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As a responsible horse owner, one of the most critical aspects of ensuring the wellbeing of any equine companion is the provision of adequate shelter . With so many different opinions and regulations surrounding the topic, it can be challenging to know what is required by law, and how to navigate the seemingly constantly changing rules around animal welfare .
The answer to the increasingly common question “do horses legally need to have shelter?”, in short, is yes – anyone who owns or cares for horses in New Zealand has a legal obligation to protect their animal from adverse weather and environmental problems.
The Animal Welfare Act 1999 states that animals need shelter to protect them from any weather related problems that could affect their health, including heat stress and its equivalent cold stress. While cold stress is relatively rare in New Zealand, sudden cold snaps and snowstorms can happen, as can other extreme weather events such as those seen across the country in recent years.
As with all farm animals, horse owners must comply with the minimum standards for animal care and management as stated in the Code Of Welfare . Failure to provide adequate shade or shelter (or meet any other minimum standard) can be used as evidence and result in a criminal prosecution by relevant authorities under the Animal Welfare Act 1999.
Not only do horse owners legally need to provide shelter, but a lack of shelter will almost always play a significant role in the decline of equine health and wellbeing.
The provision of adequate shelter is particularly important for horses for several reasons:
While environmental cover such as trees or hedges which give limited shade and shelter may be able to meet some animal welfare requirements, the provision of artificial shelter such as stables and purpose-built horse shelter structures can greatly improve equine health and are designed to meet and exceed all current standards under the Code Of Welfare.
Well-ventilated, open-style barn structures are known to benefit horses as they provide sufficient coverage without confining the animal to an enclosed area. Horses are known to require ample room to move throughout the day. One option for covered semi-outdoor riding is a dressage arena (such as those produced by SmartShelters).
Where wild horses will typically seek shelter in their surroundings, domesticated and purpose-bred horses that only know their confined paddocks and rely on human intervention will often not move into natural cover to sufficiently cool their bodies, so training their behaviour to move into man-made cover may be required.
The provision of adequate shelter for horses is essential to maintain a high level of animal health, and to comply with the minimum standards laid out in the Code Of Welfare and enforced by the Animal Welfare Act 1999.
Further tips for ensuring horses have the right amount of shade and shelter required include:
While horse owners looking to safeguard both the wellbeing of their animals and their own legal obligations have an overwhelming number of options available, the best way to ensure no harm comes to their animal and minimise any risk of not meeting the current minimum standards is to invest in a purpose-built horse shelter or covered dressage arena .
At SmartShelters, we provide a range of high quality, built-to-last farm shelters . Our team of dedicated agricultural industry experts are on hand to assist you with our extensive range of horse barns , arenas , and shelters.
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By SmartShelters | June 16th, 2023 | Farm Management | Comments Off
Talk to our team about our highly resilient commercial shelters, backed with a leading 12-year guarantee, and generations of experience. Please get in touch with SmartShalters on 0800 580 297.
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Get a group of Kiwis together to shoot the breeze and sooner or later the topic of weather blows through the conversation. Especially, if those Kiwis run businesses that have to deal with the outdoors.
Heat stress is no stranger to New Zealand dairy farmers, with drier regions of the country such as Northland, King Country, and the Bay Of Plenty each
averaging over 80 sweltering hot heat stress days every year.
Protect what matters with New Zealand-made shelters built on 100 years of trusted expertise. Contact us today!
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