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McDonnell, S. M. (2008). Human-horse interactions: Where are the behaviorists in 2008? In IESM 2008.
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. |
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Boross, B., & Maros, K. (2008). Possible indicators of the human-horse relationship among adult horses. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: According to scientists human-horse relationship is influenced by management conditions (Hausberger et al.; 2007) including handling methods (Henry et al.; 2005). Furthermore, Henry et al. (2005) show that mares foals" behaviour toward humans may be influenced even by the mares. Although the familiarity of the testperson is said to be an important variable measuring relationship (Waiblinger et al.; 2006), other studies show that horses generalize from the experimenter to unfamiliar humans (Henry et al.; 2005) or from the caretaker to other human beings (Hausberger et al.; 2002).
Methods: 51 horses were observed in a 20x20 sandy arena (familiar to the subjects) to evaluate their relationship with a testperson. First an arena test was carried out for 5 minutes. The horse was put into the arena alone. After that the person test came in which the testperson interacted with the horse. The person test consisted of 3 or 4 different phases according to the horse"s behaviour. The phases were: (1.) voluntary animal approach test in which the testperson stood still and the subject was allowed to move wherever it wanted (Appr-vol); (2.) the testperson calling the horse to himself (Appr-call); (3.) the testperson making the horse stay beside him (Stand-still); (4.) the testperson making the horse follow him (without any tools and food reward) (Follow). First 51 horses were tested with testpersons who were familiar to the animals. After that 39 horses were retested with unfamiliar testpersons within more than one week. To analyze the potential effects of different human-related factors on the horse behaviour in the person test, such as time spent with training the horse (grooming, riding, working etc.), training methods, number of trainers etc. a questionnare has been used. Results: Arena test: Horse behaviour was affected neither by their age (2-24 years) nor by their gender (30 geldings and 1 stallion vs 20 mares), however, mares spent more time in the entrance of the arena. In the test with unfamiliar testpersons (retest) horses stood longer and walked less, which could reflect some habituation to the situation. Person test: Gender and age of horses or time (years) elapsing since the horse started to be trained did not have any effect on the reactions of horses. There was a positive correlation between the time (hours) spent with the horse weekly and the time of Follow. The number of trainers had a significant effect on the Appr-vol and Follow responses: the less the number of the trainers, the sooner the horse approached the familiar testperson and the longer the animal followed him. In the person test, significant difference was observed only in Appr-vol, thus horses followed the familiar testpersons much longer than the unfamiliar ones. Horses trained to follow their trainers without a lead rope followed significantly longer than animals without this kind of trainings. Conclusion: Followership seemed to be the most sensitive behavioural response to human familiarity and it may also indicate some other aspects of horse-human relationship, however, training has a clear effect on this human related reaction. |
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Lojek, J., Gorska, B. (2008). Day-Time Budgets of Konik Polski Horses (Equus caballus) Maintained in two Housing Systems. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: A comparison of day-time time budgets of the konik polski horses kept in two different housing systems: free-roaming and in a limited area, was the aim of the study. The observations were carried out in the Biebrza National Park from January to June 2006 on a total of 12 horses (7 females and 5 males) aged from 2 to 5 years. The horses were kept for one year in a free-roaming system on a area of 200 ha where they formed two family bands. Later, during the winter the horses were grouped together in 1 ha enclosure with free access to water, hay given 3 times per day and oats given irregularly mainly in the winter. In the spring horses were let out again into the free-roaming system. A comparison was made of the horses“ behavior characterizing their daily activity in both housing systems. Behavioral data were collected during 122 h of direct observations in 1 hour focal samples in three periods of the day: morning (from dawn to 11:00 am), afternoon (from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm) and in the evening (from 4:00 pm until dusk). The proportion of time spent on feeding and resting behavior and locomotion activity in the total time of the observations, depending on the time of day and sex of the horses, was determined. For the evaluation of the frequency of drinking, comfort, eliminative, sexual and exploratory behavior the number of appeared cases in all horses was added up and divided by the number of observation hours. In spite of significant differences in the intensity of feeding and in the time spent on recumbency found in both housing systems depending on the time of day and sex of the horses, it seems that konik polski horses kept in different housing systems have a tendency to maintain the stable day-time time budgets, which was demonstrated by the similar time of their daily activity spent on feeding (75.9 % of total time in limited area and 71,2 % free-roaming) and resting upright (respectively 16.9 % and 15.8%) as well as cases of urination (0.18 cases/1 hour of observation in limited area and 0.17 in free-roaming in total), self- grooming (respectively 0.40 and 0.56) and mutual-grooming (0.17 and 0.12). But other signs of comfort behavior were observed nearly twice as often in the horses in the limited area (0,42) than in the free roaming system (0,22). The patterns of exploratory behavior were observed decisively more often in the case of horses in limited area (0,5 cases/1 hour of observation) than in the free-roaming system (0,07). The different housing system affected the konik polski horses” time-budget, with decreased time spent in limited area as compared to free-roaming horses in recumbent rest (respectively 2.5 % and 7,0 % of total time), locomotion activity in walk (4.9 % and 8,2 %) and trot (0.006 % and 2,3 %). Due to delivering forage to the paddock the locomotion of the horses related with searching, choosing and eating also decreased. Key words: housing systems, day-time time budgets, konik polski horses
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Kuhne, F., Struwe, R., & Balzer, H. U. (2008). A new, non-invasive method to assess specific strain in horses. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: Horses" reactions to normal environmental and training situations play an important
role the human-horse relationship. These demands on horses can either lead some individuals to withdrawal, immobility or aggressive defence. However, the reaction to such situations varies greatly among horses, which is reflected in individual differences in sympathetic, parasympathetic and muscular reactivity. The observable behavioural responses of the horses seem to be qualitatively related to the internal state of physiological arousal. In future it should be possible to identify behavioural signs which really do reflect internal states of the autonomic nervous system to provide general advice concerning human handling and training in view of reducing stress in horses. For these purposes, we have determined responses of the vegetative nervous system based on variation in skin potential, skin resistance and electromyogram using non-invasive real-time measurements. All these parameters can be measured by a SMARD-Watch-System (System of non-invasive Measurement and Analysis for Regulatory Diagnostics), which can be externally attached to the horses using a harness. The physiological data will assess using a time series analysis. Thereby the changes in the regulatory processes in each of the three physiological systems can be determined in detail. Based on this analysis characteristic behaviour patterns will be analysed by the variability of the regulatory processes. According to temporary shifts in regulatory processes, stable and unstable regulation states will be determined. Depending on the proportions of unstable regulation processes during and after external threat, four types of regulation can be defined: the Control, Cope, Compensate and Non-cope- type. Defined time-windows, for example a ten minutes lasting pre- and post-test phase and a ten or twenty minutes lasting time-window for the execution of the specific stimulus have to be chosen to decide these regulation types. These four regulation types and the preferred individual behaviour strategies have to be compared to evaluate the relative frequency of occurrence of a behaviour strategy depending on responses of the vegetative nervous system. In view of validating behavioural indicators of emotional reactivity, the aim of this new method is to characterize individual differences in the behavioural and physiological responses of horses to normal environmental and training stimuli. Evidence is provided by human and animal data that the non-invasive real-time measurement of the vegetative nervous system based on variation in skin potential, skin resistance etc. is a promising approach for evaluating stress and emotional states in vertebrates. It will be explained that the chronobiological evaluation of physiological parameters has the potential to contribute much to our understanding and assessment of the underlying physiological processes of stress responses in horses. |
