommodate sparse availability of vegetation, their intestinal tract adapted to a constant intake of low volume and low calorie forage. They eat for about 16 hours a day, covering many miles in the process, and sleep for only short periods, mostly while standing. However, if feeling safe, horses do love to lie down for a good snooze, especially the younger ones. Their life in the wild consists of feeding, taking care of offspring, and making sure to stay alive.
Being a prey animal, the horse is constantly concerned about his safety and that of his herd. But contrary to common belief, horses are not always on the run; as a matter of fact, they usually just walk, and only go faster if provoked, be it by perceived danger, an intruder to the herd--like an outside stallion trying to usurp the herd monarch or steal a mare or two--or youngsters learning life skills through playful banter.
Clearly, there is no way that we can keep horses this way in our human environment. Land around human habitat is often at a premium and not available for luxuries like providing ample space for animals. So what can we do to meet these natural requirements even to a small degree so our domestic horses still can thrive, even if maybe not optimally?
MOVEMENT
The first and foremost consideration is movement. We need to find a way to allow a horse to move at will, as movement is one of the key factors affecting both physical and emotional health. A horse has a very small heart and needs the aid of his muscles to maintain healthy circulation. Hooves aid with circulation also, but only if they get enough use. It is often said that the horse has 5 hearts, meaning that each hoof acts a bit like a heart, aiding in circulation; through impact with the ground a large volume of blood is recirculated up the leg. Movement is further essential for gut motility and to keep life threatening colic at bay.
In highly populated areas space is often minimal and thus, horses are kept in stalls without access to turnout. I know of barns with a hundred horses and no turn out. This is truly cruelty to animals and totally indefensible. A stall is nothing but a cage or a prison cell, and it goes even more against the nature of a horse than against that of the human. Humans are cave dwellers by nature and ancestry, and sleep through the night, whereas horses don’t have that sleep rhythm and are very active at night if given the chance. We only keep the worst violent human offenders in solitary cell confinement, so why we treat horses this way has always been beyond my understanding.
Minimally, a stall or shelter with a small paddock attached is already a huge improvement over stall confinement, and by small I mean about 1000 square feet. Although this does not provide the horse with optimal space by far, it at least affords the animal the opportunity to move about to some degree, and make a choice of where he wants to be. If exercised daily in addition to this, a horse can have a reasonably content life, especially if he is not used to anything better. If even this minimal space cannot be provided, one should refrain from keeping a horse.
There are many creative ways in which caring people provide their horses with area for optimum movement, even with limited space. They create interesting mazes, a track around the outside of their property, or make a small area interesting by varying terrain, for example, adding a big pile of sand or small stones, since horses love to climb on piles and dig around in them. They also provide the horses with toys, and of course keep them in the company of others to satisfy their social needs and their desire to move and interact. You can google “paddock paradise” and find many great suggestions. Of course, the best possible environment is large acreage with varied, sparsely vegetated terrain to avoid overfeeding and encourage movement, with lots of different plant species to meet nutritional requirements.
NUTRITION
As I have written a separate article on nutrition I would like to refer the reader to it. Proper Nutrition Here I will limit myself to some general comments in order to complete the picture of proper living conditions. As already mentioned above, the horse is a grazing and browsing animal and has a great need to keep his intestines filled with a constant and varied flow of forage. Horses are always hungry, because their stomachs are very small and empty very quickly-- within 2 to 4 hours. When horses are without food for 2 hours they get hungry, they are ravenous at about 4 hours, and if without food much longer than that their intestinal health is at great risk. Under such conditions not only do their stomachs secrete too much acid, which leads to ulcers, but also, when their long intestinal tracts are not filled consistently gas pockets develop, leading to gas pain and possible twists of the intestines and fatal colic. It is estimated that 80% of all horses in domesticity live with ulcers, and most instances of colic could be avoided through sufficient supply of forage. The type of food ingested is also of great importance. Horses do best on a diet of mixed grasses or grass hay with a protein content of about 8 or 9 percent and low sugar content. Grains are not a necessary food unless the hay does not provide enough protein, or when hard working horses need more calories than hay can provide. If grains are fed, only whole grains should be used, without any added sugars like molasses. Horses are very sensitive to sugar, their metabolism is easily offset by it and insulin resistance is a very common side effect of too much sugar in the diet. Thus, most commercially produced horse feeds are very unsuitable.
