Project Title

Horse Care and Management in Horse Clubs in China

Project Abstract

The objective of this survey was to document and evaluate horse management and use in Chinese horse clubs. A total of 1713 horses were reported, the majority of which were less than 10 yr old (n=983, 57.4%). Only 1.8% of horses were older than 20 yr. Warmbloods made up the greatest number of imported breeds (30.8%), with Thoroughbreds and Arabians being the next most popular (17.9% and 15.4%, respectively). Mongolian horses (29.4%) were the most common indigenous breed. Major horse health problems included hoof issues (31.6%) and injuries (31.6%). Colic was reported as an issue in 23.7% of horse clubs. Four clubs reported no turnout space available, and only 5 clubs (20%) had access to turnout areas with grass. Turnout size ranged from 50 to 30,000 m2. As in the United States, the majority of horses were used for recreation (20.5%), with breeding (17.5%) and dressage (15.2%) following. Horses were used between 4-7 d/wk during heaviest use. Daily logs were used in 40% of clubs to track horse use, and 36.7% reported having a single person in charge to prevent overuse of horses. Interestingly, 3 clubs (10%) reported having “no such situation” relative to overuse of horses. Although 38.8% of employees reportedly held a certificate or degree associated with equine science, foreign specialists were often employed to support club activities, including teaching general riding (42.9%) and dressage (21.4%). Over 26% came from France.

Conference

Conference name: Two meetings combined: National Association of Equine Associated Academics Annual Conference, and Equine Science Society Symposium (held every 2 years)

Dates: NAEAA June 2-3, 2019 and ESS June 3-6, 2019

Sponsoring body: NAEAA and ESS

Conference website: NAEAA, http://naeaa.com/ and ESS, https://www.equinescience.org/2019/

Funding Type

Travel Grant

Academic College

Hutson School of Agriculture

Area/Major/Minor

Animal/Equine Science

Degree

Master

Graduation Expected

May/2019

Classification

Graduate

Name

Shea Porr, PhD

Academic College

Hutson School of Agriculture

Beginning date of project

8-2018

End date of project

2-2019

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