How owners determine if the social and behavioral needs of their horses are being met: Findings from an Australian online survey

Horse owners and carers are responsible for judging the health and welfare status of animals in their care, deciding if and when professional advice should be sought and following any recommendations for treatment. However, little is known about how horse owners perceive and determine the well-being of horses in their care, or the themes that inform their beliefs about the social and behavioural requirements of horses. In this article, we present findings of an online survey of horse owners in Australia to consider if horse owners and carers believe the horses in their care have their social and behavioural needs met, how they know, and what improvements they would like to see. Most participants believed that their horses had their social and behavioural needs met, mostly because they had company from another horse, lived in a paddock situation, and/or had contact with another horse. When discussing the improvements they would like to make, participants noted more company, increased paddock time and size, and more/improved training. The extended free-text responses suggest that four themes impact the beliefs and decision-making of horse owners/carers: work, outings, interaction, and nature. We discuss these in relation to the potential for anthropomorphism to have a positive impact on horses’ well-being, when integrated into a sophisticated behaviour change and social marketing strategy that communicates the ways in which horses and humans are different and the ways in which they are alike. © 2018 Elsevier Inc

Too hot to trot? How horse owners in Australia have responded to major weather events

This article commences by outlining five perspectives on the sustainability of equestrian cultures covering the environment, the economy, human health, horse welfare, and social licence. Next, it presents findings from an online survey developed to understand how horse owners in Australia have been affected by major weather and climate events, how they responded in the short and long term, their considerations for the future, and the support they might require. Sixty-nine horse owners participated. Most (90%) reported being affected by major weather/climate event(s) in the last 10–20 years, four out of five (78%) took action at the time of the event and a similar proportion (80%) had taken actions for the longer term. Most (86%) had thought about preparations for future events, but had not yet taken any action, due to lack of time, money, materials, or storage. Almost all participants (93%) perceived a need for education, research, government policy. Since findings suggest horse owners may be less likely to engage with climate adaptation and sustainable horse keeping public education initiatives when they are related specifically to “climate change”, and more likely to engage when they are related to “land care, pasture management and improvement”, and “horse health and welfare”, an alternative rhetoric is recommended. © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Horse-keeping practices in Australia: findings from a national online survey of horse owners

Objective To gain an understanding of general horse-keeping practices in Australia, including shelter, social contact, exercise, watering and supplementary feeding. Methods An online survey was conducted with 505 owners in relation to one ‘representative’ horse in their care. Results The majority (83%) of horses were managed at pasture. Approximately one-quarter of those horses were housed alone (26%) or with one companion animal (27%). If horses were confined to a stable or small yard, the most recorded means of exercise was riding (65%) at a daily frequency (60%). Over half of the horse owners provided water in a trough or drinker with an automatic refill system (58%) and most horse owners supplied hay to their horses (82%), most commonly in combination with grazing. Areas of potential concern included one-quarter of stabled horses being prevented from unmediated social and physical contact with conspecifics and one-fifth of stabled horses being exercised less than daily. Conclusion The horse-keeping profile in this study should be considered in the public communication of guidelines as well as interactions between veterinarians and clients

Horse husbandry and preventive health practices in Australia: An online survey of horse guardians

Little is known about the horse health management practices of Australian horse caregivers (owners). This article presents findings from a convenience sample of 505 horse owners who participated in an online survey. No large-scale welfare issues were identified, but there were some areas of potential concern, including owners who did not regularly deworm their horses (4%), a lack of strategic parasite control (3.1%), and a lack of regular dental care (11%). Several participants did not have their horse’s hooves regularly shod or trimmed (2%), and 14% had an unqualified person maintain their horse’s hooves. One in five owners (19%) did not vaccinate their horses against tetanus. The findings are discussed in relation to current Australian horse health guidelines and traditional sources of horse health information, together with recommendations for providing horse owners with relevant information in relevant forms

Young, vulnerable and uncertain: Young workers' perceptions of work health and safety

