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Hall, C. A., Cassaday, H. J., & Derrington, A. M. (2003). The effect of stimulus height on visual discrimination in horses. J. Anim Sci., 81(7), 1715–1720.
Abstract: This study investigated the effect of stimulus height on the ability of horses to learn a simple visual discrimination task. Eight horses were trained to perform a two-choice, black/white discrimination with stimuli presented at one of two heights: ground level or at a height of 70 cm from the ground. The height at which the stimuli were presented was alternated from one session to the next. All trials within a single session were presented at the same height. The criterion for learning was four consecutive sessions of 70% correct responses. Performance was found to be better when stimuli were presented at ground level with respect to the number of trials taken to reach the criterion (P < 0.05), percentage of correct first choices (P < 0.01), and repeated errors made (P < 0.01). Thus, training horses to carry out tasks of visual discrimination could be enhanced by placing the stimuli on the ground. In addition, the results of the present study suggest that the visual appearance of ground surfaces is an important factor in both horse management and training.
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Crowell-Davis, S. L., Houpt, K. A., & Carnevale, J. (1985). Feeding and drinking behavior of mares and foals with free access to pasture and water. J. Anim Sci., 60(4), 883–889.
Abstract: The feeding and drinking behavior of 11 mares and 15 foals living on pasture with free access to water was recorded during 2,340 15-min focal samples taken over 2 yr. Lactating mares on pasture spent about 70% of the day feeding. Foals began feeding on their first day of life. As they grew older, they spent progressively more time feeding, but still spent only 47 +/- 6% of the time feeding by 21 wk of age. Foals fed primarily during the early morning and evening. While grass formed the major proportion of the diet of both foals and mares, they also ate clay, humus, feces, bark, leaves and twigs. Almost all feeding by foals was done while their mothers were feeding. Movement to water sources was frequently, but not invariably, carried out by an entire herd. Frequency (P = .005) but not duration (P greater than .05) of drinking bouts by mares increased as the temperature increased. Frequency was greatest at 30 to 35 C, at which temperature mares drank once every 1.8 h. Frequency of drinking varied with the time of day (P less than .01), being rarest during the early morning (0500 to 0900 h eastern daylight time) and most frequent during the afternoon (1300 to 1700 h). Drinking by foals was very rare. The youngest age at which a foal was observed to drink was 3 wk, and 8 of 15 foals were never observed to drink before weaning.
Keywords: Animals; *Drinking Behavior; *Feeding Behavior; Female; Horses/*physiology; Male; Poaceae; Seasons; Temperature; Time Factors
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Youket, R. J., Carnevale, J. M., Houpt, K. A., & Houpt, T. R. (1985). Humoral, hormonal and behavioral correlates of feeding in ponies: the effects of meal frequency. J. Anim Sci., 61(5), 1103–1110.
Abstract: The effect of meal frequency on body fluid, glucose, triiodothyronine (T3), heart rate and behavior was measured in 10 ponies. A simple reversal design was used in which each pony received one meal/day (1X) for 2 wk and six meals/day (6X) for 2 wk. The total intake/day was held constant. Feeding was followed by a rise in plasma levels of glucose, T3, protein and osmolality. One large meal was followed by significantly greater changes in all of the variables than was a meal one-sixth the size. Plasma T3 rose from 41 +/- 5 (SE) ng/liter before feeding to 43 +/- 5 ng/liter following a small meal, but rose significantly higher, from 39 +/- 4 to 60 +/- 10 ng/liter, following a large meal. Glucose rose from 84 +/- 3 to 109 +/- 7 mg/dl following a small meal and rose significantly higher, from 83 +/- 3 to 154 +/- 11 mg/dl, after a large meal. Plasma protein rose from 6.55 +/- .14 to 6.62 +/- .16 g/dl following a small meal and from 6.45 +/- .14 to 6.99 +/- .11 g/dl following a large meal. Osmolality rose from 227 +/- 1 mosmol/liter before to 279 +/- 1 mosmol/liter following a small meal and significantly higher from 278 +/- 2 to 285 +/- 1 mosnol/liter following a large meal. Heart rate rose from 42 beats/min in the absence of feed to 50 beats/min when food was visible to the ponies and did not rise higher when eating began. There were no significant differences in the cardiac response to one large meal and that to a small meal.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Griffin, B. (2002). The use of fecal markers to facilitate sample collection in group-housed cats. Contemp Top Lab Anim Sci, 41(2), 51–56.
