Horses, donkeys and mules

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Horses, donkeys and mules

Many horses are registered as pets. Unlike horses kept as livestock, these animals are not allowed to enter the food chain. The Freiberger is the only remaining original horse breed in Switzerland. It originates from the Franches-Montagnes region in the canton of Jura. Freiberger horses are considered to be powerful and sociable animals. The second breed from Swiss rearing is the Warmblood. Most of these animals are used as sport horses. Switzerland is also home to breeds such as Arabian and Haflinger horses as well as Shetland ponies and the Icelandic horse.

Ponies, donkeys, mules and hinnies belong to the same family. Mules are a cross between a male donkey and a female horse. With hinnies, it is precisely the other way around. Both are crossbreeds that are usually incapable of reproduction.

Displaced by the machine

For hundreds of years, people used horses as work animals. As did farmers. They were the predecessors of tractors in the fields and also helped with forest work. Even today, there are still horses in Switzerland that are used in this way. However, the way in which horses are used has shifted towards leisure with the advent of machines. Horses are still commonly used as work animals in North and South America, for example, where gauchos and cowboys drive herds of cattle with them. Nowadays, most horses living on a farm are “retired”. Their owners pay the farming families for their food and lodgings and ride out with them.

Why are there horse butchers?

There are no specialised horse meat producers in Switzerland. The abattoir primarily receives foals that have been picked out. Due to the small quantity, Switzerland imports around 90% of its consumed horse meat. Up until the mid-1990s, horse meat was only allowed to be sold at special butcher’s shops. This prevented cheap horse meat being sold as beef.

What do horses eat?

Horses only eat plants. In order to be able to digest their plant-based diet, they have to chew it particularly well. In doing so, they move their jaw in a similar way to ruminants in order to grind their food evenly. Horses need a lot of feed: a rule of thumb says that they require around 1.5 kilograms of roughage such as hay per 100 kilograms of bodyweight and day.

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Animal welfare

Many farmers do more than the strict Animal Welfare Act requires. They take part in animal welfare programmes and produce for labels. Checks are conducted to ensure that the rules are observed.

Animal welfare

Image: Christine Tholet

On the farm

Have you ever taken a look inside a cowshed? Or asked yourself where your food comes from? Or visited a farm shop? Swiss farming families provide you with a warm welcome and are happy to show you everything there is to discover on their farm and which products they produce. See for yourself at the farm whether what you had imagined corresponds with real life. Will we see you soon?

On the farm