On the other hand, unfortunately, grazing rich fields 24/7 can be very detrimental for our horses. When there is too much food available they overeat, just like humans at smorgasbords. Young horses, brood mares and certain breeds can do well with this, but many breeds and mature horses become obese and insulin resistant, and as a result have chronic laminitis or founder, especially if not regularly exercised. It is a delicate balance between providing the horse with the constant required fiber flow and not overfeeding him.
Lots of innovative ideas and products are available to help with this problem, ranging from grazing muzzles to hay slow-feeders. You can google slow feeding horses and come up with an astounding amount of information. In addition to varied terrain horses require variety in vegetation. Most plants have different mineral profiles and can thus help to avoid mineral deficiencies and imbalances, so common in our horses' domestic diets. Horses love to browse in the woods, love to eat raspberry bushes, young trees, leaves and branches off many leafed and needled trees, to eat moss, ferns, and they also enjoy rotten wood and wood dirt. Unfortunately, they also love to chew bark, mostly from maples and poplars, so such stands may suffer from constant visits. But if they have access to some “scruffy” woods or stands that mostly consist of evergreens, the damage is minimized and gives the horses a great way to spend their time.
One word of caution: Wherever you turn your horses out, be aware of the presence of toxic plants, and watch closely if the horses consume any. Most horses will stay away from most toxic plants, but if hungry, or just bored, they may start eating some, with potentially dire consequences. You can search online what plants are toxic to horses in your area, and in what environment they are usually found.
I have lots of toxic plants on my land and occasionally see a horse eat some of them, like goldenrod, milkweed or hemlock tree, but never in any quantity and so far without any consequences. But I do keep a close watch. All this said, I do realize that very few horses in human care get correct nutrition, and it never seizes to amaze me that their delicate digestive systems can cope at all. Of course there are many complications, with colic being only one of them. Poor nutrition is often also responsible for physical and emotional vices like aggressiveness, nervousness, cribbing or weaving, poor conformation, un-thriftiness, poor hoof quality and, of course, poor performance. But all too often owners do not trace these issues back to lack of basic nutritional requirements. Instead, owners attempt to alleviate them with drugs, injections, unbalanced supplements (often seen as the magic bullet), massage, corrective shoeing, and blanketing, to only name a few measures.
To assist, The National Research Council http://nrc88.nas.edu/nrh/ has established basic guidelines for adequate equine nutrition. One has to consider, though, that this is only a very rough outline as feed stuffs grown in different parts of the country provide different nutrients in different quantities, and horses are individuals and may have different requirements from the norm. Also, requirements are measured more by survival than optimal condition, and Dr. Kellon recommends in most cases to raise mineral requirements to 150% or NRC standards. But it is a good place to start. For a much more detailed discussion please go to Proper Nutrition.
COMPANIONSHIP
Many horse owners are not aware of the psychological makeup of horses in general. They don’t understand that horses are nosy, curious and gregarious animals who love entertainment and distractions. They thrive on variety, and love playing games. When given half a chance they can be quite smart clowns, especially when younger. Unfortunately, many horses spend their lives in a small rectangular paddock with no mental stimulation, or worse, in a dark and dingy cage. I have often heard that “They are just animals, and have really no life of their own. As long as they are fed and otherwise taken care of this is all they need. They don’t have souls or personalities; some people just project that onto them.” Unfortunately, too many horse owners believe this to be true. They use the horse as a tool or a toy, totally disregarding the animal’s needs and desires. Being a prey animal, horses usually suffer in silence, not wanting to attract the attention of predators. In my life time, I have seen many horses with dull eyes and broken spirits, and most of those were kept in stalls or other very poor environments. They finally give up, just like humans in prison camps.
Personally, I compare the emotional state of horses to about 4 year old children. Some may even stay younger in their minds. Anyway, all of them have very distinct personalities, and all the emotions of dogs or humans, even if those are not so readily evident. One needs to be able to read expressions transmitted through the eyes and subtle body language to understand them.
