Emanuela Dalla Costa, from the University of Milan, Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences in Italy, visited the University of Ljubljana’s Biotechnical Faculty in Slovenia for 10 days from the 5th of August. The overall goal of the STSM was to investigate whether lying behaviour can be used as a positive welfare indicator for horses and the possible link with other animal-based indicators in Lipizzan horses. Emanuela’s STSM was closely linked to the one by Dr. Elena Gobbo in May at the University of Milan, with the shared goal of conducting a pilot study and co-publishing an article.
During her stay, Emanuela was involved with data collection on Lipizzan horses housed at the University Stable in Krumperk. Together with Elena Gobbo and Manja Zupan Šemrov, Emanuela also collected data regarding social relationships of horses as the team hypothesised that this can affect lying and sleep behaviour in horses.
Emanuela was really grateful to the hosts, Professor Manja Zupan Šemrov and Dr Elena Gobbo, and all the colleagues she has the opportunity to meet at the department for their warm hospitality and involvement in several research activities. This STSM has significantly gone beyond expectations, not only strengthening the collaboration between the researchers involved but also promoting the discussion of results obtained during the pilot study. These insightful findings will help in enlighten horse positive welfare by integrating different welfare indicators measured with different systems.
