Environmental spatial mapping within equine indoor arenas

Frontiers in Animal Science

Animal Science

Kimberly Tumlin¹  Robert Coleman²  Morgan Hayes³  Josh Jackson³  Staci McGill³  Victoria Stanton⁴ 

[1] Center for Innovation in Population Health, Department of Athletic Training and Clinical Nutrition, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States;Department of Animal and Food Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States;Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States;Department of Statistics, Applied Statistics Laboratory, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, United States;

关键词: equine;    indoor arena;    environmental conditions;    spatial mapping;    facility analysis;    air movement;    temperature;    light intensity;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fanim.2023.1083332

 received in 2022-10-28, accepted in 2023-08-03,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Equine indoor arenas are unique infrastructure investments found at equine farms and facilities. Environmental concerns within these facilities (temperature, respirable dust, moisture, and air movement) have been identified through surveys and small research studies. Thirty-seven indoor arenas at equine facilities within 160 km (100 miles) of Lexington, KY, were visited from August 2018 to August 2021. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather more information regarding the environment within the indoor arena and information about the equine facility. Site assessments were also conducted and temperatures (footing or ground level, air at 1.37 m above the footing, and roof), air speeds at 1.37 m above the footing, and light levels at 1.37 m above the footing across the indoor arena spaces were measured, in addition to the total number of horses at the facilities and daily average and maximum use of the indoor arenas. Spatial mapping was conducted using ArcMap 10.7 (Esri; Redlands, California), with kriging being used for the interpolation. The created maps were used to determine the variability of the temperatures, air speed, and lighting within the indoor arenas. These variabilities were examined for the statistical significance for variables of the indoor arenas that were determined by structural and design aspects and for facility usage information gathered from the semi-structured interviews. The variables that were statistically significant were roof ventilation for roof temperature variability, roof insulation for footing temperature variability, building enclosure for lighting variability, total number of horses at the facility for lighting variability, and total daily number of horses in the indoor arena for the ambient air temperature variability. One of the most significant results was the lack of air movement observed in the majority of the indoor arenas. Over 80% of the indoor arenas were experiencing still air speed conditions (< 0.51 m/s) during the site assessment. There is a need for more research on the environmental conditions within indoor arenas, the potential health impacts to the humans and horses in the spaces, and how design changes to the facilities could improve these environments.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 McGill, Coleman, Jackson, Tumlin, Stanton and Hayes