The 3F’s of equine welfare, coined by Lauren Fraser, stand for Friends, Forage, and Freedom of Movement. These are 3 major needs for a horse’s wellbeing, and management of the horse should include heavy focus on achieving these three ethological needs for the horse. Doing some of it in the cold Canadian winter can occasionally leave the human uttering a fourth, more curse-ive ‘F’, but alas! We are doing it to take the best of care we can for our beloved equine friends.
Here I will detail just a few of the things I have incorporated into my management to help my horses with the 3F’s of living an ethologically-supported horsey life.
Friends
Horses are a social animal, requiring the company of other conspecifics (ie., other horses). Ideally, the horses are able to touch, communicate, and interact with one another in a stable* herd.
Over the past 20 years of managing our farm, I have only had two personal horses on individual turnout. I felt bad then, but didn’t know any better, and I still feel bad about it now. The first was a very expensive warmblood who had unfortunately been on individual turnout from the age of 2 (years before I bought her). Coupled with high stress, potential ulcer(s), she got the reputation of being quite mean. By the time I got her, she had been living alone for years. She showed aggression over the paddock fences, stall walls, social stall grills etc. and she therefore remained alone.
She never was able to integrate with any horse, throughout her lifetime. Both for her safety and the safety of the other horse. Unfortunately, she was isolated from a very important age and I believe did not learn the social cues of other horses. Keeping young horses isolated is especially egregious, when we think of it from an equine welfare perspective. They are prevented from learning social lessons during an important developmental time. Despite her long (though not long enough) life, my mare never did learn this.
Still, as another aged gelding on the farm began to be given the opportunity to “wander”, she and him became the best of friends over the fenceline. They would spend hours grooming one another. When the aged gelding was let out each morning, he would make a beeline to her fenceline for some wither scratches. They were often grazing “together” with a fence between them, the gelding able to come and go as he pleased.
While she was never able be turned out with anyone, I was grateful she was able to form a social relationship with another horse. They passed away within a year of one another.
One of our herds here, consisting of four mares ranging in age from 12 to 22. This herd was established in 2017. (c) Fit to Compete, 2025The second horse I had that was on individual turnout for a time was actually the previously-discussed mare’s foal. She had one foal, and it was obviously very difficult for her as she missed the social lessons a sound upbringing would have provided. I remember discussing with my vet when the foal was less than a month old whether we should separate them and raise the foal as an orphan. We decided we would keep them together as long as we could. In the end, we were able to keep them together until the foal was 4 months old.
In an attempt to avoid what had happened with the dam, socially, the foal was raised in a herd setting from 4 months of age until the age of 5.
At the age of 5, the horse was sent to a trainer and placed on individual turnout. When they returned home, I chose to keep this horse on individual turnout “to protect my investment”. Old habits die hard. They are a valuable horse with an even more expensive trot. This horse exhibited herdbound behaviours when kept in a herd setting, so it was determined that the horse would be kept on individual turnout once they returned from the trainer.
This horse had a few early life risk factors for being herd bound, including being raised by an unsocialized dam, raised only with the dam and not in a herd setting or with other foals to interact with, and being weaned young and abruptly (was weaned for their safety).
I gave my head a shake one day, realizing I spend a lot of time researching and considering equine welfare and ethical care, yet I still have this valuable horse in my backyard on individual turnout. How could that be?
Horses do not know how much you paid for them. And it certainly does not change their species-specific requirements. Whether the horse is $500, $50,000, or $500,000, they still need the 3F’s: Friends, Forage and Freedom of Movement.
When the horse turned 8, I began to integrate them into a herd. While they were on individual turnout, they still shared their fenceline with other herds, lived in a social stall [grills between the stalls], and befriended a miniature horse that was allowed to wander the farm. Oftentimes, you would catch these two grazing together just a few feet apart, grooming one another (though the mini could only reach their elbow), and calling to one another during turnout and turnin times.
Therefore, I opted to integrate them with the miniature horse’s herd (whom he always ditched to go visit this horse). The herd consisted of two miniature geldings, and an aged pony mare who did not get excited about much (she was a retired foal babysitter).
It was incredibly simple to find a non-aggressive herd for the valuable horse to integrate with. The risk of injury for the horse is quite low, it was a well-established herd [15 years together], and had already befriended ⅓ of the horses. Introducing the horse into this herd, after 3 years of living alone, was a non-event and they have lived together ever since.
