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Slow Down A Speedy Eater By Adding Chaff

It has long been suggested that domestic horses be managed so they might live a life that closely mimics their wild ancestors—this includes the ability to eat nearly continuously in an effort to prevent issues like colic and choke, reports The Horse.

A recent study has found that adding chopped forage (also called chaff) to a horse' feed can prolong consumption time and reduce health risks. The scientists involved in the study report that blending at least 15 percent chaff with a horse's feed can limit the risk of gastrointestinal, metabolic and behavioral problems. Chaff requires less chewing than longer-stemmed hay, but when mixed with grain or pellets, it can slow down a horse that eats rapidly.

A series of studies out of Australia investigated factors that may affect the rate of ingestion, including the addition of chaff to meals. They used two different chaff lengths and considered each horse's breed, weight, gender, meal size, amount of exercise and palatability.

The scientists determined that adding 15 percent chaff to oats prolonged feeding time by up to 50 percent. They note that this addition is based on all-oat meals, so the amount of chaff needed to slow down a horse that is gobbling pelleted or textured feed maybe different.

No difference in feeding times between chaff length were denoted, but longer chaff may slow horses even more. The amount of exercise had no significant effect on feeding time, nor did meal size, age or gender.

The team suggests that horse owners and caretakers slow their horses rate of intake early in the meal, whether by adding chaff to grain meals, providing forage first, mixing feed with hay or extending mealtimes with things like a slow-feed hay net. Additionally, feeding fast eaters first or separating horses to feed them may prevent a horse from bolting his feed and improve equine welfare.

Helicopter Roundups Of Mustangs Safer Than Roundups Of Other Wild Species

Though the use of helicopters to gather feral mustangs has been controversial for years, a recent study has shown that these type of roundups are relatively safe for roaming horses in the Western United States, reports The Horse.

Dr. John Derek Scasta of the University of Wyoming reviewed 10 years of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) data and determined that the number of animal deaths (both naturally and those that were euthanized) related to the helicopter roundups were similar to bait-trapping, which is another method used to gather wild horses. He noted that either bait-trapping or the use of helicopters resulted in a significantly lower death rates than those found in roundups of other wild animal species.

To arrive at this conclusion, Scasta reviewed 70 captures from 2010 to 2019 that involved nearly 29,000 horses and more than 2,000 burros in nine Western states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. Of these captures, 36 used helicopters to gather the animals and 34 used bait-trapping. In bait-trapping, horses enter a wide enclosure that contains feed or water, with no humans present. In helicopter-driven gathers, a helicopter flies above and behind the herd, pushing horses into an enclosure.

In total, 96 horses and four burros died or were euthanized during or after the bait-trap gathers; 268 horses died during or after the helicopter gathers, The Horse reports. The mortality rate was 1.7 percent for bait-trap gathers and 1 percent for helicopter gathers. The majority of the deaths related to the wild horse and burro roundups are related to pre-existing or chronic conditions, such as poorly healed injuries, lameness or blindness.

The numbers are far fewer than the deaths that occur on similar roundups of elk, deer and caribou, which have reported mortality rates of up to 20 percent. The animals are generally gathered for scientific research projects. Typically, anything over a 2 percent death rate is considered unacceptable in the scientific community.

Equine Influenza Outbreak Kills Nearly 50 Wild Donkeys In CA

Equine influenza has killed 46 wild donkeys in Riverside, CA, since mid-October and more are expected to die from the disease.

DonkeyLand, a nonprofit burro rescue located in California, reported that more than 50 additional donkeys are coughing and showing signs of respiratory issues. The Riverside County Department of Animal Services reports that the majority of the deaths have occurred in Reche Canyon, but dead donkeys have also been found along Pigeon Pass Road, Heacock Street and Redlands Boulevard.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture veterinarians, Moreno Valley Animal Services and San Bernardino County Animal Care and Control are assisting DonkeyLand Rescue with care of the sick animals. Ill burros are being transported to DonkeyLand or to the SoCal Equine Hospital and quarantined; they will be released back into the wild upon recovery.

Donkeys that are around the sick donkeys are also being transported to the clinics, where they are vaccinated for flu and other diseases before being released back into the wild once they show no sign of the disease. Donkeys are more susceptible to equine influenza and develop severe secondary bacterial infections, which is what is killing the wild donkeys.

The public is advised to avoid contact with the wild burros and to keep horses away from wild donkeys to avoid disease transmission. Owners of horses in the area are encouraged to vaccinate their horses and put biosecurity measures in place to keep from spreading the disease.

Read the AAEP Equine Influenza Fact Sheet here.

Difficult To Deceive: Horses Know Human Intention

Researchers have found that horses understand much more about human intention than once thought. Drs. Miléna Trösch, Emma Bertin, Ludovic Calandreau, Raymond Nowak and Léa Lansade created a study that used three scenarios to test how well horses understand human intention, reports The Horse.

The team used 21 privately owned horses and introduced them to an unfamiliar person who had carrot slices. The person was behind a plastic window. In one scenario, the human had no intention of giving the carrot slices to the horse, moving them out of reach every time the horse reached for them. In the second study, the person tried to give the horse the carrots, but had trouble getting past the plastic barrier. In the third scenario, the person wanted to give the horse the carrots, but kept dropping them.

The study team discovered that the horse reacted differently based on the humans' intentions. This indicates that they understand human goals, even if humans failed to reach those goals. When the person tried to give the horse the carrots, the horses seemed to try to communicate with them and touched the plastic window separating them. When the human didn't have any intention of giving the horse the carrots, the horses essentially gave up, and spent more time looking away from the human and not facing them.

Until this study, it had not been scientifically proven that horses are capable of understanding human intention.