Ridskolehästens hållbarhet : hur länge stannar hästarna i verksamheten?

Abstract: SUMMARYThe riding school horse is the base for the riding school. Riding schools are looking for a suitable horse that meets their demands for exterior, age, education, temperament, price and sustainability. Many different aspects may define the sustainability of the riding school horse; of them is how long life the riding school horse has in riding school activity. Previous studies have shown that the riding schools requirements are 8-12 years life span in the riding school.The purpose of this study was to describe the Swedish riding school horse life span in riding schools and at what age the riding school horses were recruited, disposed and the reasons for disposal. Information about the riding school horse life span in riding schools and reasons for disposal can provide important understanding regarding the importance of health for the riding school horse, riding school economy and profitability in the riding school. The questions at issue were how many years the riding school horse remains in riding school and reasons for disposal from the riding school. Earlier study from the Swedish Equestrian Federation (SvRF) showed that the reasons stated from riding schools for disposal were old age, often ill/injured, limping, ill-temper for the activity, unsuitable as a riding school horse and condemned by a veterinarian. In the retrospective longitudinal study of recruitment and disposal, a questionnaire were sent to 15 riding schools with questions about birth, recruitment year, disposal year and disposal reason. The response rate was 33% (5 riding schools) who reported data on 454 riding school horses. As reference material were also the age distribution of riding school horses from 70 riding schools (developed from SvRFs website) studied, with a total of 1029 riding school horses in activity 2010.The riding school horse age ranged between 3-28 years. The median was 14 years. In the retrospective material, the number of years in activity ranged between <1 to 26 years. The median was 5 years and 50% of the riding school horses were in activity between 2 to 9 years. Survival Analysis from recruitment to sale showed that 50% of the riding school horses stayed 8 years in activity. The riding school horses age at recruitment showed a spread from 3 to 16 years. The median was 8 years, and 50% of the riding school horses were recruited between 6 and 9 years of age. The reasons for disposal who were given were death, sale, retirement, triangular marking, inappropriate in the business19and bench/returned. The causes of death given were lameness, trauma/skeletal injury, colic, illness and died of unknown cause. The most frequent reason for disposal within <1 and in year 1, was inappropriate in business (29 horses). The most frequent reason of disposal in year two or later was, death because of lameness (90 horses) and retirement (43 horses). The median sale age was 14 years and 50% of the riding school horses were sold between the ages of 10 to 17 years.