The hurdles we put in place for ourselves can really create a blindspot. We really need to challenge ourselves on the status quo, and “doing it because its what we’ve always done/always been told”. I am relieved to see the horse living in a stable herd, one with an established hierarchy, friends for wither scratches, social support, and to look over other another while sunbathing.
* An argument I often hear within the horse community is that a horse is on individual turnout to avoid injury. I am unaware of any study demonstrating that horses on individual turnout get less injuries than horses in herds. However, owned horses are not able to choose their own herds in most cases, and they can end up being put with horses they do not get along with. If there is not a balanced herd dynamic, there will be more aggression. Balancing herd dynamics is just as much about ensuring needs are met as much as appreciating individualism. You do not like Susie from work, so you avoid her. We need to ensure that our horses are not locked in an inescapable environment with a Susie, when they just won’t get along. Balancing herd dynamics is half science, half an art form. It requires care, attention, and some juggling.
Forage + Freedom of Movement
I will discuss Forage and Freedom of Movement together in this next part. Freedom of Movement means the horse is able to move freely how it wants, as opposed to being ridden, put on an Equicizer, or otherwise exercised. Being exercised does not qualify as freedom of movement. Certainly, being exercised is important for equine athletes, but this does not satisfy the ethological need for a horse to be able to move its body how it wants. Horses need turnout to satisfy this need.
Forage refers to bulky foods, like hay and grass, as opposed to a concentrated feed like grain. I ensure my horses have access to forage 24 hours per day and freedom of movement by means of turnout daily. In the summer, this is an easy feat using our trail system, rotational fields, and good paddock management. In the Canadian winter, this becomes a bit more of a challenge.
I have sacrificial paddocks. They are small, and all of them house herds of 2-4 horses. In effort to reduce hay wastage, and spring mess, the hay has been fed in a wooden “hay box” or “hay hut” for the past several years. Using the hay boxes has worked really well to accomplish both those: there is less hay wastage, and the spring thaw cleanup is much easier because of it.
However, once I started adding a track system to the horses’ management all summer long (which they love) a few years ago, I really became aware of how much they stood around all winter long, head deep in the hay box.
With the snow cover, I can see just how little they were wandering around or exploring their paddocks. So this year, I implemented two new management strategies to help with Forage + Freedom of Movement.
Firstly, I expanded half of the paddocks so they have access to their summer fields once the ground is frozen and snow-covered. I plan to close off the “summer fields” once the snow disappears in order to protect the soil and get a good established grass cover before summer turnout begins, but for now, half of the paddocks have significantly larger areas to access.
Additionally, I have changed how hay is fed. Every single paddock, whether the sacrificial paddocks, or the expanded sacrificial/summer paddocks, has at least two feeding stations. The smaller sacrificial paddocks have the feeding stations at opposite ends of the paddocks. The expanded paddocks have several feeding stations spread throughout the fields. This requires extra physical exertion to set up and deliver the hay due to snow in the winter.
Spreading hay across two joined paddocks across half a kilometre in deep, ice-crusted snow goes much smoother with 4 helpful muzzles helping all along the way! (c) Fit to Compete, 2025
The horses move back and forth between as many of the feeding stations as are available. It has also been noted (thanks to the snow!), that the horses in the expanded paddocks continue to go back and recheck previous feeding stations for days afterwards, even when no hay is placed there.
In the expanded paddocks, anywhere from 2 to 12 feeding stations are set up at any given time.
Since including the expanded paddocks, and much more importantly, the multiple feeding stations, the horses are seen continuously and calmly making use of their entire turnout space. They also have been seen clearing the snow to “graze” any leftover hay that may have been covered by a fresh snowfall. To my knowledge, there does not appear to be much hay wastage this way either, as the feeding stations contain small amounts of hay and the horses do not seem to accidentally soil them, when compared to “dropping a bale” in one spot.
Using an XL sled designed to be pulled by a snowmobile, full of hay, half a kilometer, through the ice-crusted deep snow, is both character-building and heart pumping. As my feet break through the ice cover and fall into the 2 ft of snow below, the fourth F of horse management is also uttered beneath my breath! But seeing my horses, in their social herds, begin to graze and move about like they do all summer, is priceless and well worth it for me.
What are some things you could implement in your program to improve your horse’s access to the 3F’s: Friends, Forage, and Freedom of Movement?
To learn more about the 3F’s: Friends, Forage and Freedom of Movement, please check out: