Newsdate: May 26, 2025 - 8:30 am
Location: GILROY, California

Researchers have found that a little exercise helps horses maintain a more cooperative mood with less negative behavior. Original research done at the Equine Centre at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia, assessed the influence of exercise on stabled horses' behavior.

Young woman riding her horse on a pleasant summer day

The study examined whether four forms of exercise, walker, treadmill, turnout and recreational riding, were equally effective in reducing unwanted behavior of horses housed in stalls.
© 2008 by Alexia Khruscheva New window.

In the original study, Dr Raf Freire and his co-workers looked at how stabled horses behaved when they were given an hour's exercise a day compared with no exercise. An important aspect of the study was that each horse acted as its own control in matched treatments. This allowed the researchers to separate the effects of exercise from other effects associated with the exercise treatments.

Some horses used a walker, others a treadmill, while another group had free turnout, and a fourth group of horses was ridden by a recreational rider.

On the days when they were not exercised, horses were taken out of their stables for an hour for a change of scenery, but no exercise as such. So, for example, horse walker exercise was compared with standing on a stationary horse walker.

The study also examined whether four different forms of exercise-walker, treadmill, turnout and recreational riding-were equally effective in reducing unwanted behavior from horses housed in stalls.

This research has been followed up with other research at universities and other research centers with essentially the same results.

For the research study, two dozen horses, including thoroughbreds and part-thoroughbreds, received an hour of exercise daily with one of the four methods. Some horses used a walker, others a treadmill, while another group had free turnout, and a fourth group of horses was ridden.

Every few days, each horse's behavior was evaluated while being handled for weighing and then while loading in and out of a trailer. Each horse was also released on its own into an arena for 15 minutes while its activity was documented to assess rebound behavior.

The researchers considered rebound activity as an indicator of the horse's previous behavioral deprivation, resulting from being confined to a stall four meters (13 feet) square. For comparison, during another period when the same horses went without daily exercise, they received the same behavior assessment routine.

Tracking recovery rates can be very helpful in judging the progress of fitness. Taking a horse's heart rate right after exercise and then rechecking it at five minute intervals will tell you how fast a horse is getting back to resting rate.

The researchers observed that horses given daily exercise did less walking, trotting and cantering when let loose in the arena, even when the exercise only consisted of walking.

Those horses that had turnout did the least amount of cantering, and seldom bucked or rolled during their freedom in the arena. Horses exercised by walking or riding usually bucked two or three times while in the arena.

This difference suggests that turnout was the most effective exercise regime. Meanwhile, horses without any daily exercise let out six or seven bucks and also rolled once or twice during their 15 minutes at liberty.

All types of exercise left horses in a more cooperative and less reactive mood. This was reflected in less vocalizing while being handled and in taking less time to load onto weight scales. Whether they got exercise made no difference, however, in how horses behaved during trailer loading.

Unwanted behavior did not occur often, but for ease of recording was classified as either "dangerous" including bolting, rushing in or out of scales or trailer or "unwelcome" undesirable or uncooperative behaviors not considered dangerous.

During the study, three instances of dangerous behavior occurred, showing that it does happen even with experienced handlers. However, the numbers of incidents was not enough to allow statistical analysis.

The researchers concluded that providing stabled horses with one hour a day of exercise on a walker, treadmill, turn-out or being ridden are all effective in providing for the general exercise needs of stabled horses, and is likely to provide positive effects on horse welfare, training ability and handler safety."

While this study doesn't indicate whether one hour of exercise is ideal or even enough for a stabled horse, it does show that an hour of activity makes a significant difference in a horse's behavior. The greatest benefits come from allowing horses free turnout, rather than providing exercise with just a walker, a treadmill or by riding, and freedom in a field is often the best kind of exercise for a horse.