Abstract: This presentation will include commentary on work presented at this meeting as representative of the rapidly growing body of equine behavior science evidence relevant to human-horse interaction and the welfare of domestic, feral, and wild horses.
A substantial literature has accumulated detailing the behavior patterns of wild and feral equid populations, and to some extent the behavior of horses in various domestic environments. Professor Klingel“s and Professor Houpt”s work, begun nearly 40 years ago, continues to inspire colleagues around the world to qualitatively and quantitatively describe behavior of equids in a variety of environments. Several examples of the importance of this type of work to human-horse interaction and horse welfare are evident in throughout the meeting. It forms the basis for assessing the disturbance of behavior in wildlife management projects such as fertility manipulations (Hopkins; Ransom & Cade) or species reintroduction (Kaczensky et al). Study of the apparent variability in observations among the populations will lead to a better understanding of environmental and other factors, which will have fruitful application to welfare of horses both in domestic and natural environments. Unfortunately, this work always brings to mind what I perceive as a nagging threat to horse welfare and quality of human-horse interaction is misinformation concerning natural horse behavior. Natural horse behavior seems to be of great general interest, but unfortunately inaccuracies and misinterpretations are pervasive in popular “horse culture” and continue to be a conspicuous influence on management and training of domestic horses. Unfortunately, this misinformation often makes its way and influences equine education, both lay and equine science/veterinary education. Comparative observational study of behavior of horses in all settings by trained behaviorists, along with research designed to address purported implications for management of domestic horses, along with initiatives to transfer knowledge to educators at all levels should be encouraged.

Included in this meeting is considerable work addressing questions of domestic management practices such as forced weaning, transportation, stabling, and arbitrary grouping and regrouping of horses. This adds to a growing body of applied physiology and behavior research that has established trained behaviorists as a critical resource on teams making decisions on humane management.
Also well represented in work presented at this meeting is the exploration of cognition, perception, and temperament in horses. It is personally pleasing to see examples of direct investigation of the ability of the horse to respond to subtle human posture and gesture, which for many of us has represented just annoying possible confounders of earlier cognition studies. Behaviorists trained in perception and learning will no doubt contribute enormously to this exciting area of investigation.

Abstract: Crib-biting (wind-sucking) might be a coping response of the horses to the challenges of
uncontrolled environmental events. Prevention of this stereotypic behaviour evokes
physiological responses consistent with increased stress. Reducing the incidence of cribbiting,
however, is important in order to prevent undesirable physical and behavioural
consequences (tooth erosion, altered gut function, gastric inflammation/ulceration, colic, etc.).
Common treatment of crib-biting is the application of a cribbing collar, which limits the
flexion of the neck making this stereotypic movement uncomfortable and difficult. Another
method, the modified Forssell"s operation, is becoming more and more popular amongst the
horse owners. It is based on the removal of the muscles used in crib-biting (m.omohyoideus,
m.sternohyoideus, m.sternothyrohyoideus) and the ventral branches of the spinal accessory
nerves. Surveys on the success of this surgical procedure have revealed inconsistent results,
and, contrary to the cribbing collar, its effect on the stress level have not been studied either.
The aim of our study was to determine whether the modified Forssell"s procedure is superior
to the cribbing collar treatment.
Differences in stress management was tested by a crib-biting provoking test, in which
surgically treated horses, crib-biting horses, crib-biting horses with cribbing collar, and
normal horses (those showing no stereotypies), altogether 56 horses were compared. In this
test, a food bucket had been placed out of the reach of the animal, from which titbits were
given 3 times. Behaviour and heart rate variability (HRV) of the horses were recorded and
analysed throughout the test. Hypotheses were tested by linear mixed model.
According to our results, both prevention methods (collar or surgery) inhibited crib-biting
successfully though not totally. Regarding behaviour and heart rate variability, horses
prevented from crib-biting (by collar or surgery) differed significantly from crib-biting and
normal horses but not from each other.
Normal horses were usually trying to reach the food-bucket while present and were standing
still afterwards, whereas the other three groups had not really made efforts to reach the
bucket, spent less time with resting, and performed or tried crib-biting. During the stress-test,
normal and crib-biting horses had shown good stress-adaptation to the challenge since their
HRV, after an initial increase, returned to the basal value by the end. On the contrary, HRV of
the two prevented groups remained elevated and showed large oscillations throughout. They
had not found a successful coping behaviour either.
Our results suggest that since prevention may significantly increase distress, the treatment in
itself, without changing the motivation of the horse to perform the replacement behaviour – it
seems to be unsatisfactory and insufficient. After prevention the motivation of the horse to
perform crib-biting should be addressed. In addition, considering that prevention by collar and
surgery had not resulted in any significant behavioural or physiological differences, the
superiority of the modified Forssell"s procedure might be questioned. However, the surgery
might be recommended if treatment with collar is ineffective.