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Krueger, K. (2008). Social cognition and social learning in horses. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: In comparison to other social animals it appears to be far more difficult to show social learning in horses, although the social background of the animals prompts the prediction that social learning should be verifiable. This demands for a thorough analysis of conditions, context and effects of social learning which might not be as obvious in horses than in other social animals. Moreover, the horse“s social cognition in general, i.e. the processing, encoding, storage, retrieval, and application of social information, needs to be examined. In previous studies we addressed the horse”s perception of it“s social environment. Our results indicate that domestic horses are not only capable of distinguishing between familiar and unfamiliar horses but also of recognizing the social status of familiar horses relative to their own. Furthermore, they extract information from observing interactions between a familiar horse and a human experimenter, and adjust their behaviour according to the observed horse”s reaction and relative dominance status when they are themselves later confronted with the experimenter in a similar situation. Additionally, we showed in pilot experiments that horses paid more attention to the gaze of dominant horses from their own social group than to that of unknown or subordinate horses. In another study we suggested that horses of both sexes are capable of determining the social affiliation, the sex and, for their own group members, the identity of individuals, by sniffing their faeces. Hence, social affiliation and dominance relationships seemed to have a major influence on the horses` motivation to pay attention to their conspecifics. In the future we will take another step towards linking the horse“s social cognitive capacities with its social ecology, social structure, and individuality. In the context of comparative cognition research on the socially complex primates, or on a range of carnivores such as corvids, canids or dolphins, horses are particularly interesting, because they are highly social, but do not rely on social hunting or cooperative raising of offspring. Also foraging is simple for horses, predator avoidance is demanding and this may be the main reason for the horse”s complex social lives and their choice of learning tactics. Hence, we will investigate the horse"s investigative behaviour towards neutral, fear-eliciting and food related novel objects. We propose that, as in other species, sociality and distinct personalities are key features for the understanding of cognitive capacities and the choice of learning strategies.
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Komárková, M., & Dubcova, J. (2008). Factors affecting suckling behaviour in loose housed domestic horses. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: Suckling, the main part of maternal investment in equids, is crucial for development and social success of the foal. As such it is of great importance in horse breeding. We examined effect of following factors mentioned in literature on behavioural parameters of suckling in loose housed domestic horses: age and sex of the suckling foal, age, parity (primiparous/multiparous), pregnancy (yes/no) and rank of the mother and sex of the foetus if the mother was pregnant. Four variables describing suckling behaviour were modelled: proportion of suckling attempts rejected by the mother, suckling duration, frequency of suckling and proportion of suckling terminated by the mother. Further, suckling terminated by another mare were analyzed. Behavioural observations were conducted at the National Stud Kladruby nad Labem (Czech Republic). Eight groups of loose housed Oldkladruby horse mares with foals were observed from 14 days (in average) after delivery to abrupt weaning (four to six months of age), each foal for 120 days at least. Within two seasons, 10 495 suckling bouts and suckling attempts were observed in 79 foals (32 males, 47 females, mothered by 59 individual mares). Horses were studied with ad libitum sampling for 6 hours per group each 14 days. Dominance status of the mother was assessed using the Clutton-Brock index (Clutton-Brock et al. 1982, Nature 350:178-180), adjusted to the number of mares in each group, and dyadic dominance-submission relationships between all group members (mares) were determined. No significant effect of pregnancy and sex of the foetus on suckling behaviour were found, except the tendency of mothers bearing female foetuses to terminate more suckling. These findings are opposite to literature, where male foetuses were connected with higher rejection rates (Duncan et al. 1984, Anim Behav 32:255-263). However, incidence of suckling attempts rejected by the mother was very low (2.24 %). No effect of pregnancy of the mother could be caused by the stud management; horses are well fed and do not suffer for nutrition stress as horses in the wild may. All variables were negatively affected by increasing foals age (as expected). Neither sex of the suckling foal, nor age of the mother did significantly affect any of the studied variables. The higher dominance rank a mare achieved the higher frequency of other group member suckling she terminated (rs = 0.49, P < 0.0001; Spearman correlation coefficients, PROC CORR, SAS). From suckling terminated by another mare (N = 190), in 93 % (N =177) it is a dominant mare who ends the suckling. Despite these significant results, suckling terminated by another mare were negligible (1.8 % from all observed suckling bouts) and agonistic interactions between dominant and submissive mares seemed not to compromise foal development. In conclusion, in loose housed mares of domestic horse with foals we have found no detrimental effect of any of literally cited factors on suckling behaviour.
