Stutteri Nord

26/08/2026

Et kort skriv om hvordan du kan bruge positiv forstærkning i træningen med din hest og samtidig skabe at stærkere bånd og berolige den.

13/08/2026

På ISES konferencen i Billund blev dette studie bl.a. præsenteret.

🐴 Could the type of noseband affect the risk of mouth lesions?

Which aspects of competition equipment are most closely associated with injuries in horses? At the ISES 2026 Conference, Professor Uta König von Borstel presented findings from a large study investigating equipment and oral and lower leg lesions in Icelandic competition horses.

The dataset included more than 6,000 competition starts from almost 3,000 horses across Germany, Denmark and Switzerland. Trained stewards recorded equipment alongside the presence, location and severity of lesions during standardised post competition checks.

Overall, 14% of starts involved oral lesions, most of which were superficial, while lower leg lesions were recorded in around 1% of starts.

When researchers examined equipment, one of the clearest findings involved noseband design. Horses wearing cavessons with a lower noseband, including flash, drop, Micklem and anatomic designs, had a substantially greater risk of oral lesions than horses wearing English cavessons without a lower noseband or no noseband.

The updated analysis presented at the conference also identified differences between bit types. Ported bits were associated with a higher risk of oral lesions compared with some other designs. This is particularly interesting given that ported bits may be promoted as providing greater tongue freedom.

Lower leg injuries, meanwhile, were not clearly explained by boot use or weight, suggesting other factors such as management and horse interactions may contribute.

Importantly, the study shows associations rather than proving that particular equipment directly caused the lesions.

The key message? Equipment design matters. In this large competition dataset, lower nosebands showed a particularly clear relationship with oral lesions, highlighting the need to critically consider how equipment may restrict a horse’s ability to respond to pressure.

03/08/2026

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." — Charles Darwin

Over the centuries, horse trainers have come up with many names to describe unwanted behaviours. These labels generally imply that the problem lies with the horse's attitude or temperament. Labels include nasty, mean, malicious, stupid, stubborn, lazy, difficult, chicken-hearted, honest, dishonest, go-ey, too forward-thinking, too keen, cheeky and arrogant.

These terms that blame the horse are problematic because they justify not looking to ourselves as the problem.

New Age trainers have also muddied the waters with inaccurate, complex, yet superficially salient terms to describe horses, such as alpha-mare, leader, dominant, emotional and disrespectful. These terms imply a sense of permanence to apparent dominance-related issues.

However, the correct way to see dominance in horses is as "bilateral dominance," where each horse only knows his/her relationship with each of the others and, more importantly, for whatever resource.

To build a training system on the notion of dominance is not only anthropocentric, but also bound to be limited, inaccurate and ineffective.

Modern Horse Training: Equitation Science Principles & Practice, Volume 2 by Andrew McLean.

06/07/2026

I forbindelse med min diplomuddannelse i equitationscience skal jeg undersøge forekomsten af problemadfærd hos heste, og hvordan det påvirker hest og rytter. Klik på linket og besvar spørgeskemaet. Det er anonymt og tager max 2 minutter - der er kun 3 spørgsmål 😁. Tusinde tak for hjælpen!

Denne undersøgelse er anonym og bruges udelukkende til besvarelse af en opgave i equitationscience om træning af heste og deres adfærd

25/06/2026

God ide til hestene i varmen 🧊

18/06/2026

Close...But Not Too Close: How Space Shapes Social Behaviour in Horses

Horses confined to enclosures with limited opportunities for spatial avoidance and escape experience heightened social stress and conflict. While forced proximity can pose welfare risks, voluntary social proximity is considered a positive indicator of well-being.

To investigate how space availability affects social interactions, this study used ultra-wideband sensors to continuously measure the distances between 34 horses in three groups during turnout in more confined paddocks and larger grazing fields.

Horses were further apart in larger enclosures (paddock: 8.3 m, field: 19 m), but close associates still stayed nearer to each other than to other horses and spent more time within 3 m. Even in larger spaces, horses did not spread out as far as possible, remaining within range of most group members, suggesting a limit to how far individuals separate while maintaining group cohesion.

Social network analysis showed a more tightly connected network in paddocks. Agonistic interactions (such as threats, chasing, or aggression) were more common between close associates, occurred more often in paddocks than in fields, and decreased as distance between horses increased.

These findings highlight how space availability influences social dynamics and has important implications for equine welfare.

The study was limited by the relatively older age of the horses, the use of only one sensor per horse (which prevented determining body orientation during interactions), and the inability of proximity data alone to distinguish specific behaviours within affiliative (friendly or bonding social interactions) or agonistic categories.

You can read this paper here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-92943-4

19/04/2026

Viste du det?

19/04/2026

Husker du at tjekke hestens ben? Her er kort video om hvad og hvordan du kan gøre.

09/04/2026

Hvis du interesserer dig for sportsbedømmelser af islandske heste, så deltag i denne undersøgelse

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05/04/2026

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