Young workers are at an increased risk of work place injury, and are less likely to report hazards or injuries, or apply for workers' compensation even though they are over-represented in workers' compensation statistics in comparison with their older peers. OBJECTIVE: To identify young workers' perceptions of work health and safety (WHS), why and how they report (or do not report) hazards and injuries, and examine where they source WHS information. This paper reports on the first stage of a larger, mixed methods study on WHS and young workers in South Australia. METHODS: A total of 226 young South Australian workers aged between 12 and 25 years completed an online survey. Data were analyzed using chi-squared analysis for categorical variables and t-tests where the dependent variable was continuous. RESULTS: Three quarters of young workers identified stress at work, not being trained to do the job, fatigue from work and lifting heavy things at work as WHS issues, although not necessarily as issues that they have personally experienced. Most young workers obtained information about WHS through their employer although a sizable proportion sourced this information from friends and social media. Young workers identified that they lacked confidence to report WHS issues. When they did report issues, many young workers reported these issues to their parents, despite identifying that their parents were often unable to help. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings contribute to our understanding of young workers' perceptions of work health and safety. Although young workers could identify their concerns about particular health and safety related issues at work, they lacked the confidence to report their concerns and had limited information about where to go for help. The research suggests that there is a need to empower young people to report WHS concerns to their employer and provide structures and processes that encourage reporting.</p

Interindividual and intraindividual variability in adolescent sleep patterns across an entire school term: A pilot study

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate sleep patterns in adolescent males over a 12-week period (a 10-week school term and pre and post term holidays). Design: Intensive longitudinal design, with sleep data collected daily via actigraphy for 81 consecutive days. Setting: Five Secondary Schools in Adelaide, South Australia. Participants: Convenience sample of 47 adolescent males aged 14 to 17 years. Measurements: Daily sleep duration, bedtimes, rise times, and sleep efficiency were collected via actigraphy with all (except sleep efficiency) also measured by sleep diary. Mood was measured weekly with Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) and weekly wellbeing with the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). Age, body mass index, self-reported mood, life satisfaction, and chronotype preference assessed at baseline (pre-term holiday week) were included as covariates. Results: Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling indicated significant but small fixed-effect and random-effect auto-regressions for all sleep variables. Collectively, these findings demonstrate day-to-day fluctuations in sleep patterns, the magnitude of which varied between individuals. Age, morningness, and mood predicted some of the temporal dynamics in sleep over time but other factors (BMI, life satisfaction) were not associated with sleep dynamics. Conclusions: Using intensive longitudinal data, this study demonstrated inter-individual and intra-individual variation in sleep patterns over 81 consecutive days. These findings provide important and novel insights into the nature of adolescent sleep and require further examination in future studies

Sleep genotypes in Indigenous children and relationship with academic performance

: Individual differences in paediatric sleep duration and sleep phase preferences have been clearly identified and could be described as different ‘phenotypes’ of sleepers. Understanding these differences impacts treatment planning. There is a paucity of empirical evidence regarding sleep genotypes in Australian children and even less in Australian Indigenous children. This is important given the health education and equity gap between indigenous and non-indigenous children

Sleep schedules and school performance in Indigenous Australian children

Background: Sleep duration and sleep schedule variability have been related to negative health and well-being outcomes in children, but little is known about Australian Indigenous children. Methods: Data for children aged 7-9 years came from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children and the National Assessment Program–Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). Latent class analysis determined sleep classes taking into account sleep duration, bedtimes, waketimes, and variability in bedtimes from weekdays to weekends. Regression models tested whether the sleep classes were cross-sectionally associated with grade 3 NAPLAN scores. Latent change score modeling then examined whether the sleep classes predicted changes in NAPLAN performance from grades 3 to 5. Results: Five sleep schedule classes were identified: normative sleep, early risers, long sleep, variable sleep, and short sleep. Overall, long sleepers performed best, with those with reduced sleep (short sleepers and early risers) performing the worse on grammar, numeracy, and writing performance. Latent change score results also showed that long sleepers performed best in spelling and writing and short sleepers and typical sleepers performed the worst over time. Conclusions: In this sample of Australian Indigenous children, short sleep was associated with poorer school performance compared with long sleep, with this performance worsening over time for some performance indicators. Other sleep schedules (eg, early wake times and variable sleep) also had some relationships with school performance. As sleep scheduling is modifiable, this offers opportunity for improvement in sleep and thus performance outcomes for these and potentially all children. © 2018 National Sleep Foundation