Also, as already mentioned, horses are herd animals and usually do very poorly when kept alone. They love the physical interaction of play and grooming and feel safe with a buddy close by. But I have met some horses who actually seem to enjoy being alone, especially if they have plenty of human attention, but this is very rare and most horses need a companion to be content and stress free. It does not necessarily have to be another horse, mules, donkeys, cows and even goats may serve. While most horses are glad to have another horse as a companion and are very much attached to each other, some horses just may not get along. Horses are individuals exactly like us humans, and sometimes the chemistry does not work, especially if space is limited. Horses each have a personal space requirement which is very individual in size, and they can get very upset if/when another horse enters this space without invitation or permission. So while 2 horses may be like peas in a pod, others may be constantly at odds with each other. In the latter case, it may be helpful to separate them physically with a fence, but still keep them close to each other. Sort of like the principle: can’t live together, but also can’t live without each other. Often horses are kept in larger groups, and if enough space is provided, this usually works out very well. As all herd or pack animals, they have a very strict order of rank and constantly keep asserting it. This keeps order in the herd and makes everyone feel comfortable and safe. Of course, there may be lots of bickering, often more playful than anything else, but overall safety lies in numbers and a herd is usually at peace provided there is ample space and food.
There are occasional bullies who just won’t leave the others alone, but I found that most of this behavior has to do with lack of appropriate space and/or food, or due to pain or irrational fear, both of which are usually caused by a chemical imbalance that can be alleviated with dietary adjustment and additional herbs. For example, just adding sufficient magnesium to the diet can work wonders, and calming herbs can help a nervous horse find peace of mind. I had these things happen in my herd, and after figuring out the nutritional problem peace and contentment was restored. This is not to say that this will always be the case; some horses may have had no socializing in their youth and just don’t know how to interact, but one certainly should not overlook this strong possibility.
SHELTER
Do horses need shelter, having evolved to live in wide open spaces? It depends. If supplied with sufficient space and variable terrain they can do very well without structures supplied by humans. They know how to find the windy spots to help with bugs, and they know just where there is no wind in case of cold and inclement weather. I live in Vermont, a quite cold climate, and frankly, the barn is more for my convenience than the horses’. I can lock each horse into a stall for feeding their individual supplements if necessary, keep them in for the vet or dentist, or just to dry them off some so I can scrape off enough mud to put a saddle on them. I have space where I can keep all my horse related equipment and a clean, level, and safe place for trimming, grooming and the like. The horses themselves mostly use the barn only in the summer to get away from the bugs. For this very reason the inside of the barn is kept quite dark, as most bugs don’t like dark spaces. Of course, the barn can also be a safe place at times, like during an ice storm or a severe blizzard. Although my horses do not choose on their own to stay in, when occasionally forced to stay in by being locked in and provided with plenty of hay they seem very comfy and content, at least for a few hours or over night. Although this happens very rarely, when it does occur I am very happy that I can provide that space for them, and it gives me great peace of mind.
Many horses also get very frightened in wet and windy conditions. I believe this is because their sense of smell and hearing is severely curtailed by the wet and sound, and it makes them feel very vulnerable to predator attacks. Older horses, or horses with compromised immune systems can get stressed out by such conditions, to their detriment, and so may also benefit from forced confinement for the duration of a storm. On the other hand, some horses get even more frantic when confined, so one needs to find out the horse’s preference and, most importantly, limit stress as much as possible. If the terrain does not afford enough shelter, a run in shed is usually plenty of protection. When keeping several horses together the shelter must be of sufficient size. Often it is helpful to have partitions so each horse can have his own designated space, since some bullies occupy the whole building and won’t let anyone else get in. Most shelters are just three sided buildings, with the fourth side wide open. While this may keep the weather out, it usually does nothing do keep bugs away. A large overhang can help to keep light out, and making the shelter quite deep and closing the front in to some extent can keep even more light out, and thus keep out many bugs. I resorted to using fly screens before I moved here to Vermont from Connecticut and built my new barn. In Connecticut, the biting fly problem is much worse than in colder Vermont, and I would buy fiberglass window screening and staple it in front of the barn or shelter openings. The horses loved this system. When coming into the shelter the netting would help brush off the bugs and if some came in anyway, they would get frantic and try to escape through the netting, leaving the horses alone. The only downside was that I had a few young clowns who found it most entertaining to rip the netting off and shred it to pieces. The hardware store did a good business!
Do horses get cold? Do they need blankets?
Some do, at certain times.
