Abstract: The relationship between social behaviour and skin injuries (caused by horns) of loose housed horned cows was investigated on 35 dairy farms. While the frequencies of two agonistic behaviour elements (push and chase away) were positively correlated with the occurrence of skin injuries, the frequencies of butting and homing were not. Butting appears to have an ambivalent motivation, in that its occurrence is correlated positively both with agonistic behaviour and with social licking. Horning showed a positive correlation with social licking only. Four groups of husbandry conditions that may be associated with the occurrence of social behaviour and of injuries were distinguished: i) herd management, with variables including problem solving management by the farmer, integration of new cows, and dealing with periparturient and oestrus cows; ii) human-animal relationship, with variables including ability to identify individual cows, frequency of brushing the cows, number of milkers, and frequency of personnel changes; iii) animal characteristics, with the variable of herd size; and iv) stable characteristics, with the variable of space per cow (m²). The relevance of the husbandry variables investigated here had been confirmed in a previous stepwise regression analysis (Menke 1996). The variables for herd management and human-animal relationship conditions correlated in a consistent way with the occurrence of agonistic behaviour and/or of injuries, while most of them also correlated in the opposite direction with the occurrence of social licking. Herd size correlated positively with agonistic behaviour, but negatively with social licking. Space per cow correlated negatively with agonistic behaviour and injuries. In more than 70 per cent of the herds investigated, the levels of agonistic behaviour and of skin injuries were low, implying that horned dairy cows can be kept with less risk than is often assumed. We argue that such risks strongly depend on management factors that can be improved.

Abstract: Some behaviours remain a mystery and their determinants are still uncertain. Here we propose a critical interpretation of two puzzling behaviours, i.e. yawning and adult play, recorded in large samples of domestic horses kept in sub-optimal conditions (e.g. time-restricted feeding practices, social isolation). Yawning is involved in behavioural state changes, especially in quiet contexts of motor relaxation, but seems also to be triggered by stress and emotional contexts. Thus, we investigated specific correlates of yawning and stereotypic behaviours in two large samples of working horses (n1 = 87, n2 = 59). A clear co-occurrences of yawning and stereotypic behaviours appeared: stereotypic horses yawned more than the non-stereotypic horses (Fisher test, p < 0.02), yawning increased at the same time periods as stereotypic behaviours did (Wilcoxon tests, p < 0.05 to 0.001) and yawning frequency was even sometimes positively correlated with stereotypic behaviour frequencies (Spearman correlations, p < 0.005). Play, more typical of young stages in healthy individuals, occurs rarely at adult stages but then more often in captive/domestic animals (which can be challenging to welfare) than in animals living in natural conditions. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that adult play may reflect altered welfare states in horses, where, as in several species, play rarely occurs at adult stages in natural conditions. We observed the behaviour (in particular social play) of 29 adult riding school horses during occasional outings in a paddock and measured several stress indicators (health-related, behavioural and physiological) when these horses were in their home individual boxes. Results revealed that the number of horses and rates of adult play appeared very high compared to field report data and that most stress indicators measured differed between “players” and “non-players”, revealing that most “playful” animals were more prone to suffer from chronic stress contrarily to “non-playful” horses (Fisher, Chi-square, Mann-Whitney and Spearman correlation tests, p < 0.05 to 0.001). Altogether, these results show that yawning and adult play can both reflect altered welfare states in horses, highlighting that these puzzling behaviours should not be considered, as currently thought, as reliable indicators of good welfare states and / or expression of positive emotions.

Abstract: A good horse-rider ‘match’ is important in the context of equine welfare. To quantify the influence of repetition and horse-rider matching on the stress of horses encountering challenging objects, 16 Warmblood horses were ridden in a test-setting on three occasions. On each occasion the horse was ridden by a different rider and was challenged by three objects (A–C). Heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV) of horse and rider, and behaviour score (BS) of the horse were obtained for each object and as a total for each test. The horse-rider interaction was evaluated with each combination and assessed as ‘matching’ or ‘mismatching’, and the horses were categorised as ‘compliant’, ‘partly-compliant’ or ‘non-compliant’. Horses exhibited a decreased HR (P = 0.015) and a decreased BS (P = 0.004) within and across different tests. ‘Matching’ horse-rider combinations exhibited less stress as indicated by reduced HR (‘match’ 69 ± 10 vs. ‘mismatch’ 72 ± 9, P = 0.001) and BS (‘match’ 1.9 ± 1.1 vs. ‘mismatch’ 3.8 ± 1.4, P = 0.017) of the horse. ‘Compliant’ (68 ± 8, P < 0.001) and ‘partly-compliant’ (71 ± 9, P = 0.002) horses had significantly lower HR than ‘non-compliant’ (75 ± 9) animals. The findings of the study indicate that HR and BS measurements support a subjective ‘match’ diagnosis and HR measurement may be a valuable tool in assessing horse compliance.

