Innoequine Newsletter 3.7.2013/ III

InnoEquine is an EU-funded project (Central Baltic Interreg IV A programme 2007- 2013) being carried out in collaboration by MTT Agrifood Research in Finland (project manager), Helsinki University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and Latvia University of Agriculture (LUA).

Equine industries are currently one of the few growing rural industries. The number of , businesses and riders has quickly grown in many European countries and the outlook for equine industries is promising. The purpose of this project is to create a basis for cross-border networking between those involved in the equine sector and to promote the competitiveness of equine sector in the Central Baltic area*.

* Central Baltic areas:  Finland: Uusimaa, Varsinais-Suomi and South-West Häme  Estonia: Saaremaa and Northern Estonia  Latvia: Kurzeme, Riga, Zemgale  Sweden: Gotland, Gävleborg, Östergötland, Stockholm and Uppsala in Södermanland

For further information regarding the equine sector in the participating countries:

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) - www.slu.se/innoequine MTT Agrifood Research Finland - www.mtt.fi/innoequine Latvia University of Agriculture (LUA) - http://www.llu.lv/szf?ri=7454

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is one of four project members in the EU- financed project: Sustainable equine industries promoting economically competitive and innovative regions (InnoEquine). The practical implementation of the project is taking place by means of five work packages (WP´s) of which SLU is responsible for one of these.

The goal of one the WP, Equine Baseline, which SLU was responsible for, was to present and describe the current status of the equine sector in the Central Baltic programme area and provide information needed for the other work packages. A report, Current Status of the Equine Sector in the Central Baltic Region (Finland, Latvia and Sweden), was elaborated in collaboration with the Finnish Latvian and Swedish partners. Information for the report was gathered by each partner through literature reviews, round table discussions and interviews with equine organisations and stakeholders, and through visits to farms with equine business activities. The collected information was intended to cover basic descriptions and characteristics of the equine sector, including statistics on number of horses, farms, employment, current structure and recent dynamics in the sector, mobility within the region, identification of gaps and other relevant information essential for the project.

The main findings presented in the report were:

The equine sector in the Central Baltic Area:

Finland The horse population is steadily growing and in Finland there were approximately 75 000 horses in 2010. The horses are mostly warm-blooded trotting horses – but riding horses are becoming increasingly popular as riding as a hobby increases in popularity. Approximately 35 000 people own at least one horse and co-ownership is becoming a common way. Finland has about 16 000 stables, of which over 3 000 are business orientated. These numbers are still only estimates, because Finland is lacking a comprehensive register of stables and stable enterprises.

© Maija Järvinen Latvia Statistical data on the number of horses, breeds, herds, stables are available, however, still there is a lack of statistical data that characterise the sector in relation to number of people working with horses, financial results, and characterise horse used for tourism or therapy purposes. This is perhaps related to the perception of the sector as being located within the context of . In general, the number of horses has decreased, from 15 250 in 2005 to 11 476 in 2012 – the current trends indicate further decrease. More than 84% of all farms have 1 to 5 horses, and only a few farms have more than 100 horses.

© Heljä Marjamäki

Sweden The number of horses in Sweden decreased in the 1920s from 700 000 to 70 000 in the 1970s. During the past 30 years the number of horses has increased tremendously, but the trend seems to be stagnated the last few years. Today Sweden has approximately 362 700 horses and about 20% of the horses are within business establishments. Sweden is now estimated to have the second highest density of horses per capita in Europe. There is approximately 77 800 establishments involving horses in Sweden. The equine businesses have on average 4.7 horses and provide full-time or part-time work for a total of 25 000 people. About two-thirds of those working with horses are women. © Christina Lunner Kolstrup

In general - the legislations in the three countries differ regarding several aspects.

In Finland the environmental legislation is one of the broadest judicial systems in Finland. It consists of a number of different laws and regulations, relating to waste disposal, water protection, environmental protection, land use and construction. After EU membership, the environmental legislation in Finland was harmonised with EC (European Community) legislation, especially in the case of environmental protection and conservation. The legislation is more detailed and regulated compared to the Swedish legislation. One major difference is the definition of manure as a waste in Finland and as a consequence it is not allowed to burned horse manure – which is allowed to a certain degree in Sweden.

