Abstract: The objective was to use an electronic pressure mat to measure and compare forces and pressures of the saddle on a horse's back when riders mounted from the ground and with the aid of a mounting platform. Ten riders mounted a horse three times each from the ground and from a 35 cm high mounting platform in random order. Total force (summation of forces over all 256 sensors) was measured and compared at specific points on the force-time curve. Total force was usually highest as the rider's right leg was swinging upwards and was correlated with rider mass. When normalized to rider mass, total force and peak pressure were significantly higher when mounting from the ground than from a raised platform (P < 0.05). The area of highest pressure was on the right side of the withers in 97% of mounting efforts, confirming the importance of the withers in stabilizing the saddle during mounting.

Abstract: The Przewalski`s horse (Equus f. przewalskii) was extinct in the wild by the mid-sixties of the past century. The species only survived due to captive breeding from 13 founder individuals. In 1992 a reintroduction program was initiated in the Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area in southwestern Mongolia. During it“s initial years, the project concentrated exclusively on P-horses. In the past decade activities have expanded significantly. The ecological project start point can be summed up as follows: i) species is extinct in the wild, ii) severe bottleneck, iii) practically no ecological data prior to extinction, iv) released into an extremely harsh, highly variable and poorly understood environment. The ecological knowledge constraints were compounded by i) highly emotional species, ii) simultaneous and competitive projects, iii) logistic nightmare, iv) non-scientific basis in planning phase. By the late 1990s project leadership and management was overhauled with research and scientific data firmly integrated into the decision-making process. Early scientific input concentrated on determining causes of death and low reproductive rates. The elucidation of the effects of endemic piroplasmosis on the population and subsequent management changes lead to remediation this deadly problem. P-horses have been fitted with ARGOS and GPS-ARGOS collars in order to determine home range and habitat preferences. Simultaneously the Mongolian wild ass and the wolf have been studied with these methods in the shared habitat. Satellite-based technologies provide the backbone for all habitat related project issues. At the onset (digitized Russian maps) data collection was restricted to the Eastern part of the Gobi B. Subsequently the spatial scale encompasses the entire Gobi Region in Mongolia and Northern Xingjian in China (e.g. Landsat, MODIS, NOAA, SRTM). Research has also focused on the role, needs and possible impacts of local semi-nomadic herders that use the protected area. Capacity building and training workshops (e.g. construction of fuel efficient stoves, felting) have been initiated. In 2007 a trans-boundary project in collaboration with the Xingjian Institute of Ecology and Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was initiated. This project aims to support rural communities of nomadic pastoralists living in the trans-boundary area of the Dzungarian Gobi, in China and Mongolia. Today, this project and the one in Hustain Nuruu (Mongolia) are the only ones that have resulted in free-ranging non-supplemented populations. In the Gobi B area some 120 (status 05.2008) P-horses roam in the protected area. In 2003 the IUCN downlisted the Przewalski\'s horse from to . Further downlisting to is predicted to occur in 2011. There is no consensus on when a reintroduction program is deemed successful. Clearly viewing the self-sustainable re-establishment of a population as a successful end-point is at best a short-term approach, constrained by time (today and now). Comprehensive interdisciplinary monitoring and research was and is the foundation for management strategies and decisions in this project. However, a self-sustaining financial base in conjunction with dedicated training and empowerment of local scientists and residents constitute essential prerequisites for the project”s future. Defining success and thereby inferring an end-point can easily lead to complacency compromising species persistence. As others have stated the ultimate project objective must be a constantly re-evaluated state of population persistence without intervention.

Abstract: The relational model of conflict resolution predicts that after an aggressive conflict there should be a motivational shift from aggression to attraction. Most tests of the reconciliation hypothesis assume, however, that all non-aggressive post-conflict behaviours between former opponents are motivationally homogeneous and qualify as friendly reunions. In fact, although the hypothesis predicts an increased occurrence of friendly contacts after conflicts, in practice, however, post-conflict reunions often include a mixture of contact and non-contact behaviours. Most reconciliation studies either (often) assume a conciliatory function for post-conflict reunions or (less often) test functional predictions. Finally, the valuable relationships hypothesis predicts that conciliatory rates should be relatively higher between friends and allies than between non-friends/allies. In this paper, we use data on non-aggressive interactions following conflicts between adult male hamadryas baboons that are neither friends nor allies to assess the implications of all these important but largely overlooked issues. The analyses of the rate and temporal relation of non-contact greeting (NCTG) to anxiety-related behaviours and side-directed aggression as well as of the behaviours used during non-aggressive interactions with male and female third-parties suggest that the NCTG used by males after conflicts were neither motivationally friendly nor functionally conciliatory. We point out that the gestures exchanged during these post-conflict NCTG can be interpreted as formalized signals of equal status and that the rate and form of the greetings used by male opponents are indicative of high relationship insecurity and incompatibility respectively. We conclude that although male hamadryas' post-conflict NCTG are not conciliatory they may serve to assess their opponents' attitude and to negotiate the restoring of their pre-conflict levels of peaceful but non-amicable co-existence.

Abstract: The responsiveness of 10 horses and 10 ponies to environmental challenge (represented by an open field test) was assessed using a qualitative approach based on free choice profiling methodology (FCP), which gives observers complete freedom to choose their own descriptive terms. Data were analysed with generalised Procrustes analysis (GPA), a multivariate statistical technique associated with FCP. A cross-validation of the outcomes of this approach to data recorded through quantitative behaviour analysis, and through a questionnaire given to the animals' owner/riding instructor, was also performed using principal component analysis (PCA). Twelve undergraduate students generated their own descriptive vocabularies, by watching 20 horse/pony video clips lasting 2.5 min each. GPA showed that the consensus profile explained a high percentage of variation among the 12 observers, and differed significantly from the mean randomised profile (p < 0.001). Two main dimensions of the consensus profile were identified, explaining 60% and 5.2% of the variation between animals, respectively. The 12 observer word charts interpreting these dimensions were semantically consistent, as they all converged towards the same meaning, albeit using different terms. The most used term to describe the positive end of axis 1 was “quiet”, whereas “attentive” was the best positive descriptor of axis 2. The most frequently used descriptors for the negative ends of axes 1 and 2 were “nervous” and “bored”, respectively. Thus, axis 1 was labelled as “quiet/nervous” and axis 2 was named as “attentive/bored”. A marked effect of animal category was observed on the scores of the animals on the first dimension (p < 0.001). Horses received significantly higher scores, and were thus assessed as more quiet and calm, than ponies. Conversely, ponies tended to receive lower scores on the second dimension (p < 0.12), therefore they appeared less curious and attentive. The results of the PCA showed that the variables from different types of measurement clearly had meaningful relationships. For instance, the variables with the highest loading on the positive end of axis 1 were all indicative of tractable and docile animals, whereas axis 2 showed high loadings on the positive end for variables indicating attentive animals. Qualitative behaviour assessment proved to be an appropriate methodology for the study of horse behavioural responsiveness, in that it provided a multifaceted characterisation of horse behavioural expression that was in agreement with other quantitative and subjective assessments of the animals' behaviour.

Abstract: The skill to diagnose lameness in horses is paramount for every equine practitioner. Early recognition of locomotor deficiencies plays a central role in sports medicine management, preventing deterioration of the disease or catastrophic injuries. Horses use characteristic compensatory movements of specific body parts to decrease loading of the affected limb. This article describes the underlying changes in intra- and interlimb coordination and the resulting load redistribution between the limbs. This enables the practitioner to better understand the changes in movement associated with lameness.