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Klingel, H.. (2008). Social Organisation of the Equids. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: Two distinct types of social organisation have evolved in the Equidae. Type 1: In Horse Equus przewalskii, Plains Zebra E. quagga and Mountain Zebra E. zebra the adults live in non-territorial, stable, one-male families and as single bachelors and in bachelor groups. Family stallions have the exclusive mating rights with the mares in their harems. These consist of up to 6 unrelated mares plus their offspring, totalling up to 20 members. Mares stay in their harems until death. Stallions' tenure is from age 5-6 years, i.e. when they succeed in controlling a harem, for close to life time, but are replaced when dead or incapacitated. Harems are stable even in the absence of a stallion, indicating voluntary membership. Adolescent mares leave their parental families to become members of another harem. In Plains Zebra the adolescent mares are abducted, during an oestrus, by suitors who fight the defending family stallion/father. Successful stallions are bachelors who start a family, or family stallions enlarging their harem. Young stallions leave their parental families voluntarily at age 2-3 years and join bachelor stallion groups from where the family stallions are recruited. An individualised dominance hierarchy excists with the stallion in the alpha position. It is based on individual knowledge and recognistion of the members. Type 2: In Grevy's Zebra E. grevyi, African Wild Ass E. africanus and Asiatic Wild Ass E. hemionus adult stallions monopolise territories in which they have the exclusive mating rights. Stallions are tolerant of any conspecifics entering their territory. Bachelor stallions behave subordinately – or fight for the possession of the territory which is a prerequisite for reproduction. Mares join up to form anonymous and unstable groups or herds. The only stable unit is of a mare and her offspring. In Grevy's Zebra mares with foal join preferentially conspecifics of the same soial status, as do mares without foal. Matings take place inside the territory. There is no lasting relationship of the mare with a particular stallion, and the mare may be mated by any stallion whose territory she is visiting. Territories measure up to 10 or more square kilometres, and tenure is for several years. Grevy Zebra territorial owners leave their territories for a few hours to visit a water hole, or for months when grazing and water conditions are below requirements, and re-occupy it upon return, unchallenged. Except for a few small populations, the extant equids live in semi-arid to arid regions where environmental conditions force them to migrate seasonally or opportunistically. The ranges of the various species overlap: Mountain Zebra and Plains Zebra in South Africa and Namibia, Plains Zebra and Grevy's Zebra in Kenya and Ethiopia, Grevy's Zebra and African Wild Ass in Ethiopia, Asiatic Wild Ass and Przewalski Horse in Mongolia andChina. Although, in the overlap zones, individuals of different species are using the same resources like water and grazing simultaneously and next to each other, they rarely make closer contacts. Infanticide has been recorded in captive situations.
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Kharazyan, F., Hassani, A., Ahmadinejad, M., & Houpt, K. A. (2008). The response of horses to predator stimuli. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: It is unknown whether or not wild horses“ instinct has remained during their centuries of taming. The knowledge of this matter gives riders the opportunity of knowing more not only about horse behavior but also about horse and rider safety. In the current research we try to study behavior of the two Iranian horse breed (Asil & Caspian) in confrontation with stimuli from predators. We explored which kind of stimuli (olfactory stimuli accompanied by auditory stimuli) affects horses more. We groupe horses based on breed, sex and age. All horses are adult. The test area is a room that equipped with ventilator, speaker, and other facilities that needs. The time spent in the test area varies between 5 and 20 min .The experiments were designed to investigate behavioral responses (locomotive activity ( standing , walk , trot , and exploration), eliminatory behavior (defecation, urination)) and physiological responses (measure and record of adrenalin dosages in blood samples before and after facing to stimuli and measured blood”s glucose and cortisol too) of horses to novel auditory and olfactory stimuli.