According to the requirements of the Ministry of Agriculture, the policy of the horse breeding sector in Latvia is based on horse breeding performed according to the targets stated in the breeding programme. The importance of the development of horses and equestrian sports within the framework of the common agricultural policy is emphasised in order to encourage development of the rural environment. Horse breeding is compliant with welfare regulations. However, currently there are no specific regulations in Latvia which define requirements for keeping horses. Horse breeding is not distinguished separately within the field of animal welfare in Latvia, so the main document is the Animal Protection Law. Latvia lacks the basis of normative documents regulating

personal safety in the horse breeding sector and in businesses related to horse use. Therefore the common normative basis has to be considered, the foundation of which is the ´Labour Protection Law´.

In Sweden the foundation of environmental legislation is the Swedish Environmental Code. The purpose is to promote sustainable development which will assure a healthy and sound environment for present and future generations. The Code is a legislative framework based on a number of fundamental principles permeating international environmental protection and resource management. These include the "precautionary" principle, the "polluter pays" principle. The main environmental legislation in Sweden concerning the horse sector consists of a number of laws, directives, ordinances and regulations. In general, occupational safety and health issues are regulated in the Work Environmental Act (SFS 1977:1160), in the Work Environmental Ordinance (SFS 1977:1166) and in several provisions. There is no specific legislation regarding occupational health and safety in the horse sector, however, these issues are included in the provision Working with animals (SFS 2008:17).

Round table discussions with equine stakeholders in the three countries.

In Finland, the participants hoped for concrete solutions and examples of low-cost and easy help for everyday businesses. Entrepreneurs with lower profitability need more support, but the challenge is to get them involved in education or advisory events. The riding sector is much divided - some businesses having many customers and others who are on the edge of bankruptcy. To help the small and medium-sized enterprises the project should produce advice that can be used in practice such as concrete results and solutions. The problem with small and medium-sized businesses is that they lack capital to invest in new technologies or large-scale facilities. The sector is characterized by low profitability and competitiveness but small changes in operations might improve these. Many business owners are lacking business skills and they may not see what they could use as a competitive advantage.

In Latvia, the current understanding of the equine sector has to be reconsidered or a better understanding has to be created. The policy guidelines and the aid to the sector will have to be reviewed e.g. according to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Latvia, the equine sector only concerns breeding. The Latvian Horse Breeding Association also considers breeding to be its priority. Representatives of the tourism industry believe that special attention should be shown to the Latvian , which could be interesting for foreign and local tourists and also for therapeutic riding purposes. The equine sector lacks a clear direction for orientation, what should be bred, what might be a profitable product or an exportable product. People working in the sector often lack skills in project preparation, they do not have time to learn and study, and therefore it is difficult to apply for and to receive the different funds and aid. Usual practice to solve this is to involve companies that prepare the project application.

In Sweden, the horse sector on a downward trend. The horse businesses need to streamline their business ideas, look for better locations (closer to customers) and the activities offered must be more adapted to customer needs and demands, such as different types of activities and livery stables with more specialist services or diversified food production. In general, horse stables will have a lot of opportunities in the sector if they can keep up with the changes in the sector. The way to keep horses in the future may not be the same as it used to be. People are not willing to sacrifice time and efforts to keep on with horses any more, people are getting older and there is limited recruitment of young people into the sector. The horse activities mainly take place in urban and periurban areas.

The report has been published and is available at the web page http://www.slu.se/innoequine and on the project partner web pages, Finland www.mtt.fi/innoequine and Latvia http://www.llu.lv/szf?ri=7454. Further the report is available at SLU Open Access database http://pub.epsilon.slu.se/10577/1/Lunner%20Kolstrup_C_130624.pdf

Farm visits, Gothenburg Horseshow and seminar regarding horse entrepreneurship During spring 2013 SLU have collected more information regarding environmental and safety issues, and innovations in the Swedish equine sector through interviews with equine entrepreneurs and stakeholders and through visits to horse farms. We also participated in the Gothenburg Horseshow, the horse fair and in a seminar regarding how to promote the equine sector and equine entrepreneurship in April 2013.

