Abstract: In order to improve the housing conditions of stallions in individual boxes by offering a possibility to have more social contact, the Swiss national stud farm tested a new box system for horses, allowing increased physical contact with the neighbouring stallion. The aim of this part of the study was to investigate whether this type of housing system (named “social box”) potentially induces a change in stress reactions in stallions compared to conventional boxes. Therefore faecal cortisol metabolite (FCM) concentration was measured as a non-invasive parameter to assess endocrine responses related to this new environment.
Four groups each consisting of eight adult Freiberger breeding stallions were included in the test design. Every stallion spent three weeks in a conventional box and in a social box respectively (cross-over design). The conventional box consisted of a separation wall with a lower opaque part and an upper part with vertical barriers (5 cm between barriers), allowing visual and olfactory contact but strongly limiting tactile contact. The separating wall of the social box consisted of two lateral sections, one part being opaque to the ceiling and the second part consisting of vertical barriers (30 cm between barriers), allowing the horse to have physical contact with its neighbour or to avoid it.
In horses, FCM concentration reflects an average level of circulating cortisol over a period of approximatively 24h. Faecal samples were collected the day following integration in social / conventional boxes, reflecting the potential stress induced by increased social interactions during the integration. In order to asses potential chronical stress, faeces samples were also collected in week one, two and three after the integration into the social / conventional box (in total: 4 samples per horse and housing system). The samples were immediately stored at -20°C until they were analysed. The samples were not analysed in the laboratory until the end of the experiment, therefore the duration of conservation in the freezer varied from 40 to 429 days.
A considerable percentage of data from groups 1 and 2 was below the detection limit (<0.8 ng/g) (Tab. 1). Thus the statistical analysis was conducted with the FCM concentration from groups 3 and 4 (n horses = 16) which contained no values below the detection limit.
Tab. 1: Details about FCM values and storage time for the 4 groups of stallions
Group Storage duration [d] Proportion of data below the detection limit (<0.8 ng/g) Mean [ng/g] Median [ng/g]
Group 1 384-429 55.6 % 2.2 0
Group 2 315-360 25.5 % 5.8 6.3
Group 3 41-79 0.0 % 8.7 8.0
Group 4 40-85 0.0 % 5.8 5.4
Despite the impressive social interactions observed between the stallions directly after being introduced into the social boxes, we did not find any differences in FCM concentration between the stallions being introduced into the conventional box and the social box on the day of integration (social box: n samples = 16, mean±SD: 6.9±4.7 ng/g; conventional box: n samples = 16, mean±SD: 9.0±11.2 ng/g; Wilcoxon signed rank test V = 70, p = 0.94).
Overall the samples taken during integration and in week one, two and three did not show evidence of changes in FCM concentration in either housing system over a longer period of time (social box: n samples = 64, mean±SD: 7.9±6.2 ng/g; conventional box: n samples = 64, mean±SD: 6.6±3.4 ng/g; Linear mixed model (LMM), p = 0.56).
Our results suggest that the possibility of having physical contact with a conspecific does not induce changes in FCM concentration in breeding stallions. The considerable percentage of values below the detection limit in groups 1 and 2 seemed to correlate with the increasing duration of storage before analysis. During the IESM Network Meeting 2015, we would like to discuss possible methodological issues and the possibilities to correctly integrate these low values in the statistical analysis.