Abstract: The provision of proper social housing is a priority when designing an experiment using domestic cats as laboratory animals. When animals are group-housed, studies requiring analysis of stool samples from individual subjects pose difficulty in sample collection and identification. In this study, commercially available concentrated food colorings (known as bakers pastes) were used as fecal markers in group-housed cats. Cats readily consumed 0.5 ml of bakers paste food coloring once daily in canned cat food. Colorings served as fecal markers by imparting a distinct color to each cat s feces, allowing identification in the litter box. In addition, colored glitter (1/8 teaspoon in canned food) was fed to cats and found to be a reliable fecal marker. Long-term feeding of colorings and glitter was found to be safe and effective at yielding readily identifiable stools.
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Pere, M. C. (1995). Maternal and fetal blood levels of glucose, lactate, fructose, and insulin in the conscious pig. J. Anim Sci., 73(10), 2994–2999.
Abstract: To study nutrition and metabolism in the fetal pig, a chronic catheterization method was developed that allows blood sampling in arteries and veins, at both the umbilical and uterine sources, in the conscious, unstressed animal. A catheter was inserted in the fetal aorta through a femoral artery, and another one was introduced in the umbilical vein. A catheter was put in a femoral artery of the sow so that its end was in the abdominal aorta. A fourth catheter was placed in a uterine vein draining the fetoplacental unit studied. This procedure was applied to 18 Large White primiparous sows at 99 d of gestation. Blood samples were drawn simultaneously using the four catheters before a meal at 103 d of pregnancy, and glucose, insulin, lactate, and fructose were determinated. Glycemia was 2.5 times higher in the sow than in the fetus. The extraction coefficient of glucose by the fetus amounted to 14% of the umbilical supply. The insulin level in the fetal pig was very low ( < 5 microU/mL). Lactate and fructose seemed to originate from the placenta. Blood lactate was 2.6 times lower in the sow than in the fetus, and its extraction coefficient by the fetus amounted to 8%. Fructose in the fetal blood was 2.3 times higher than that of glucose. Fructose was not utilized by the pig fetus. The present results obtained in the fetal pig are comparable to the conclusions drawn from studies with other species.
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Rubin, L., Oppegard, C., & Hindz, H. F. (1980). The effect of varying the temporal distribution of conditioning trials on equine learning behavior. J. Anim Sci., 50(6), 1184–1187.
Abstract: Two experiments were conducted to study the effect of varying the temporal distrbution of conditioning sessions on equine learning behavior. In the first experiment, 15 ponies were trained to clear a small hurdle in response to a buzzer in order to avoid a mild electric shock. Three treatments were used. One group received 10 learning trials daily, seven times a week; one group was trained in the same fashion two times a week and one group was trained once a week. The animals conditioned only once a week achieved a high level of performance in significantly fewer sessions than the ones conditioned seven times a week, although elapsed time from start of training to completion was two to three times greater for the former group. The twice-a-week group learned at an intermediate rate. In the second experiment, the ponies were rearranged into three new groups. They were taught to move backward a specific distance in response to a visual cue in order to avoid an electric shock. Again, one group was trained seven times a week, one group was trained two times and one group was trained once a week. As in the first experiment, the animals trained once a week achieved the learning criteria in significantly fewer sessions than those trained seven times a week, but, as in trial 1, elapsed time from start to finish was greater for them. The two times-a-week group learned at a rate in-between the rates of the other two groups.
Keywords: Animals; Conditioning (Psychology); *Horses; *Learning
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Heird, J. C., Lennon, A. M., & Bell, R. W. (1981). Effects of early experience on the learning ability of yearling horses. J. Anim Sci., 53(5), 1204–1209.