Some breeds and individual animals have a very thin coat and can actually get cold, even in dry conditions. Thoroughbreds come to mind, as do horses moving from southern regions to northern climates. Usually, however, horses tolerate cold very well, especially if accustomed to it through a free life style. In fact, they tolerate cold better than heat. But under certain conditions, most horses will get cold. I have experienced this a few times in my life, specifically after a heavy rain in the winter followed by a very sudden drop in temperature (to well below freezing), with heavy wind. The horses' wet coats instantly freeze to the body forming long icicles. At such a time, it is wonderful to have a barn with closed doors to allow the horses to thaw out and warm up. Blankets are often not necessary, but one of my horses always needed a few coolers to stop his shivering. Finally I figured out that his thyroid was underactive, that’s why he got colder than the others. Since then, I never saw him shiver again, even under bad conditions. Except for those who really need a blanket, or for a certain situation, blankets are very bad for horses. Horses can raise their hair, creating an insulating layer of air, much in the same way as birds raise their feathers to stay warm. Thus, blankets interfere with thermo-regulation by not allowing this process. They also may cause overheating and often inhibit free shoulder movement--frequently to a detrimental degree to where there is permanent damage, and can cause severe nerve damage by continuously pressing down hard on the withers. They also make the horse itchy and uncomfortable and render a good roll useless.
TERRAIN
Terrain should be varied, giving the horse a firm and dry place to hang out in, a good spot soft enough to roll and/ or take a snooze, and also be abrasive--to some degree--to help maintain the hooves. Some moisture is also desirable at times, although constantly wet terrain is usually quite detrimental to horn. Turf fulfills most, if not all, of those requirements, but a sandy area or parts of a driveway are beneficial additions, and pea gravel makes an excellent surface, especially for horses with hoof pain due to transitioning from shoes to barefoot or recovering from laminitis.
While horses do love to sleep in shavings or sawdust this may not be the best choice, as this material can become dusty and moldy, and since horses love to urinate in bedding, ammonia fumes quickly can reach dangerous levels, particularly in a closed space.
If enough space is available, one should include as much varied terrain as possible: hills, water ditches, roads, turf, woods. Negotiating different terrain is excellent for the hoof, tendon, and muscular health of a horse. It is also is a great mental stimulant.
Obviously, the horse should be comfortable on the surface he lives on. If horses have sore hooves, lots of rocks, ruts and hard frozen ground are less than desirable, and only will compound the problem.. Some barefoot proponents advise to keep sore footed horses on hard and rocky ground to get the feet to toughen up, implying that they are sore because they were only used to soft ground, sort of like humans who always wear shoes and then cannot walk over rough ground without pain. Nothing could be further from the truth. Pain in hooves comes from inflammation, and inflammation in hooves is always of grave concern as it can easily lead to founder. Whenever a horse has sore feet, he needs to be kept as pain free as possible to speedily resolve the inflammation.
Also, a shelter should be quite level, dry, free of rocks and debris, and comfortable enough for the horse to lie down in. Slippery conditions are another concern, as is snow that is too deep for horses to move in. After an ice storm it is exceedingly dangerous for horses to move around, so in those cases one should sand enough area so they can get around safely. If a horse falls on ice, it most likely will not be able to get back up without help and some sand. A fallen horse can even be mortally injured, especially if down for several hours. I lost one older gelding that way. It was not icy, but he laid down in wet snow on somewhat of a slope. Under his body weight the snow turned very slippery and icy. He already had trouble getting up under normal conditions, because of his age, so he did not manage to get back on his feet, and in the morning when I found him he had struggled so hard that part of his life support systems had already begun to shut down. All I could do is let him go as quickly and peacefully as possible. If there are several feet of snow, horses will stop moving, so it is essential to plow out some areas for them so they can get some exercise.
SANITARY REQUIREMENTS
A certain amount of hygiene is paramount for keeping horses healthy. In the wild, horses keep moving on and so avoid contaminating their environment with too much excrement and parasites. When keeping horses in small areas, one has to be diligent about removing manure and keeping urine places dry and fresh. While it is easy to pick up manure, urine can be much harder to deal with.