Abstract: Medical research on the effects of thermal mud in the human medical field already retrospect for many years (Gyarmati és Kulisch 2008). As a result, the thermal sludge product is successfully applied more widely, especially in the rehabilitation of rheumatic diseases (Gyarmati és mtsai., 2012). Research results related to the management of horses for the time being, however, are not available.
The aim of our study was to investigate how a mud treatment from Heviz Spa Lake affects the movement quality and flexibility of certain joints in horses. An experiment was carried out with 10 male and female school and sport horses. All of the horses had been ridden longer period than 3 years and had correct and healthy movement. Horses were treated with mud ten times, respectively, daily in the evenings. Wet sludge was blamed on the knee, hock, elbow, shoulder, back, stifle, front and hind cannons and fetlock joints. The sludge used for treatments was washed off in the morning. At the beginning of the experiment, after the treatment and 8 weeks following the average stride length and the longest distance between the print of hind and front foot during walking and trotting, maximal flexibility of knee, hock and fetlock joints were measured. To calculate the number of steps horses were lead straight during walking and trotting on 30 m flat distance. Following this the stride length was determined. To determine the longest distance between the print of hind and front foot on flat, sandy soil, the distance between hind and front prints was measured three times. The maximal flexibility of each joint was measured with a joint protractor. Statistical analysis was carried out with one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with SPSS 7.0 program.
According to the results (table 1.), the horses responded positively to the treatments. The most positive results were detected by the average stride lenght during walking, maximal flexibility of the front fetlock, knee and hock. This is partly explicable with the beneficial effects of sulphur on the joints, which is well-known in human field (Kovács és mtsai., 2012). The stride length and longest distance between the print of hind and front foot were lower but positively influenced by the mud treatment. Eight weeks after the treatments, most of the parameters similar to human therapeutic results (Kulisch és mtsai., 2012), compared to directly after the mud baths completion values &#8203;&#8203;were further improved, a slight negative effect was observed only for a few test values, but the results obtained here were more favourable, as at the beginning of the experiment. The results seem to confirm that the treatment effects can be considered long term. This is also explained by the slurry preparation from which absorbed elemental sulphur and sulphur oxidizing hydrogen sulfide absorbed in the body may be another source of hydrogen sulphide formation at the skin (Gyarmati,1982).
Our results show, that the mud treatment from Heviz Spa Lake may have benifical effects on the joints, playing an important role in the locomotion of horses.
The results are remarkable as well, also because of the evidence of the chemical impact of mud also can help. Such modes of action are still under research and only partly demonstrated in human medicine (Odabasi és mtsai., 2008). Further veterinarian research has to be carried out to confirm the results. The results of the present experiment and the prospect of further research could be pioneer, as the Heviz mud, as well as the thermal effect of water even before in the equine medicine has not been demonstrated experimentally, only individual observations are aviable. So the veterinary use of Heviz mud, which has been proven many times in human medicine, seems to be a new research field.
Key words: mud treatment, Heviz Spa Lake, maximal flexibility of joints, locomotion activities
References
Gyarmati, J. (1982): Experiences of Heviz mud treatments. FITEC Congress, Budapest
Gyarmati N, Ms. – Kulisch Á., Ms. (2008): History and description of héviz spa with special emphasis on weight-bath. La Presse thermale et climatique 2008;145:233-242.
Gyarmati N., Ms. – Mándó Zs., Ms. – Bergmann A., Ms. – Mózes M., Ms. (2012.): The role of mud treatment int he rehabilitation of reumatic illnesses. XXXI: Conference of The Hungarian Society for Medical Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine 6-8. september. Szombathely, Hungary
Kovács C, – Pecze M, – Tihanyi Á, – Kovács L, – Balogh S, – Bender T. (2012): The effect of sulphurous water in patients with osteoarthritis of hand. Double-blind, randomized, controlled follow-up study. Clinical Rheumatology Oct;31(10):1437-42.
Kulisch Á. and her medical team (2012): Survey of Heviz thermal-mineralwater on patienten suffering from primer knee-arthrosis. As medicinal declaration of human research.
Essay, Saint Andrew Hospital for Reumatic Diseases, Heviz, Hungary
Odabasi, Ersin; Turan, Mustafa; Erdem, Hakan; Tekbas, Faruk (2008): Does Mud Pack Treatment Have Any Chemical Effect? A Randomized Controlled Clinical Study. Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine; Jun, Vol. 14 Issue 5, p559

Abstract: We developed a biorhythmical method to assess behaviour patterns and to evaluate living conditions of animals. All kinds of continuous and equidistant long-term recordings of behaviour are suitable for this method. As simple behavioural parameters, such as motor activity, can be conveniently recorded by telemetry from wild animals now, it is possible to investigate stressors by analysing its biorhythmic structure. It is the purpose of this report to describe the basic idea, and the procedure, and to give some examples of application measured on Przewalski horses in an Semireserve.

Abstract: In many social mammals, individuals preferentially affiliate with a small subset of available partners instead of distributing their social behaviors equally among all group members. The resulting social bonds have been investigated in several mammalian taxa, especially in primate societies, but also in other taxa such as birds, dolphins, rodents and ungulates. In feral horses, a great number of studies on social bonds can be found, but with a huge variety between methods for the analysis. There seems to be a lack of a clear and common definition of social bonds in horses and of comparable analyses. For example, there are irregularities between the studies regarding the research designs, the selection of recording methods and the interpretation of the measurements. Mutual grooming is used most often for the analysis of social relationships in many species. As mutual grooming is rare in horses, especially measurements of spatial proximity are commonly used for the analysis of social bonds in addition to other behavioral patterns. However, the combination of mutual grooming and nearest neighborhood analyses for the analysis of social bond is debatable, as in contrast to mutual grooming, which must occur deliberately by both grooming partners, the spatial distribution can be influenced by one partner alone, which may even force the other horse to keep a certain distance or to stay in close proximity.
In this study, we investigated the comparability of mutual grooming and nearest neighborhood data for social bond analyses in feral horses. Therefore, we observed five groups of semi-wild living Przewalski’s horses and six groups of feral horses.
We analysed the horses’ social ranks by applying an Average Dominance Index, we recorded the distances between the animals and observed the number of mutual grooming events as well as friendly approaches.
Our results show that there was only a weak correlation between the frequency of staying in nearest neighborhood and mutual grooming in all observed horse groups. In contrast to this, the correlation between the number of friendly approaches and mutual grooming events was higher in most groups.
Hierarchies did not affect social bonds, as mutual grooming was similarly induced by higher and lower ranking animals and the social rank did not affect the choice of the grooming partner. Similarly, likelihoods of staying in the neighborhood of particular animals were not affected by the animals’ social rank.
The grooming frequencies differed between the different horse groups and between the individual horses living in the particular groups. They seem to be effected by individual predisposition.
Altogether we suggest that the ratio of mutual grooming seems to be a better indicator for social bonds in feral horses than the frequency of staying in the nearest neighborhood. Mutual grooming occurs deliberately and is bidirectional, whereas nearest neighborhoods could be enforced and unidirectional. For the calculation of social bonds in horses, we consider it to be more reliable to combine the frequency of mutual grooming with the frequency of friendly approaches.