Abstract: Like many other herbivores, in a natural environment equids feed on rather evenly distributed resources. However, the vegetation in their vast habitats constantly changes. If food is plentiful only little competition occurs over food, and in non-competitive situations domestic horses tend to return to the same feeding site until it is overgrazed. In contrast, they compete over limited food for which the social status of the individuals appears to be important. Especially in ruminants several studies have proved an influence of social organisations, rank, sex and the depletion of feeding sites on the feeding behaviour of individuals. However, it is not yet understood whether and how social aspects affect horses“ feeding decisions. Curiosity about the influence of social rank on the horses” feeding decisions between two, equally with high-quality surplus food-filled buckets placed in different social feeding conditions, led us to create the test below. The observer horses were alternately tested with a dominant and a subordinate demonstrator placed in one of the three different positions. We conclude that domestic horses use social cognition and strategic decision making in order to decide where to feed in a social feeding situation. When possible they tend to return to the same, continuously supplied feeding site and switch to an “avoidance tendency” in the presence of dominant horses or when another horse is already feeding there. Thus, the social rank and the position of conspecifics affect the feeding strategy of horses.

Abstract: Previous research on the allocation of scarce resources shows that when people are assigned labels of leader or follower in their group, leaders allocate more of the scarce resources to themselves than followers do. In three laboratory studies, we examine the idea that how people are selected for the leader role (i.e. election or appointment) determines whether leaders take more or equal shares (relative to followers) from a common resource. In a first experiment, we show that participants were more accepting of norm violating behavior by an appointed versus elected leader. In a second experiment, we show that when participants were assigned to a leader or follower role, allocations of appointed leaders differed significantly from those of elected leaders and followers, whereas there was no difference between the two latter conditions. Moreover, elected leaders were shown to feel more social responsibility than both appointed leaders and followers. In a final experiment, we show that when participants were primed with the concept of social responsibility (relative to a neutral condition) no difference in allocations between appointed and elected leaders emerged.

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: The behavior of insects and their perception of their surroundings are driven, in a large part, by odorants and pheromones. This is especially true for social insects, such as the honey bee, where the queen controls the development and the caste status of the other individuals. Pheromone perception is a complex phenomenon relying on a cascade of recognition events, initiated in antennae by pheromone recognition by a pheromone-binding protein and finishing with signal transduction at the axon membrane level. With to the objective of deciphering this initial step, we have determined the structures of the bee antennal pheromone-binding protein (ASP1) in the apo form and in complex with the main component of the queen mandibular pheromonal mixture, 9-keto-2(E)-decenoic acid (9-ODA) and with nonpheromonal components. In the apo protein, the C terminus obstructs the binding site. In contrast, ASP1 complexes have different open conformations, depending on the ligand shape, leading to different volumes of the binding cavity. The binding site integrity depends on the C terminus (111-119) conformation, which involves the interplay of two factors; i.e. the presence of a ligand and a low pH. Ligand binding to ASP1 is favored by low pH, opposite to what is observed with other pheromone-binding proteins, such as those of Bombyx mori and Anopheles gambiae.

Abstract: Each of 104 horses and ponies was approached for catching at pasture by the same human handler in a standard manner, either maintaining human-to-animal eye contact (EC+; n = 51) or avoiding eye contact (EC-; n = 53). A subset of 74 of these subjects were reevaluated 3 weeks later under similar standard conditions except with the eye contact condition opposite to that used in the first round. Nonparametric statistical methods were used to evaluate between subjects (round 1, n = 104) and within subjects (rounds 1 and 2, n = 74) comparisons of successful or unsuccessful catching outcome with EC+ and EC-. Catching outcomes were similar with eye contact condition. Although this study represents a single handler at one study site, results suggest that human-to-horse eye contact may not be an important influence on catching pastured horses. Certainly, further work is needed to better understand the role of eye contact in horse handling.