An Exploration of Environmentally Sustainable Practices Associated with Alternative Grazing Management System Use for Horses, Ponies, Donkeys and Mules in the UK

Abstract

Equestrian grazing management is a poorly researched area, despite potentially significant environmental impacts. This study explored keepers’ use of alternative grazing systems in the care of UK horses, donkeys and mules through an internet survey. The survey was available during the summer of 2020 and comprised closed and open questions, which were analysed with descriptive statistics and iterative thematic analysis, respectively. A total of 758 responses was incorporated into the analysis; the most popular system used were tracks (56.5%), Equicentral (19%), “other” (e.g., non-grass turnout) (12.5%), rewilding (7.5%) and turnout on either moorland (0.7%) or woodland (2.5%). The thematic analysis highlighted that equid keepers across the systems were highly engaged in exploring sustainable practices. Their approaches varied according to each system, yet all aimed to fulfil practices in three major categories, i.e., supporting diverse plant life (usually through restricting equid access to certain areas), supporting wildlife (through the creation of biodiverse environments) and sustainably managing droppings and helminths. Additionally, proponents of the Equicentral systems declared to be aiming to support soil health. These data provide a promising insight into equid keepers’ behaviour and attitudes to sustainability.

Exploring human behavior change in equine welfare: Insights from a COM-B analysis of the UK's equine obesity epidemic

“…This provides an additional opportunity for change at a community level. Some livery yards are now providing highly enriched environments which are specifically targeted at managing overweight or metabolically compromised horses, for example by using non-grass turnout areas with low calorie forage, alongside opportunities for positive welfare such as living in a herd and accessing different types of enrichment ( 50 , 54 ). These sorts of environments are becoming increasingly popular among horse owners regardless of equine body condition, and could lead more owners to manage weight incidentally rather than actively.…”

A practical approach to hyperinsulinaemia in horses with equine metabolic syndrome

“…Alternative grazing systems such as tracks or turnout into scrub or woodland could be implemented to reduce pasture intake, with recent studies demonstrating that owners are motivated to invest in these systems to promote weight loss as they associate a positive welfare benefit with their use (Cameron et al., 2021; Furtado et al., 2022). However, in these systems, forage (either on the ground or as browse) is generally freely available and weight loss is unlikely.…”

Agents of sustainability: How horses and people co‐create, enact and embed the good life in rural places

“…We draw on two main sources of data. First, adopting insights from a wider study (Furtado et al., 2022), we draw on participants’ free‐text responses to an equestrian survey into alternative grazing systems ( N = 658). This elucidated the broad range of ideas and practices that people adopt in order to provide their horses with what they understand as a good life.…”