For me, the worst humans do to animals is take away their autonomy, their freedom. Stick them in a cage, a crate, a tank, or, in the case of racehorses, a tiny 12×12 stall for the vast majority of their day(s). It is cruelty defined, all the more so for being done to social animals like horses. And, it is profoundly sad.
As part of an ongoing effort to educate the public, I have asked various equine experts to weigh in on confinement. The following comes from Dr. Kraig Kulikowski, a prominent equine veterinarian in upstate New York.
“Pasture turn out is critical for all horses. It is even more critical for juveniles. Confinement has been demonstrated to be deleterious on all species and is used as punishment for humans to this day. There are at least three major impacts confinement has on horses that we are currently aware of to date.
“A study of Arabian horses was performed in 1999. It evaluated bone mineral content of confined horses to horses allowed access to pasture. The double-blinded study clearly established that horses allowed out to pasture had significantly improved bone density compared to confined horses. Additionally, the study showed that density was lost once pastured horses were confined again. Loss of bone density is known to contribute to catastrophic bone fractures.
“Not only is the musculoskeletal system affected by turn out, but so is the digestive tract. Constant access to grass, the horse’s natural diet, helps decrease acidity and likelihood of ulcers in horses. The constant movement of horses in pasture also assists in improved motility of the gut, which can help with decreased incidence of colic (or digestive emergencies like impactions).
“Finally, confinement has a life-long negative impact on the horse’s mental health. While mental health is often dismissed, even in human patients, it is even more ignored in animals. Confinement has been demonstrated to lead to ‘cribbing’ (constant oral compulsions), ‘stall walking’ (constant circling in the stall by the horse), and ‘weaving’ (compulsive bobbing of the horse’s head and neck back and forth while the horse stands in one place). These are stereotypical behaviors, which are essentially a subset of obsessive compulsive disorders that horses can develop when exposed to constant confinement, and this can haunt them the rest of their lives.
“All of the above organ systems – musculoskeletal, digestive, and neurological – can be severely negatively impacted by confinement. The concept of locking a 1,000-pound professional athlete up in a 12-foot by 12-foot closet for 23 1/2 hours a day is both abusive and archaic.”
And here is a clip of Dr. Kulikowski’s appearance before the NYS Senate in 2019:
Thank you, Teresa. Spot-on.
This is such a valuable service, Patrick. Lack of turnout is worse at race tracks, but it is also a pervasive problem at boarding stables, especially where people have show horses and are afraid their horses will be bitten or kicked or even, get this, that their coat might fade in the sun!!!! These owners don’t consider the physical and psychological damage they are doing to their horses. Shout it from the rooftops, everybody!
That experience was just plain terrible to see! So sad for those horses.
I went to look at a horse for sale at a boarding facility that had next to no turnout options. The only time any of these horses were out of their stalls is when they were being ridden or occasionally for a half hour free in the arena. The stalls had solid walls and one-piece doors so the horses couldn’t see each other or even look out into the aisle. One gelding was standing with his head in the corner, rocking forward and back and banging his head against the wall. Another horse was savagely chewing the bars of his stall – his lips and gums were bleeding, and there was a lot of dried blood on all the bars of his stall. Several horses aggressively charged whoever passed their stalls, and one little mare just kept kicking the walls over and over again. These horses were literally going crazy with confinement, and the atmosphere of the barn was terrible – you could just FEEL it.
I personally grew up in a situation where we had equines and bovines and turned them out to pasture on a large acreage of approximately 250 to 300 Acres overlooking the Clearwater River in Idaho.
When I worked for a Thoroughbred racehorse trainer in 1977 at a training track, the horses would be out of their stalls for roughly an hour and then the rest of the time they had to be locked up in their stalls with no windows.
The only opening for the stall was the front door which was divided in the middle. The bottom half would be closed to keep the horse inside so that they only had the top half of the door to see out of. The horses would stand at the door and, with their heads outside of the top half of the stall door, look out for long periods of time.
The other groom had a tall black gelding in his care and this particular horse would go nuts with the obsessive compulsive disorder of moving his head CONSTANTLY from one side to the other side of the front door with his head outside of the top half of the stall door. After awhile, the groom would give this big gelding a verbal warning to stop or he would have to close the top half of the stall door.
Of course, that is like telling a horse to stop cribbing or telling an alcoholic to stop drinking; you know it doesn’t work that way.
That was extremely disturbing to see the horses have to be locked up 23 hours a day like that.
Good video! Have viewed before. Nice to have posted for others to see. He is a well respected & knowledgeable vet.