The equine development in Sweden

The number of horses in Sweden has trebled over the last 30 years from 70 000 to almost 300 000. The equine industry has an annual turn-over of SEK 47 billions. A similar development of this sector is shown throughout different parts of the developed world, for example from USA, Canada, Australia and other European countries. The equine sector corresponds well to the multifunctional transition with a new production of rural good and services, a new consumption of both services and landscape and a new sector which influence land use from both an ecologic but also aesthetic view point. In Sweden 16 % of the total annual turnover is closely related to agriculture and rural activities. Besides economical values also to other values that are not easily quantified, as governmental efficacy is divided into forty-eight political areas the equine sector, despite not being a governmental activity, contributes in to twelve of these; politics of equableness, politics of integration, politics of popular movements, politics of juvenilely, politics of handicap, politics of public health, politics of animals, politics of the environment, politics of commercial policy, politics of rural and regional development, politics of research and politics of education.
The use of the horse has changed from transportation and agricultural use to a tool for leisure and sports in today’s society and in Sweden 2/3 of the horses are kept in peri-urban landscapes. New comers and longer term residents allow the equine life style opportunity decides where to live, or farmers change and diversify their production towards the equine e.g. livery stables and/or food production. The horses occupy large tracts of land mostly in areas where the competition for land already is high due to infrastructure, agriculture, housing and other development. Old occupational groups’ experiencing an increasing demand for their services emerge and new ones resides (e.g. farriers, veterinarians, horse trainers). The equine sector gives an example of a phenomenon that ties together rural and urban, leisure, production and new lifestyles with landscape, ecology and economy.