Unless the soil drains really well it soon becomes saturated with urine, and will be become very smelly and create a very bad environment for hooves. Ammonia is known to weaken protein, so (hoof) horn is very susceptible to that kind of damage. The good thing is that horses like to urinate into soft ground like sand, bedding, or hay, as this reduces or eliminates splashing. So one can designate an area for urination by providing a preferred surface. I usually use old hay or leaves for this, and all my geldings, when near the barn, go to their pee pile. I used to keep these piles fairly large and replaced them about once a month or so. But this was still a lot of work, and the pile became overly saturated with urine, and thus bad for the hooves. So I ended up by digging a small trench leading away from the pile and letting the urine disperse down the hill over a sandy part of the paddock. I keep the pile itself quite small now, and can easily fit it in a wheel barrow to exchange it. This has been working out quite well. Some people actually dig a dry well, fill it with stones, and put the hay or bedding on top of that to invite the horse to use this spot. I have heard that this is an excellent solution for situations with close neighbors who might otherwise complain about odor.
I used to keep bedding inside the stalls for comfort, but all my horses loved to use it as a toilet as well. They would come in, urinate, and leave again, which left me with a lot of work cleaning up, procuring sawdust, and constantly exchanging it. This is one reason I finally gave up on bedding and started to use only rubber cow mats for comfort. But if my workload was the only reason, I most likely would have kept up the bedding regime as my boys do love to sleep in it as well, but sawdust or shavings are really not healthy materials for a horse. Even when trying to keep it damp enough to avoid dust there is always some, and ammonia fumes are created by just one good pee, so it is impossible to keep the air clean. Some people use pea stone in stalls and horses seem to like it very much. But ammonia created by urine can be a problem even then, and pea stone is both very difficult to exchange and very costly.
Urine management is essential in order to minimize ammonia fumes. As little as 0.0003% per volume of ammonia gases are damaging, and even apparently clean bedding can contain 10 times as much as that.
Ammonia is a water soluble gas, and thus combines easily with moist surfaces. The respiratory passages of the horse are a perfect match for ammonia gas, where it destroys the surface of the cilia that line the mucous membranes. These cilia are designed to filter the air that is inhaled into the lungs, keeping dust particles from penetrating into the organ. When these cilia are damaged they can no longer catch and remove foreign substances like dust, germs, and food particles, allowing these passage into the lungs, causing inflammation and infection. One of the most common respiratory diseases caused in this way is heaves, a chronic lung condition that severely restricts breathing. It is often incurable.
Recumbent horses are at even greater risk, for obvious reasons. While it may look so content and peaceful to us to observe a horse sleeping in his stall, he is most likely exposing himself to very damaging gases, even if the doors are open. Back when I was still using saw dust many of my horses coughed at least a little.
FINAL THOUGHTS: WHY THAT COMFY STALL IS NOT SO COMFY AFTER ALL
As most any stall arrangement is different from the next not all negatives apply to all situations. Furthermore, the actual time spent in stalls, of course makes a huge difference to the wellbeing of the horse. If only put inside for very inclement weather, or only a few hours at a time, there usually is no problem. As a matter of fact, it is important that horses get used to some confinement so it won’t be a huge deal if they need to be confined for a few hours or even a few days in case of injury or other unusual circumstances.
Much can be done to make stalls healthier for body and mind, like providing a large level surface with good floor choice, odor neutralizers, dust free bedding, lots of daylight and good ventilation, and proximity to other horses, at least visual, but preferably with contact over the stall wall. Also providing ample forage close to ground level around the clock is of great help in maximizing physical and mental health in confinement circumstances.
However, the majority of horses do not have such luxuries and live in very unhealthy and cramped conditions, often 24/7 or close to it. Many people will not turn out a horse if it rains, for example.
Most stalls are only 10 x 10 feet, and in better barns up to 12 x 12, but for large horses this is still much too small. Floors are frequently just dirt. In these the horse digs a deep hole in the middle over time, just by moving around. The horse then usually stands uphill when trying to look out toward the aisle and the other horses. Some horses are lucky enough that they can at least hang their necks and heads out of the stall, but standing like this for many hours is really bad for overall posture and loading of the hooves, creating a number of problems. Horses are designed to have their heads and necks below wither level much of the time, so when they use their bodies the opposite way, for significant periods of time, they weaken and tighten their backs, build wrong musculature in the neck, and put too much weight onto the front part of their hooves, over-stretching the flexor tendons. All very detrimental for their health and the jobs we humans expect of them.