Contact information to the Swedish project partner at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences: [email protected]

Pasturing studies

Helsinki University and MTT Equines research groups are aiming to define how natural and seminatural pastures can benefit from horses as grazers. Apart from fieldwork in pastures, in August–December 2012 we interviewed Finnish horse or/and pasture owners about their views on pasturing of horses. The number of respondents was 50: 40 of them owned horses (including ponies) and the rest rented or owned the pastures. An average number of horses per owner was 8.7, from just 1 to over 40. Most of the horse owners (33) arranged pasturing for their animals, and as many as 24 had their equines grazed on natural or semi-natural pastures.

According to the respondents, horse pasturing offers many benefits to the animals, but also to the owners themselves, and to the environment. The two biggest benefits of grazing horses

transpire to be the ease on the owner’s workload and opportunities for horses to express species- specific behavior and thus contributed to their wellbeing. Among the latter, both physical (more and varied exercise, healthy digestive system) and physiological (less behavior problems, socializing in a herd) components of wellbeing were mentioned. According to the interviewees, pastures also improve the attractiveness of the landscape and, if situated in coastal areas, remove access nutrients. When asked about the biggest problems and challenges, insects and weeds (that is, plants avoided by or unpalatable to horses) were mentioned most frequently. All in all, everyone with a possibility to graze their equines was satisfied about the practice.

Pasturing studies were performed on three different sites, the largest being NATURA2000 pastures at MTT Ypäjä. The two others were on a private (ecological) farm Savijärvi (Sipoo) and an island pasture Särkisaari in Pälkäne. In Ypäjä, the welfare and health of the horses were evaluated regularly during the summer and feed samples were collected to evaluate the nutrient intake of the horses. Grass samples were collected also from the two other research sites.

The work on this study is not yet finished concerning the data analyses, but some preliminary results can be given. Horses clearly selected plants and preferred certain species and avoided some other plants. The highest biological diversity in all three areas and a high variation among the parcels (from 20 to 80 species per sample square) was found in Ypäjä. Generally, the feed values of the pastures seem to be quite high and sufficient to fulfill the needs of most horse categories. The horses grazed in Ypäjä increased their weight slightly confirming this. However, it can be seen that there is a risk for lack of many minerals.

Two courses to horse and land owners dealing with pasturing of horses have organized, one in Finland (Ypäjä) and an other in Estonia. The first one was organized by Hippolis and that in Estonia by the Estonian native horse association, which is an additional partner in the Innoequine project.

The next step in our work will be to make use of the assembled information on research results and best practices, data from field research as well as interview opinions. The main output will be a guidebook for horse owners in the region on how to best organize pasturing of horses, how to address the challenges and to optimize needs of horses, their owners and nature values. The web- tool that will be established also in the Innoequine project will also include material and best practices on grazing of horses. This is hoped to increase both private and public benefits of the equine sector.

As a conclusion so far, the following benefits from grazing to horses can be listed:

 lot of exercise

 living in a group; socialization

 feed available continuously , improving gut health

 low feeding cost

 easier management

Web-tool The design of web-tool has been started since the beginning of this year by MTT research group. The main aim is to bring out good manure and safety practices in Finland and Sweden. Also the key legislation of manure and safety issues will be presented. In addition in the web-tool will be presented all the results of the other work packages, that is innovation guide book, the present state of horse sectors in Finland, Sweden and Latvia , pasturing and biodiversity issues etc. The web-tool will be designed as user-friendly as possible for horse-entrepreneurs.

Rider survey reveals service development needs

It is estimated that in Finland there are about 150 000 riders. Knowledge of their needs and wishes is important for the systematic development of the services in equine sector. In the beginning of 2013 MTT carried out a survey for the clients of equine sector focusing in particular to the service demand. The study examined the riders’ motives, satisfaction and service preferences. The survey was conducted as part of an EU-funded research project InnoEquine. The project provides information about the equine industry to support its innovative development on the Baltic Sea Area in Sweden, Latvia and Finland.

Respondents to the survey were current and potential riders and other respondents with horse related activities. They were contacted in Helsinki International and via the website of The Equestrian Federation of Finland. All together 438 Finnish respondents, either current or potential clients of equine sector, responded to the survey. A similar survey was also carried out in Sweden and Latvia, in which there were 430 and 457 respondents accordingly.

