Assessment of owners status, rearing pattern and description of horses in district Baramulla, Kashmir

To assess the socio-economic status of owners and rearing patterns of horses in rural Kashmir, a field survey was conducted in district Baramulla of Jammu and Kashmir. A total of 48 households owning equines, twelve from each of the four major equine rearing tehsils (Sopore, Pattan, Tangmarg and Gulmarg) of the district were interviewed using a pre-tested schedule to collect the data on socio-economic characteristics of horse owners, shelter pattern and a few morphometric characteristics viz. age, body weight (BW) and body condition score (BCS) of different classes of horses. Land holdings and size per family were almost similar among the surveyed tehsils; Sopore (4.67 kanal and 6.50 nos.), Pattan (4.12 kanal and 5.38 nos.), Tangmarg (4.42 kanal and 5.83 nos.) and Gulmarg (3.36 kanal and 5.83 nos.). The average livestock heads reared per family (P>0.05) as well as equine heads (P<0.05) and monthly income of the equine owners (P<0.05) were higher in Gulmarg (9.25 and 2.33 heads; ₹19250.00/- per owner) compared to other surveyed areas. The literacy rate was higher in Sopore (4.33) (P<0.05) compared to Pattan (2.69), Tangmarg (1.67) and Gulmarg (1.83). The overall mean age, BW and BCS of adult horses were 7.08 years, 255.86 kg and 4.93, respectively with higher values for age (P<0.05) and lower values for BW and BCS (P<0.05) in Pattan compared to other surveyed areas. However, the overall mean age, BW and BCS of foals were 1.90 years, 171.26 kg and 4.33, respectively with no statistical difference among the surveyed tehsils. All the households provided Pacha or Kacha shelters to their horses, wherein the proportion of Pacha shelters was higher while Kacha shelters were lower (P<0.05) in Sopore (75.00 and 25.00%) and Pattan (84.62 and 15.38%) compared to Gulmarg (33.33 and 66.67%, respectively). Mostly horses were kept in shared shelters with other livestock species, the proportion of separate shelters for horses being higher in Sopore and Gulmarg (58.33% each) followed by Tangmarg (25.00%) and Pattan (23.08%). It was concluded that the horse owners in district Baramulla were socio-economically weak and reared non-descript horses with average BW and BCS to add to their earnings.