Age Dawson’s latest editorial examines what the 23-hour day for horses actually costs. She shares paradigm-shifting evidence that an hour or so of work, and a horse spending the balance of the day standing in a 12-square-foot box is no longer defensible.
A controlled study at The University of Göttingen compared horses in daily training with and without a couple of hours of free exercise. The turned-out group came back the calmer ride, not the sillier one, with no drop in willingness to work.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln found the same nervous-system story in the heart-rate data: a real hour out reads differently than a token fifteen minutes.
The Ohio State University added the part most barns get wrong; the benefit depends on the paddock being big enough not to become its own stressor.
Source: Notting Hill Equine, July 20, 2026. Link.
The cost of confinement does not stay hidden. It surfaces on the veterinary bill and in the horse’s resale story.”
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