Multiple forages as a behavioural enrichment for individually stabled horses

Many domestic horses are kept in an environment very different from that of free-living horses, consuming a varied ad libitum forage based diet for up to 18 hours of the day (Harris, 1999). Cuddeford (1999) suggested that stabled horses may spend as little as 7 hours eating in a 24 hour period, with an increase in the time spent standing. Encouraging foraging behaviour, defined by Goodwin et al., (2002) to include sniffing, manipulating, biting, chewing or ingesting food, is thought to allow domesticated horses to spend more time eating, approaching the time spent on this activity in free-living horses. The diet of the free-living horse includes a selection of grasses and herbs (Putman et al., 1987) whereas most domestic horses are provided with a single forage diet (Goodwin et al., 2002). In a short term trial Goodwin et al., (2002) found that offering more than one source of forage to stabled horses resulted in them spending significantly more time foraging compared to a horse on a single forage diet. This effect was found to continue for longer periods by Thorne et al., (2005), however there appears to be no current literature on how many forages to feed within a multiple forage diet. The present study aimed to establish how many different forages to include in a multiple forage diet to maximise the time spent in foraging behaviour and minimise standing behaviour.