Abstract: Twenty-four yearling Quarter Horse fillies were divided into three groups (I) very limited handling, (II) intermediate handling and (III) extensive handling. At about 14 months of age, each horse was preconditioned for 2 weeks and then run in a simple place-learning T-maze test in which it had to locate its feed. Thirty trials were run daily for 20 days, with the location of the feed changed each day. To retire from the maze, a horse had to meet the criterion: 11 correct responses in 12 tries, with the last eight being consecutive. Horses in Group II required the fewest trials to reach criterion. These horses also learned more and had the highest percentage of correct responses (P less than .05). Mean trainability tended to predict learning ability; however, trainability and trials to criterion were not significantly correlated. Mean emotionality scores indicated a tendency for horses in the intermediately handled group to be less emotional than those in Group I or III. Results indicated that horses with an intermediate amount of handling scored higher on an intermediate test of learning. All handled horses scored higher on learning tests than those not handled.
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Hintz, R. L. (1980). Genetics of performance in the horse. J. Anim Sci., 51(3), 582–594.
Abstract: Criteria used to measure performance, environmental factors that influence performance and estimates of heritability are needed to estimate genetic differences. Published heritability estimates of various measures of performance in the horse are summarized. The average heritability estimates of pulling ability and cutting ability are .25 and .04, respectively. Heritability estimates are .18, .19 and .17 for log of earnings from jumping, 3-day event and dressage performance, respectively. Heritability estimates of performance rates, log of earnings, earnings, handicap weight, best handicap weight, time and best time for the Thoroughbred are .55, .49, .09, .49, .33, .15 and .23, respectively. Heritability estimates of log of earnings, earnings, time and best time for the trotter are .41, .20, .32, and .25, respectively. The heritability estimate of best time for the pacer is .23. The effectiveness of selection will depend on which performance trait is to be improved.
Keywords: Animals; Exertion; Horses/*genetics/physiology; Sports
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Kedzierski, W., Wilk, I., & Janczarek, I. (2014). Physiological response to the first saddling and first mounting of horses: comparison of two sympathetic training methods. Animal Science Papers and Reports, 32(3), 219–228.
Abstract: There is not much research done on the influence of sympathetic training on the emotional reaction
of horses. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the emotional response and the stress level in horses to two sympathetic training methods: (1) with the use of the “round pen technique” (RP), and (2) in which the RP was not applied (SH). Twenty two half-bred Anglo-Arab horses (2.5 years ±3 months of age) were subject to an initial training. Eleven horses were randomly included to the RP method and the other 11 horses for the SH method. Heart rate (HR) and saliva cortisol concentration were measured as indicators of horse emotional arousal and stress level, respectively. The HR values were analysed: at rest, during the habituation period, just after the first saddling and tightening of the girth, during the first time a human leaned over the horse’s back, and during the mounting of the horse. Saliva samples were taken before and 15 min after each training session studied. After saddling, the HR occurred significantly higher when the RP technique was used. The significant increase in saliva cortisol concentration was observed only after the first mounting of the horse. Generally, the use of the RP technique did not involve more important physiological reactions in the trained horses than did the SH method. |
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BROUCEK, J., UHRINCAT, M., ARAVE, C. W., FRIEND, T. H., MIHINA, S., KISAC, P., et al. (2002). Effects of Rearing Methods of Heifers during Milk Replacement Period. Czech J. Anim. Sci, 71(4), 509–516.
Abstract: Fifty-eight Holstein heifer calves were assigned to one out of three treatment groups after having nursed by their mothers for the first week: BN) individual hutch, bucket with nipple n=25; DF)loose housing pen, machine milk feeder, n=16; NC) loose housing pen, nursing cow, n=17. After weaning at 8 weeks, all calves were kept in group pens. At 15 weeks of age, the behaviour in the 6-unit maze (16.4 – 4.5 m) was determined. On the first observation day, the calves were tested five times (the first one for training); on the second day there were four runs. The calves had to solve two tasks. In task A, the passage was open on the left side, and on the right side (task B) on the next day. We were testing the following hypothesis: the speed of traversing the maze is affected by the rearing system. The slowest were NC calves. On the first day (task A), the average time to traverse the maze among treatments DF (43.9 s), BN (53 s) and NC (111.3 s) was different (F = 8.26*, P = 0.0007). On the second day (task B), the averages were: BN 77.1 s, DF 83.8 s and DC 166.6 s (F=8.17*, P = 0.0008). The results indicate that the feeding method and housing used to rear calves may have a significant impact on their maze behaviour.
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