The livestock sector, including horses, is a sensitive sector in society. The role of horses has changed during the last decades from farm work to sports, hobby and tourism. Horse meat is also produced and used. Societal concerns of horses are related to ethics, cultural values, genetic diversity, animal welfare, and food safety.

During the last years the question of 'Social License to Operate' (SLO) has come up in discussions. Social License to Operate is the term given to society’s acceptance of the practice of horse industry and all its related activities.

Sustainable nutrition and management of horses are part of the socioeconomic effects of horse industry. Although, compared to many other industries, the horse industry is fairly sustainable, in a world where the climate is rapidly changing, it’s important to recognize the negative impacts traditional horse caretaking can have on the environment.

How the possible harmful environmental impacts of horse industry can be decreased? What solutions can be found and applied? Horse nutrition is based on forages and grazing, supplemented usually with grains and minerals. Minor changes in daily horse feeding management practices can have positive effects on the environment, circular agriculture and the horses themselves. In addition, horse industry has a potential to “compensate” its possible harmful environmental effects by circulating nutrients, offering biomass for biogas production and carbon to soil, in the form of manure. However, there is a lack of knowledge of sustainable horse management and no effective programmes to increase the role of horse industry in the circular agricultural practice and policies are available.

What about the ethics and sustainability of the breeding? The horse industry requires healthy, robust and efficient animals with improved animal welfare. How can the breeding sector contribute finding solutions that are cost and resource efficient, diminish or eliminate environmental pressure, are adaptive to climate change, are beneficial for animal health and welfare, improve food quality and safety, and that meet the needs of citizens, both today and in the future. What kind of breeding programmes aiming on sustainable exploitation of genetic variation between animals, health of animals and food quality are needed?

The aim of the articles of this Special Issue is to report scientific results and give criteria, recommendations and standards of sustainable management of the horse industry, including the following preliminary topics:
• breeding and genetics; ethical aspects of breeding, e.g. diseases and use of ill horses in breeding for various uses of horses
• nutrition and feed production, e.g. source of feed ingredients
• management, e.g. housing systems (their effects on wellbeing, health, environment)
• environment, e.g. manure management, effects on climate change, green house gas emissions
• training, e.g. impacts of training methods on health and wellbeing; use of horses in various disciplines and uses (sports, tourism, work)

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Frontiers in Animal Science

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