The Finnish survey respondents were in general quite active in horse related hobbies. Of the respondents 91% had been in contact with horses, for example, taken care of horses, at least once a

week and 75% were active in riding, participating in activity at least once a week. 69% owned one or more horses. Two of the three horse owners had a place in a boarding stable and about one-third took care of the horse on their own stable. Of the respondents, 13% worked with horses professionally.

The main perceived benefits from the horse related activities were various emotional experiences. For example, the opportunity to be close to animals and nature, as well as the release from the everyday pressures, were considered important. Also many objectives that were related to self- development, were important. These included the opportunity to learn new skills, to promote health, physical fitness and self confidence.

The study provided information of the riding services that did not currently fully satisfy the customer needs. In Finland, the main areas of development were riding trails and outdoor training arenas with good surface. In Sweden, the most important stable characteristics to develop were pasture quality and safety as well as the existence of and compliance with the safety rules on the stables. In Latvia, the development targets focused on cleanliness of stables and on the quality of daily horse care.

Latvia University of Agriculture (LLU)

The project team of Latvia University of Agriculture is responsible for the work package ‘Enhancing innovations in Central-Baltic equine cluster’. This WP is aimed to provide equine enterprises with a framework for more customer-oriented and innovative services. Work is organized around main outputs of the work package.

The Project focus group report on innovations and good practices in the equine sector was elaborated. The results of the six focus group discussions (three in Latvia, two in Finland, and one in Sweden) complemented with few individual interviews were analysed to show the differences of the equine sector in three project countries and to identify good and innovative practices. The representatives of the equine sector (horse breeders, equestrian sports, trainers and instructors, horse owners, representatives of the relevant associations), representatives of local, regional and national authorities, mass media and universities participated in the discussions. The research results show that the equine

businesses have a number of good practices related to products and services; however, there is a space for product, process, organizational and marketing innovations.

The Consumers survey has been conducted and analysis of the first results commenced. In close collaboration with the researchers of MTT organized collection of the data via internet based survey and face to face survey. In Latvia first results of the survey summarized in the article „What do consumers of stables expect?”. The article published in the national magazine for agricultural sector. The survey data and data for conjoint analysis are being processed for further in-depth analysis for the project purposes. Report of the survey results and conjoint analysis is under development.

The draft version of the Guidebook for Inspiration and Innovation in the Equine sector has been prepared. Creative, intensive and full of fruitful discussions work has been done for elaboration of the structure, layout and content of the guidebook. Several internet meetings and one workshop in Riga were organized to make work on the guidebook more effective and discuss the progress. During the next milestone work on the guidebook will be continued and the draft version will be discussed with stakeholders of the equine sector.

The draft version of the report on wild horses as innovative segment in the equine industry in Latvia was elaborated. Report aims to gain insight into the unresearched, a rapidly growing and hypothetically perspective segment of the equine sector – field of the wild horses. The term “wild horses” is used under the context of this report referring to horses of the Konik Polski breed or horses of other breeds, which have originated from the attempts to create a breed similar to wild horses through selective breeding, which would be adjusted for life in semi-feral or feral conditions. Within the framework of the report for the first time in Latvia information was gathered on the status and distribution of the wild horses Latvia, on different programs for reintroduction to the wild thereof, structure of the field of wild horses was studied, identifying the stakeholders and describing the legal framework. Great attention was paid to the objectives of importing and keeping

of wild horses under different aspects, as well as the evaluation of experience, both analysing the positive aspects and identifying the main issues.

Co operation and dissemination between the Innoequine project

Regular Internet meetings were hold monthly between all project partners and researches. In the meetings in order to ensure the smooth project progress the possible research problems and other current issues were discussed.

The co operation actions between Innoequine project and KnowSheep project were presented in Latvia February 19th-20th.

The results of the research project were presented in the form of an article e.g. in newspaper Maatilan Pellervo 5/2013 (62-64), which is an professional newspaper for farmers.

Final seminar preliminary programme was introduced e.g. in ESSA courier and Innoequine Internet pages.

The content of the publication reflects the authors views and the Managing Authority cannot be held liable for the information published by the project partners.