It was assumed that a horse with its rider body weight found in the upper limit may negatively impact the horse’s welfare. The objective of this paper was to analyze the differences in body temperature and selected heart rate parameters in horses in response to physical exercise accompanied by various rider’s body weight loads. The study was carried out on 12 leisure, 10–15-year-old warmblood geldings. The horses were ridden by two equally qualified riders whose body weights were about 20% and 10% of the average body weight (BW) of the animals (about 470 kg). Each rider rode each of the 12 horses for 13 min walking and 20 min of trotting. Images of the horse at rest, after physical exercise directly after unsaddling, and during the recovery phase (10 min after unsaddling) were taken with an infrared thermography camera. For analysis, the temperatures of selected body parts were measured on the surface of the head, neck, front, middle, and back (croup) parts of the trunk, forelimb, and hind limb. Immediately after the infrared thermography images were taken, the rectal temperature of the horse was measured. The heart rate parameters were measured at rest for 10 min directly before, during, and 10 min following the end of a training session. A multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) for repeated measurements was performed. Statistical significance was accepted for p < 0.05. A rider BW load on a horse of approximately 20% of the horse’s BW led to a substantial increase in the superficial temperatures of the neck, front, middle, and back parts of the trunk in relation to these body parts’ average temperatures when the load was about 10% BW. The head and limb average temperatures were not significantly affected by the load of the exercised horse. A horse’s load above 20% of his body weight, even with little effort, affects changes in surface temperature and the activity of the autonomic nervous system.

The current predation threat of domestic horses is generally low, and horses do not know predators' frightening cues. We studied whether horses still recognise predation threats. The aim of the study was to analyse the emotional response of purebred Arabian horses (Arabian) and Polish Konik horses (Konik) to an Arabian panther (Panthera pardus nimr) (panther) growl and a grey wolf (Canis lupus) (wolf) howl. Panther vocalisation was known to Arabian ancestors, whereas ancestors of Konik knew wolf vocalisation. The response to the howls of golden jackals (Canis aureus) (jackal), which did not prey on equids, was also studied comparatively. Two groups of 10 adult horses of each breed were subject to predator sounds of one predator daily for 5 min during a turn out on pasture. The test was performed for 18 days in total. The sound of each predator was interchangeably featured from one loudspeaker for 3 days followed by four loudspeakers simultaneously to imitate a group of predators for 3 days. The horses' emotional agitation in response to the sounds was measured based on the parameters of heart rate variability (HRV) using telemetric devices. The results showed that the predators' sounds were identified by horses as stressful or neutral. Horses generally retained their anti-predator responses even in the current habitat, which typically lacks predation cues. The results are not always coherent and may demonstrate that the response is somewhat attenuated. The wolf howl elicited a stronger response in Koniks. The panther growl more strongly influenced Arabians, whereas the jackal howl minimally elicited an agitation in the horses. The differentiated response of the two horse breeds to the three predator species suggests that the response is an innate adaptation to the predation risk in the habitat of the breed ancestors. This response occurs regardless of the emotional arousal specific to a breed, and the frightening cue is not the sound per se but the possible attack of predators. Horses display a type of understanding of the sound meaning. Their HRV response seems to be adequate for the threat signalised by the sound.

Cooling a horse after intensive exercise under hot conditions is commonly recommended. The study aimed to analyze changes in the rectal and surface temperature of the horses subjected to various water cooling treatments. This followed medium-intensity exercise performed by leisure horses under moderate air temperature. The experiment involved a control group without water application, and three variants of water cooling applied to 19 warmblood geldings after medium-intensity effort. Cooling of lower, upper, and lower and upper body parts was performed. In each variant, the rectal and body surface temperatures were measured five times: before; immediately after; and 10, 20, and 30 min after effort. Using water cooling under the studied conditions did not influence a post-exercise decrease in the rectal temperature. The decrease in body surface temperature depended on the used variant of cooling down the horse. Cooling the limbs by pouring water several times changed the surface body temperature from 34.2 ± 0.37 °C to 32.0 ± 0.32 °C and was more efficient than the repeated application of cool water on both the upper and lower body parts, leading to a temperature change from 34.6 ± 0.26 °C to 33.2 ± 0.36 °C. Thus, the application of cold water on the limbs only is sufficient for cooling the horse after medium-intensity exercise under moderate air temperature (about 24 °C).