We explored which kind of stimuli(Olfactory stimuli or auditory stimuli) affects horses more. The experiments were carried out under standardized conditions a total of 60 horses (30 Caspian ponies and 30 Asil horses), of different ages. We investigated how horses respond to two predator animals" (wolf and Iranian leopard) olfactory and auditory stimulus. The olfactory stimuli were: A: Urine /feces stimuli, B: Fur-derived stimuli. And The auditory stimulus were sound of wolf and Iranian Leopard. |
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Kaczensky, P., Ganbaatar, O., von Wehrden, H., & Walzer, C. (2008). Przewalski`s horses (Equus ferus przewalskii) and Asiatic wild asses (Equus hemionus): Similar Species, Same Habitat – Same Use? In IESM 2008.
Abstract: Historic overlap zones of wild equids were small in Africa but extensive for Przewalski`s horses and Asiatic wild asses in Asia. Currently the Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area in SW Mongolia is the only place where sympatric, free-ranging populations of these equids occur. This provides an unique opportunity to examine the co-existence of these little studied species and test the hypothesis that Przewalski`s horses are primarily adapted to mesic steppe habitats, whereas Asiatic wild asses are adapted to arid desert steppes and semi-deserts.
We monitored 9 Przewalski`s horses and 7 wild asses with satellite telemetry and superimposed the data on a habitat map derived from remote sensing (LANDSAT TM & ETM+-data) and ground sample plots. We tested for habitat preferences comparing use and availability with a logistic regression mixed model approach. Individuals were treated as random factors. Factor variables were tested for significant differences in subsequent Tukey post-hoc tests. Przewalski`s horses had non-exclusive home ranges of 152-826 km² and heavily selected for the most productive riparian plant communities. Asiatic wild asses also had non-exclusive home ranges, but with 4,449-6,835 km² they were 10 times larger than those of Przewalski`s horses. Asiatic wild asses seem to use plant communities more or less relative to their availability. Our results provide evidence for two parallel resource selection strategies. Our findings indicate that the Gobi areas provide an edge, rather than an optimal habitat for Przewalski`s horses. This leaves only small and isolated pockets of suitable habitat for future re-introductions. Asiatic wild asses, on the other hand, need access to large tracts of land to cope with the unpredictable resource distribution of the Gobi. Thus, Asiatic wild ass conservation requires a large scale approach. |
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Jørgensen, G. H. M., Borsheim, L., Mejdell, C. M., & Bøe, K. E. (2008). Social interactions and spacing in horses (Equus caballus) grouped according to gender. In IESM 2008.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the social behaviour and spacing between horses when grouped according to gender in homogeneous- or heterogeneous groups, and to see if the amount and severity of aggression differed in relation to gender composition.
A total of 66 horses divided in six batches were used. In each batch, horses were allotted into one mare group, one gelding group and one mixed gender group, with most groups consisting of three or four animals. Three batches were performed on Icelandic horses and three batches on riding horses and -ponies. After 4-6 weeks of acclimatisation, a trained observer recorded all social interactions using direct, continuous observation one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon for three consecutive days. In addition, the nearest neighbour of each horse was recorded using instantaneous sampling every 10 minutes. The horses were inspected for injuries before grouping, day one after grouping and after 4-6 weeks. Furthermore, a novel object test and a handling test (taking horse out of group) were conducted after the behavioural observations were completed. No significant effect of gender composition was found on social interactions, spacing or injuries. Most of the aggressive interactions recorded were threats, and not aggressive interactions involving physical contact. Aggression seemed to increase with decreased space per animal and more horses per feeding place. Very few injuries were found and most were superficial. Horses showed a low degree of fearfulness in the novel object test and most horses were easy to handle in the “horse out of group test”. In conclusion, gender composition does not seem to have any effect on aggression level, spacing or injuries in social groups of horses. |