Some barns have cement floors without rubber mats and, although probably more level than a dirt floor, this is no better. In fact, standing on concrete for long periods is at least as bad for horses as it is for humans. If you have ever stood on a hard floor for a long time, in a kitchen or a store, for example, you know what I am taking about! And you could leave the area, stretch or get softer shoes. Horses are stuck with what they are given. Even if ample bedding is provided, horses usually manage to work down to the cement, and not only when standing. Most horses living on cement floors have chafe marks on their lower legs from lying down, plus when getting up these floors are very slippery, especially for shod horses. Some barns try to soften the stall floor by providing very deep bedding which, unfortunately, is not helpful either as the horse then never has a real stable surface to stand on.
More often than not, stall walls are solid all the way around and do not allow for cross ventilation. Ceilings often are low and trap bad air. Many barn owners have a totally unwarranted fear of draughts and keep windows and barn doors closed for that reason. They are of the opinion that horses get colds from draughts, never realizing that the bad air is to blame for the colds, not air flow. It has been estimated that horses need about 15 gallons of fresh air per minute, and produce about 100 gallons of carbon dioxide per hour. If many animals are kept in a relatively small barn, horses can actually run out of breathable air. Add ammonia fumes, body heat, and moisture of the horses to this, and the environment becomes unbearable. I still remember when I boarded my first horse in a large barn in Germany. When I came to the barn early in the morning, water would run down the windows and walls, and the air in the aisle was so heavy with ammonia that it took my breath away. How much worse it must have been in those cages! My horse quickly started to cough, like most horses in that barn. I searched frantically for a healthier situation and thus most likely barely avoided a life long lung condition.
Even in large stalls, like 10 x 20 or so, movement is much too limited and the stalls have many negative health consequences as noted above. Often, one can see horses with bandages on their legs 24/7 to avoid stocking up, a condition that is a clear indication of compromised circulation. Rather than allowing the horse the needed exercise to keep his limbs healthy, all kinds of fancy bandages, liniments and other "remedies" are applied.
Some horses are lucky enough to have Dutch doors to the outside, thus getting more fresh air, but still all or many of the other concerns apply. And sometimes those horses are even worse off emotionally as they see all that freedom and green grass out there, other horses being free or walking by, all of which are true torture for a prisoner.
Some owners say: "He loves his stall, he always stands at the gate when I turn him out." Well, if there is nothing to eat in the turnout, no buddies and no other stimulation, horses get bored very quickly and thus think that there might be at least something to eat in the stall, or the bugs may be bad outside, so the stall seems like a refuge. Some horses also have had so little time outside that they are actually afraid of being outside and consider a stall the only safe place they know. One of my horses, whom I bought as a 5 year old stallion, was kept in a stall 24/7 from the age of 16 months, except for breeding and being ridden once in a while (thank goodness he a goat and lots of kids fussing over him). When I first put him out in a large field, he stood at the gate trembling with fear. But once he figured out freedom I could no longer confine him for any amount of time in a stall; he would just go berserk. This went on until well into his 20's, when he finally felt secure enough that I could put him in a stall for a few hours without him panicking.
I used to buy most of my horses out of bad situations, and they all had similar fears about being locked in. Much of the time, they would just stand right in the door way of a stall or shelter, often half in and half out, ready to leave at any moment so they could not be locked up.
But I also think that a psychological factor plays a big role: Horses simply want to have a choice. They want to conduct their lives according to their ideas, not ours.
Feeding practices are frequently also very poor. I know of many barns where horses get fed only twice a day, grain and some hay. Usually mornings and evenings before closing up the barn against all possible draughts. Usually so little hay is provided that the horses finish it in an hour or less, and then they starve again until the next scant feeding. Additionally, hay is often placed in wall racks which cause totally wrong use of the neck and jaws, or placed on soiled and dusty bedding, and the horses inhale not only the dust of the hay but that of the bedding as well.
Some barns feed 3 times a day, a huge improvement, but it still leaves those endless nights without food and in bad air. Well managed barns feed 4 times, some even 5 times (they have midnight staff or automatic hay feeders.) All in all, the best and healthiest environment for a horse is that closest to what is found in nature; an environment that allows for movement, provides scant, varied forage, varied terrain, companionship and shelter from inclement weather conditions. While it is unreasonable to even expect that horses can be given a perfect environment in the human habitat we can each do our best to approximate that ideal by working with what we have, being creative, and most of all, understanding the needs of horses.