Abstract: Performance of horses, whether in sports or in leisure, depends on both physical abilities as well as temperament. The aim of the present work was to measure individual variation and consistency of behavioural variables, related to temperament, in young horses of the same breed and age, and reared under controlled housing conditions and management. A total of 41 Dutch Warmblood horses were tested at 9, 10, 21 and 22 months of age in two behavioural tests, i.e. the novel object test and the handling test. In the novel object test horses were confronted with an open umbrella that was lowered from the ceiling. In the handling test horses were led by a human to cross a bridge. Per test, behavioural variables in the following behavioural classes were observed: locomotor activity, latency times, postural expressions and vocalisations. Within years, all behavioural variables in the handling test, and all but two in the novel object test were positively correlated (0.36<Rs<0.81, P<0.05). For both tests, at 9, 10, 21 and 22 months of age, a principal component analysis (PCA) was carried out to examine whether there were indications for underlying components of these individual behavioural variables that could possibly serve as measures for temperamental traits. The first component in the novel object test could be regarded as `flightiness' and the second as `sensitiveness'. In the handling test, the first component was suggested to relate to `patience', the second component to `willingness to perform'. The temperamental trait `flightiness' (novel object test) as well as the temperamental trait `patience' (handling test) were positively correlated within both years (0.36<Rs<0.65, P<0.05). For the traits `sensitiveness' (novel object test) and `willingness to perform' (handling test) a positive correlation was only found within the first year (0.44<Rs<0.57, P<0.01). A few individual behavioural variables showed consistency over years. Additionally, just one out of four temperamental traits, namely `flightiness', proved to be consistent over years (Rs=0.49, P<0.01). The temperamental trait `patience' showed a trend between years (Rs=0.31, 0.05<P<0.1). It is concluded that the behavioural tests employed in the present study can be used to reliably identify individual behavioural variables and temperamental traits in young horses. Long-term consistency, i.e. between subsequent years, could not be demonstrated convincingly. Nevertheless, future work may indicate that employing the same approach and considering an even longer time period or different phases of the horse's life, long-term consistency does exist.

Abstract: The stabled (UK) or stalled (USA) horse is commonly fed a restricted-forage diet in contrast to the varied ad libitum high-fibre diet it evolved to consume. A low-forage diet has been linked to the performance of stereotypical behaviour and health problems including gastric ulceration and impaction colic (in cases where horses are bedded on straw). Provision of a diet closer to that which the horse is adapted to and which enables more natural feeding behaviour warrants investigation. This trial aimed to establish whether the behavioural effects observed in short-term trials when stabled horses were provided with a multiple forage diet persist over longer periods. It also aimed to develop a practical methodology for maintaining stabled horses under forage-enriched conditions. Nine horses (aged 5-20 years, various breeds), acting as their own controls, participated in an 18-day, cross-over, Latin Square designed trial, in which they received comparable weights of two dietary treatments: a Single Forage (SF, hay) diet and a Multiple Forage (MF) diet (three long-chop and three short-chop commercially available forages). Following a 2-day acclimatisation, horses were maintained on the forage treatments for 7 days. Horses were observed on alternate days, morning and afternoon, during the 25 min following forage presentation. Horses then crossed over onto their second treatment and, following a further 2 days' acclimatisation, the same protocol was followed for a further 7 days. Observations from video were made using The Observer 3.0(R) and SPPS (version 11). Horses on the MF treatment performed foraging behaviour significantly more frequently and for significantly longer periods than horses on the SF treatment. On the MF treatment horses sampled all forages during observations. However, there were significant differences in the frequency and duration of foraging on individual forages, indicating that horses demonstrated individual preferences for particular forages. Stereotypic weaving behaviour only occurred on the SF treatment. The results indicate that the potentially beneficial behavioural effects of short-term multiple forage provision do persist when horses are managed on a MF diet for a 7-day period. They suggest that a MF diet provides a means of enriching the stabled horse's environment, by offering variety and enabling patch foraging behaviour. The methodology proved practical for maintaining horses under forage-enriched conditions and could easily be adopted by horse owners to facilitate foraging behaviour.

