Horse

Welfare Regulations

These requirements are enacted to help players adapt to standards that will be mandatory on SWE's release. These standards are not only representative of good welfare for horses, but could potentially be integrated as systems impacting horse health and happiness in the mod for future releases.

Building / Barn Principles

The following should always be considered for SWEM horses:

Doorways - 2B+ Wide and 4B+ tall
Walkways - 5B+ Wide and 5B+ tall (4.5 optional on edges for detailing if using stairs or slabs)
Secure - It is recommended:

• All barn areas or property access routes have a secure gate to presentprevent escape.
  
• Make walls or barriers tall enough to avoid escape, check perimeter for blocks they can use to jump over!
  
• Avoid using scalable blocks that horses can hop over (unless 2B+): single blocks, glass pane, bars.
  • Non-scalable blocks are 1.5B and include walls and fences.

Horses cannot jump on troughs or feeders unless another block or high shavings level allows them to step up onto it.

Official SWEM servers do not recommend (SWE will not allow) the use of barrier blocks in building to secure escape points.

Food & Water

Horses should always have reasonable access to:

Water - As either a replenishing (infinite) water source or adequately filled water container (trough, barrel)
Food - As either forage (grazing on grass) or feed (quality bale, timothy, alfalfa or sweet feed)

Stalls

Stall requirements are implemented for welfare and safety of both horse and rider. A good sized stall allows a horse space to turn around in, lay down (future feature) and decreases the chances of them getting stuck in walls (small stalls). It allows space for a rider to provide unobstructed feed items, bedding and to safely interact with and manoeuvre a horse into and out of the stall. Too large stalls are discouraged for realism as they have poor thermal efficiency (retaining heat or cool) as well as being an inefficient use of space. Foaling stalls are generally bigger, but can be achieved within regulation sizing.

Recommended sizings are SWEM defaults and the size(s) that have been used regularly by beta testers and staff builders. It offers a functional space for the horse, neither too large or too small for the average barn, that looks good and works well with most styles and shapes of barns.

Paddocks

Paddocks are small enclosed 'runs' attached to a stall, it can offer limited grazing space or just outdoor access with soft footing. 

All paddocks should be at least 5 wide x 5 long, but depending on the size of your stall it may be that the width of the external wall varies. Example a 7 x 8 stall could have an 7 x 5 or an 8 x 5 paddock depending on which way the stall is rotated. 

As a general rule, we do not recommend paddocks be any larger than 3x the size of the stall, and some larger maximum paddocks do not result in an ideal shape.

Pastures

Pastures (by SWEM's definition) differ to paddocks as they are generally larger and intended for sustainable longer term grazing, exercise and solo or group turnout of several horses at a time. 

Pasture size regulations allows for adequate space (15x15) for each horse and sufficient grazing area to meet the daily nutritional needs of a horse and to sustain a horse fully when out to pasture (225B).

Calculating Pasture Requirements

225B per horse + 225B additional per 10 horses.

To determine how large a pasture should be, divide the total blocks required, by a number you want one edge to be. Example:
2475B (10 horses) / 50 = 50 x 49.5 blocks