Caring for the horse in a cold climate—Reviewing principles for thermoregulation and horse preferences

In the Nordic countries, permanent outdoor housing of horses in winter is gaining popularity. This practice will expose the horses to harsh weather conditions. However, horses that are kept indoors at night and turned out in the cold during daytime also experience thermoregulatory challenges. With emphasis on the special challenges in a Nordic climate, this […]

Horses can learn to use symbols to communicate their preferences

This paper describes a method in which horses learn to communicate by touching different neutral visual symbols, in order to tell the handler whether they want to have a blanket on or not. Horses were trained for 10–15 min per day, following a training program comprising ten steps in a strategic order. Reward based operant […]