Abstract: The tendency in primate groups for two opponents to affiliate shortly after a fight has been described as dyadic reconciliation. The response has been shown to restore disrupted relationships and curtail ongoing aggression. Rates of self-directed behaviour (e.g. scratching) are positively correlated with anxiety in primates and the rates decline after reconciliation, indicating that the response also functions to reduce postconflict tension. Third parties not involved in an aggressive interaction are also likely to affiliate with one of the combatants subsequent to a fight. Such `triadic' interactions may also promote conflict resolution when, for instance, the relatives of a victim affiliate with their relative's aggressor. Because aggression in a group influences a bystander's behaviour with combatants, we hypothesized that aggression between two animals would also influence a bystander's behaviour with other bystanders. Such `quadratic' postconflict interactions might also function to reduce postconflict tension or occur in patterns among kin subgroups to resolve conflict. We tested for quadratic interactions in an 18-member group of captive hamadryas baboons, Papio hamadryas hamadryas. Immediately following a fight, an uninvolved bystander was randomly selected for observation and its affiliative interactions with other bystanders and its displacement activities were recorded for 3 min. Rates of behaviour during these postconflict periods were compared to rates during 3-min baseline periods not preceded by aggression. Bystanders engaged in quadratic interactions by increasing affiliation with other bystanders following aggression. Bystanders directed affiliation to nonkin bystanders that were their preferred social partners. Displacement activities of bystanders were significantly higher during postconflict intervals compared to baseline intervals, and bystander displacement activity levels before affiliative contact with other bystanders were significantly higher than after contact. Apparently, bystanders become tense or anxious after witnessing aggression and affiliate with preferred partners to reduce the arousal.

Abstract: Th e applicability of the concept of dominance was investigated in a captive herd of &#63045;&#63049; Icelandic
horses and &#63048; ponies of diff erent breeds. Eight out of &#63045;&#63043; behaviours possibly related
to dominance occurred frequently enough to be investigated in detail. For these eight agonistic
behaviours the coverage, the unidirectionality in the exchange, and the degree of
transitivity (Landau`s linearity index) were calculated. Four off ensive behaviours, together
with avoidance, were suitable for further analysis with regard to dominance. Th e patterns
of asymmetries with which these behaviours were exchanged were suffi ciently similar as to
justify the application of the dominance concept and to construct a (nearly) linear dominance
hierarchy. Th e rank order of the castrated stallions was completely linear, the hierarchy
of the mares was almost completely linear. Th e results suggest that off ensive and defensive
aggressive behaviours should be treated separately and that the concept of dominance
is applicable. However, ritualized formal dominance signals between adult horses appear to
be (almost) absent. Th e rank positions of the individuals were correlated with age and residency
in the herd but not with height. Middle ranking horses tended to be more frequently
in the close vicinity of another horse than high ranking or low ranking horses. Over and
above this correlation at the individual level, it was found that pairs of horses close in rank
to each other were more often also spatially close to each other. Being in oestrus did not infl
uence the dominance relationships between mares. For castrated stallions the rank positions
were correlated with the age at which they were castrated. Th is suggests that in male
horses experience prior to neutering infl uences the behaviour afterwards.

Abstract: In the analysis of social dominance in groups of animals, linearity has been used by many researchers as the main structural characteristic of a dominance hierarchy. In this paper we propose, alongside linearity, a quantitative measure for another property of a dominance hierarchy, namely its steepness. Steepness of a hierarchy is defined here as the absolute slope of the straight line fitted to the normalized David's scores (calculated on the basis of a dyadic dominance index corrected for chance) plotted against the subjects' ranks. This correction for chance is an improvement of an earlier proposal by de Vries (appendix 2 in de Vries, Animal Behaviour, 1998, 55, 827-843). In addition, we present a randomization procedure for determining the statistical significance of a hierarchy's steepness, which can be used to test the observed steepness against the steepness expected under the null hypothesis of random win chances for all pairs of individuals. Whereas linearity depends on the number of established binary dominance relationships and the degree of transitivity in these relationships, steepness measures the degree to which individuals differ from each other in winning dominance encounters. Linearity and steepness are complementary measures to characterize a dominance hierarchy.