Abstract: The case of familiarity in equine husbandry is not a topic that has suffered vast amounts of examination. During their lifetime domestic horses will most likely experience multiple changes in their social environment such as being sold, moved, and sent to training amongst other things. In recent years a considerable amount of studies have shown the benefits of group-housing on horses, and familiarity timeframes are of genuine importance in management of such systems.
It is our intension to determine the timeframe a novel horse faces before it is recognized as being familiar in an already established group, what factors are of importance and the level of injuries sustained in the introduction period.
24 2-year old Danish Warmblood fillies were used for this study in two blocks of 12 horses. The familiar horses, titled the K-group, consisted of 16 horses and the U-group, the unfamiliar horses, of 8. The horses came from different studs to ensure no prior contact between the two groups of test animals. They were all raised in stable group-housing systems and thereby accustomed to social interactions between conspecifics.
Prior to pairing the K-horses up, nearest-neighbour observations was performed in the holding paddock to ensure the two horses were in fact familiar and would act as an established group.
8 groups of 3 individuals, 2 familiar and 1 unfamiliar, were held in separate paddocks measuring 80x80m. The horses were within eyesight of the other groups but were not able to have any physical contact.
Behavioural observations were performed for 20 minutes per group upon letting the U-horse enter, and then for one hour per group (3x20mins) every Monday, Wednesday and Friday the following 16 days. On day 0, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 they were tested for individual preference within the group, and on test day 1 and 16 any injuries sustained were also noted. Dominance rank within the groups was determined by a group-feeding test on the last day of observation.
Preliminary results from the first block indicate an overall timeframe of 6-7 days for familiarity to develop, established by observational data such as fading of greeting behaviour and decrease in distance between the three horses in the respective groups. It was also indicated that aggression between horses in the groups is not determined by familiarity but by dominance rank.
Results from the full experiment will be presented.

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.

Abstract: In sport horses, equestrian competitions may lead to increased cortisol release. The competition itself but also a new environment or transport to the events can be considered as stressors. In this study, warmblood sport horses (4-16 years, 4 mares, 2 stallions, 18 geldings) were transported by road for one (t1), 3.5 (t3.5) and 8 hours (t8), (n=8 per group). Heart rate (HR) is an indicator of stress and correlates with cortisol release. Heart rate was recorded with a mobile recording system (f810i, Polar, Kempele, Finland), fixed to a girth around the thorax of the horse and was monitored the day before transport, during transport and 12 hours thereafter. In addition, cortisol metabolite concentrations in faeces were determined in order to analyse adrenocortical activation during transport. Faecal samples were collected three times per day. Cortisol metabolite concentrations in faeces are increased approximately 24 hours after an elevation in plasma cortisol concentrations. Basal HR before transport did not differ between groups (45±2 (SEM) beats/min). During the first 30 min of transport, HR increased significantly (84±6, p<0.001, Kruskal-Wallis-H-test) but did not differ between groups. During the remaining part of the transport, HR was 61±6 beats/min (p<0.001 vs. first 30 min). When HR was analysed for the last 30 min of transport, values for groups t1 and t8 were significantly (p<0.05) higher than in group t3.5. HR decreased to baseline values within less than 30 min after transport and did not differ between groups (30-60 min after transport: 44±3 beats/min). Faecal cortisol metabolite concentrations on the day after transport were elevated compared to pre-transport baseline values in all three groups of horses. Significant differences existed between groups (e.g. 18 hours after transport t1: 91±5, t3.5: 110±18, t8: 136±27 ng/g; p<0.05). Based on HR analysis, horses of group t3.5 had adapted to transport, while the prolonged transport in group t8 again was a stressor. In group t1, which was transported only for one hour, the higher heart during the last 3 min of transport was still part of the initial rise in HR. After an initial increase, heart decreases indicating adaptation of the horse to transport. Cortisol metabolite concentrations in faeces indicate that transport causes adrenocortical activation with the amount of cortisol released depending on the duration of transport. Transport over medium distances appears to no major stressor and a negative impact on the performance of the horse is unlikely. Transport over 8 hours caused the most pronounced cortisol release and HR increases again during the last hours of an 8-hour transport. Transports exceeding this time may temporarily affect the subsequent performance of the horse in equestrian sports.
Supported by Stiftung Forschung für das Pferd

Abstract: In this study, the behaviour of Shetland pony foals after weaning was analysed. Foals were either weaned simultaneously (group SW; n=7) by removing all mares at the same time and leaving the foals as a group or foals were weaned consecutively (group CW; n=4) by removing one mare per day on consecutive days. Behaviour of the foals was observed 3 times per day (6:00-8:00, 12:00-14:00 and 18:00-20:00) from one day before weaning to 7 days (group SW) or 10 days (group CW) after removing the first mare. Vocalisation after removal mares was more frequent in foals weaned simultaneously (d 1: SW 66±37 per 2 hrs) than when mares were removed consecutively at one-day intervals (d1, i.e. removal of first mare: CW 3±2 per 2 hrs). In CW foals, vocalisation was most frequent on the day after removal of the last mare (day 5: 18±6 per 2 hrs), although it was lower than in SW foals on day 1 after weaning. Locomotor activity was highest in SW foals on days 1 and 2 after weaning (maximum 17±6 movements per 2 hrs, p<0.05 vs. CW: <2 movements per 2 hrs at all times). Frequency of defaecation increased to 7±1 per 2 hrs on day 1 after SW (p<0.05 vs. group CW), it was 3±2 per 2 hrs in group CW at the time 3 mares had been removed and was below 2 at all other times in both groups. The time, foals spent in lateral recumbency and in sternal recumbency was reduced to near zero during the two days following weaning (group SW) and the period during which mares were removed consecutively (group CW). Tactile contact between foals was increased in SW foals after weaning compared to CW foals during the period of consecutive weaning. Suckling on other foals increased in both groups for several days after weaning but did not differ between groups. No major changes over time or differences between groups were found for other behaviour parameters. Foals weaned simultaneously lost weight slightly but significantly (p<0.05) within two days after weaning (from 78±11 to 75±10) while no weight loss occurred in CW foals. In conclusion, SW elicited more pronounced behavioural changes than CW in pony foals. Consecutive weaning can be considered a more gentle method than SW and thus may be associated with lower risks and less stress for the foals.

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.