Slowfeeding dispensers for horses: who, how and why?

Slowfeeding dispensers for horses: who, how and why?

Published in Journal of Veterinary Behavior : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2025.01.006

We surveyed 1,283 french-speaking horse keepers on their slowfeeding practices.Keepers could be either private owners or professionnal yard operators (or both). They could be current users of slowfeeders (SFs), former users or non-users. 

Former- and non-users were asked about their perception of slowfeeding and their former use (for former users). Operators answered few general questions about their yard (number of liveries, housing ...) and their slowfeeding practices.Owners answered questions about their slowfeeding practices and could then fill the questionnaire for up to 5 horses (general information, housing, feeding, training, health).

The questionnaire can be found in Appendix. 

Four (4) datasets were created based on the answers :  DataFormerUsers (n=124), DataOperators (n=229), DataOwners (n=963) and DataHorses (n=1425). The three last ones were the ones used for the analysis of the paper.  DataFormerUsers is a supplementary dataset.

All headers are in english. Some variables were recoded in English, and some are in French.

A "how to read" file describing the different variables is provided with each dataset.