28/11/2025
Ja, praktiken hänger inte med forskningen tyvärr
A recent qualitative study in Germany interviewed 30 trainers—10 each working with Warmblood, Thoroughbred, and Trotter horses—to explore attitudes and practices around the pretraining management and housing of young horses.
Most trainers began pretraining at 18 months for racehorses and at 29–30 months for Warmblood sport horses.
None of the interviewed trainers supported setting a minimum age of 30 months for training, arguing that early, appropriate training offers physical and developmental benefits and that such a limit could increase handling difficulties and disrupt established performance pathways.
Regardless of breed, nearly all stables relied on individual boxes for housing, with only one Trotter trainer implementing group housing for young horses during pretraining.
Trainers widely agreed that, although group housing is more natural and horse-friendly, its use is limited by concerns over injuries from social aggression, difficulties with individualised feeding, and logistical problems when moving horses in or out of a group.
Breed differences were clear.
Warmblood trainers favored individual paddocks for daily turnout and started formal training at a later age, while Thoroughbred and Trotter trainers sometimes provided group paddock turnout, and Trotters in particular were given much more group time—up to 12 hours a day.
Across all groups, trainers prioritised legal welfare requirements, including straw bedding and feeding generous amounts of hay, while facilitating some social interaction through bars between stalls.
However, the prevailing reluctance to adopt group housing, alongside substantial restrictions on social contact and freedom of movement, indicates that many trainers’ practical management still lags behind recommendations from contemporary welfare science.
The study highlights that, despite growing awareness of ethical management benefits, meaningful change will require addressing trainer concerns and supporting practical transitions across all sporting breeds.
Full study can be read online - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0737080625003946
