Calling all Horse Owners!

[HollyK]

Hi everyone, I am a second year veterinary medicine student at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in London and I am conducting an academic research survey as part of a required project for my degree.

My survey is on working hours and lameness in horses so I need as many horse owners as possible to complete it!

If you can complete the survey and then asking as many of your horsey friends to do it as well then that would be hugely helpful!

I have ethical approval from my university to conduct this survey, and it shouldn't take longer than 10 mins to complete. No information collected in the survey can be used to identify you.

Here is the link to my survey: (you can copy and paste this link if you want to share!)
https://rvc.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/a-study-of-lameness-and-working-hours-in-horses

If you have any questions please ask them below, or my university email is hkeys19@rvc.ac.uk

Thank you!

All the best
Holly

 

[P.forpony]

Done ?

 

[milliepops]

done. finished quicker than i expected!

 

[HollyK]

Done ?

done. finished quicker than i expected!

Thank you so much!

 

[Annagain]

Done

 

[The Xmas Furry]

Done.
OP, 'pony' does cover an awful lot of types, from riding pony types (v fine like small tb's) through to mw types like New Forests and Connemara, to the heavyweight breeds such as Welsh D, Highland, Fell and Dale's. I know folk would be picky if you just did 'horse' so I'm just pointing out rather discernable differences for the smaller under 14.2's

 

[milliepops]

Done.
OP, 'pony' does cover an awful lot of types, from riding pony types (v fine like small tb's) through to mw types like New Forests and Connemara, to the heavyweight breeds such as Welsh D, Highland, Fell and Dale's. I know folk would be picky if you just did 'horse' so I'm just pointing out rather discernable differences for the smaller under 14.2's

yes, no option for Welsh Sports Horse in that bunch so I opted for the generic "pony", haha.
tis a valid point

 

[The Xmas Furry]

yes, no option for Welsh Sports Horse in that bunch so I opted for the generic "pony", haha.
tis a valid point

Yup, some pony types are unusual in that they very rarely pick up the injuries that their larger counterparts do, despite being in similar work. (Even a lw, mw or hw pony would have satisfied my pedantry)

 

[HollyK]

Done.
OP, 'pony' does cover an awful lot of types, from riding pony types (v fine like small tb's) through to mw types like New Forests and Connemara, to the heavyweight breeds such as Welsh D, Highland, Fell and Dale's. I know folk would be picky if you just did 'horse' so I'm just pointing out rather discernable differences for the smaller under 14.2's

Hiya, thanks for doing the survey!
I completely get your point with that, I did struggle for a while with writing that question, wasn't sure whether to get people to type in their breed, but what if they didn't know? Or if they had a weird mix?
In the end I decided it wasn't hugely important to my survey, as my main variable that I want to look at is working hours, and the breeds question is just to help get general background information on the horse.
That question coupled with the height and age etc should give me a general idea about the type of horse, but the working hours is more important.
Thank you so much for taking the time to give me feedback though! I really appreciate it
Holly

 

[BallyRoanBaubles]

Done

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Done for both ponies because they have had different issues.

 

[cornbrodolly]

Hard to put an average working hours total- in summer light hacking only, but hunting once a winter in winter

 

[HollyK]

Hard to put an average working hours total- in summer light hacking only, but hunting once a winter in winter

Hi thanks for taking the time to do that. Don't worry about just putting an average, I do different levels of riding activity depending on the season too.

 

[Green Bean]

Done

 

[holeymoley]

Completed. My answer to the work question though was a bit skwiffy, I mainly hack but it’s not for a wander, I do trot/canter sprints while hacking and also incorporate lateral and sometimes weather dependant do a bit of schooling!

 

[FestiveFuzz]

Done, although there wasn't the option to include multiple horses so only included my older boy.

 

[JJS]

Done! ?

 

[HollyK]

Done, although there wasn't the option to include multiple horses so only included my older boy.

Great thank you! Its the first survey Ive made so trying to make it for multiple horses was too hard! If you want, you can complete it again for any other horses, but if not thats fine too!
Thanks

 

[Smogul]

I didn't know what to put for the shoeing question. Pony is sometimes shod, sometimes not, sometimes fronts only..... I really needed an Other option

 

[sollimum]

Done but we hack and do low level endurance, so not sure how you would class that.

 

[HollyK]

Done but we hack and do low level endurance, so not sure how you would class that.

Hiya!
Thank you for completing my survey! Hacking is definitely a low intensity activity, and I would say endurance would be the same. Don't worry too much about what level of activity you put, the main point of my survey is to look at the number of hours of work, and how this affects lameness.
Thanks for the response!

 

[Gloi]

Hiya!
Thank you for completing my survey! Hacking is definitely a low intensity activity, and I would say endurance would be the same. Don't worry too much about what level of activity you put, the main point of my survey is to look at the number of hours of work, and how this affects lameness.
Thanks for the response!

If you consider hacking a low intensity activity you haven't met the hills round here! Our regular two hour circuit includes 2000' of climbing including a 600' climb in half a mile.

 

[WandaMare]

Done

 

[rabatsa]

Done but carriage driving on roads and tracks is not hacking but is also not schooling in an arena.

 

[sharni]

done for both of mine

 

[hottoddy]

Done, but there is no option to state how long the horse has been owned for so has it been lame ‘a few times’ in 6 months or 15 years? This could make a huge difference

 

[HollyK]

If you consider hacking a low intensity activity you haven't met the hills round here! Our regular two hour circuit includes 2000' of climbing including a 600' climb in half a mile.

Ah wow yes that does sound intense! Unfortunately in the interest of being able to get meaningful results from statistical analysis I had to try and categorise everything as best as I could. And for most people hacking is definitely low intensity. Still, this is of course a learning process for me, and I appreciate all the help!

 

[HollyK]

Done but carriage driving on roads and tracks is not hacking but is also not schooling in an arena.

Thank you!
Yes absolutely it isn't either of those but to make my survey easier to read and complete I couldn't list every kind of activity or classify exactly what intensity of work each activity was in. I've kind of had to rely on people to use their own knowledge a bit in this survey, to decide for themselves how intense their work is.
I'm sure whatever you chose to put the carriage driving under is absolutely fine!
Thank you also for the feedback

 

[HollyK]

Done, but there is no option to state how long the horse has been owned for so has it been lame ‘a few times’ in 6 months or 15 years? This could make a huge difference

Ah... yes that is a very good point.
This is my first time conducting academic research like this so I'm not surprised I've made a few mistakes!
That's ok though, once I have enough responses on my survey I have to write a research paper to accompany it, which involves critical analysis of my results too. So I can cover the mistakes I made in this survey when I do that and take that into account when talking about the validity of my results etc etc...
Thank you so much for pointing that out!

 

[mustardsmum]

Done! Would be lovely if we could see the results of your research - lots of us fill in these questionnaires but never see the results which is a shame. Even just a synopsis would be a nice followup! I did a rider survey a few years ago, which involved riding in lots of different situations wearing a heart monitor to assess rider stress. Would have loved to have seen what the girl doing the research concluded. It was her under grad dissertation, so I know I could probably find it if I approached her college.