Trimming and Re-shoeing Results in More Steps per Day and More Time Spent Lying per Day

Abstract

To examine the impact of trimming and re-shoeing on behavior, light horse geldings (3-21 year-old Quarter Horse, Dutch Warmblood, or Thoroughbred) were fitted with three-axis accelerometers (IceTag, Ice Robotics, Edinburgh, Scotland) on the left rear limb. Boots were placed under the accelerometer, and both were removed daily for approximately 1 hour while horses were stalled for morning feeding to examine the horses' limb. After a two-day adaptation period and five days of activity tracking, horses were treated by having shoes removed, feet trimmed, and new shoes fitted (re-shod; n = 3) or being handled but not trimmed or fitted with new shoes (sham; n = 4). Horse activity was monitored for five days after treatment. Steps per day, time spent lying per day, and the number of lying bouts were tested for effects of treatment, time (before or after treatment), and interaction of treatment by time using procedures for repeated measures with JMP Software (version 7, SAS Inst. Inc, Cary, NC). Means separation was performed using the Student's t-test. There was a treatment by time interaction on time spent lying per day (P = .0447) and steps per day (P = .0501). Re-shod spent more time lying after treatment than before (121.4 ± 22.8 vs 66.8 ± 22.8 minutes per day, respectively). After treatment, re-shod also took more steps than sham (3499 ± 527 vs 3056 ± 456 steps per day, respectively). These results may indicate increased mental and physical comfort following trimming and re-shoeing in horses.

Keywords: Horse activity; Horse comfort; Shoeing.