Equine Research/Dissertation Ideas Help?

[Hannahp20]

Hi guys! just a post asking what areas in the equine industry people would be interested in being researched!

I am a third year BSc Equine Science student and I need to complete a dissertation as part of my final year. I am struggling to think of an interesting topic which people would be interested in knowing the outcome.

Ideally I would like to do it as a questionnaire based project but if anyone has any topic areas which they find interesting or controversial I would love to know them!

Thanks
Hannah

 

[Hannahp20]

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Kezzabell2]

the use of hi viz and whether its actually reduces the number of horse related accidents!

 

[[69117]]

Boots! I know there is research into this, and fairly concrete evidence to support the findings, but it would be so good if it was more widely known and acknowledged.

I get so sad seeing horses in fields for 6 + hours a day wearing brushing boots. It makes me cringe to think of their tendon fibres cooking under there, ready to go twang as soon as they turn awkwardly.

(Can you tell this issue is bothering me today!?)

 

[cobgoblin]

How about innovation in saddlery and whether any significant benefits have been developed.

 

[huskydamage]

horse/traffic accidents vs amount of offroad riding in the area

 

[Orangehorse]

Off-road riding in the UK (i.e. bridlepaths and permissive routes) compared with "leisure riding,hacking" in other European countries. France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Denmark, Italy. I have always wondered how riders in other countries get on.
After all, Trec started in France.

Some hacking is just a means to an end, getting the horse fit and a change of scene when the rider's objective is a competition at the weekend, for other people hacking/trail riding is all the riding they are interested in.

 

[Hannahp20]

Thanks for the ideas guys all quite interesting! Will do some research on them all

 

[Redders]

Wormer resistance.

 

[LD&S]

Wormer resistance.

Good idea

 

[spacefaer]

Wormer resistance.

I did that for my MSc dissertation 15 yr ago.....

 

[only_me]

I always thought it would be interesting to look at how horses that had a career in one area adapted to another, eg. Racer to showjumper, eventer to dressage, dressage to showjumping etc. And see if there is any particular change of career that works the best or is most successful.

Another area I always wanted to look at was the percentage of horse injuries that were self inflicted or idiopathic incidents compared to competition/riding associated - as I figured the majority of injuries were probably self inflicted/idiopathic whereas the traditional view by many is that they are competition related. To do that one though you'd need to pick an injury to compare such as tendon snap or ligament damage

It depends how specific you want to be with your dissertation and if you want to collect data or review other research.

A simpler idea than the above would be to look at flu vaccinations & horse reactions, ie. The % that react to them and the % that don't react!

 

[spacefaer]

Just make sure that whatever you choose has sufficient potential for enough data to be collated

Also make sure that your initial question is specific enough, otherwise it becomes too wide ranging and fuzzy

 

[gnubee]

Sarcoids treatments. There is strong anecdotal support for a number of treatments that are not the Liverpool options most vets go for, but would be really interesting to see an objective review on it.

 

[Hannahp20]

Wow thank you guys some really interesting topics!