Abstract: Play remains a mystery and adult play even more so. More typical of young stages in healthy individuals, it occurs rarely at adult stages but then more often in captive/domestic animals, which can imply spatial, social and/or feeding deprivations or restrictions that are challenging to welfare, than in animals living in natural conditions. Here, we tested the hypothesis that adult play may reflect altered welfare states and chronic stress in horses, in which, as in several species, play rarely occurs at adult stages in natural conditions. We observed the behaviour (in particular, social play) of riding school horses during occasional outings in a paddock and measured several stress indicators when these horses were in their individual home boxes. Our results revealed that (1) the number of horses and rates of adult play appeared very high compared to field report data and (2) most stress indicators measured differed between ‘players’ and ‘non-players’, revealing that most ‘playful’ animals were suffering from more chronic stress than ‘non-playful’ horses. Frequency of play behaviour correlated with a score of chronic stress. This first discovery of a relationship between adult play and altered welfare opens new lines of research that certainly deserves comparative studies in a variety of species.

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to find convincing arguments, how horses should be ridden correctly, especially concerning the best head and neck position. Currently in the riding world, the opinions differ: The traditional way is to ride a horse with its nose in front of the vertical, while a new method claims that pulling the nose behind the vertical with an extreme flexion of the poll implies “gymnastic movements”. This article is focussed on the welfare and comfort of the horse in different head-neck positions, expressed by behaviours which document discomfort. As a first step, the behaviour of standing horses was observed while their heads and necks were put into seven postulated or frequently assumed positions. In the hyperflexed position the horses displayed most discomfort (with 49,7% of all reactions, like open mouths, head tossing, tail movements and other signs of resentment). The second strongest reactions of discomfort were shown in the highly raised position of the head (34,9%). The moderately rounded neck position as in traditional dressage lessons was not without signs of discomfort either, but less than the other two positions (11,2%). The high position and the extended position did not cause discomfort at all (0,17% and 0,23% respectively). In a second step, horses moving in all gaits under a rider were observed at competitions without the riders´ knowledge. The total number of observations was divided into two categories (each containing 30 horses) on the basis of the common rules of the FN: ridden with the horse’s nose in front of the vertical and ridden with the horse’s nose behind the vertical. The proportion of horses showing discomfort with the nose behind the vertical was clearly much higher (89,3%) compared to those ridden with the nose in front of the vertical (10,7%). Thus, the horses in the first category displayed signs of discomfort 8 times more frequent than those in the second group. In addition, scans carried out at tournaments showed that 92.8% of the horses were ridden with the nose behind the vertical. A clear result of this study is that the reality of riding differs widely from the rules. These results also show that riding in the hyperflexed position causes a great deal of discomfort for the horses and therefore should be abolished.
Die aktuellen Diskussionen in der Reiterwelt, welche Art und Weise des Reitens, besonders welche Kopf-Hals-Stellung zu erstreben ist, werfen die Frage auf, ob und wie die Pferde selbst ihr Befinden zum Ausdruck bringen. Über die Empfindungen der Pferde in verschiedenen Kopfhaltungen ist bisher sehr wenig bekannt. Deswegen wurde zunächst an stehenden Pferden das Ausdrucksverhalten beobachtet. Missfallensäußerungen häuften sich (mit 49,7% aller gezeigten Verhaltensauffälligkeiten wie Sperren, Rückwärtsgehen und Kopfschlagen) in der aufgerollten, hyperflektierten Stellung des Halses. An zweiter Stelle folgten Unmutsäußerungen in der absolut aufgerichteten Haltung (34,9%). Auch die beigezäumte Haltung wurde nicht ohne Unmutsbekundungen hingenommen, hier war deren Anzahl aber wesentlich geringer (11,2%). Die hohe Kopfstellung (0,17%) und die Dehnungshaltung (0,23%) bereiteten den Tieren kaum Unbehagen. Auch das Ausdrucksverhalten der Pferde unter dem Reiter wurde untersucht. Hierfür wurden, unter Berücksichtigung der schriftlich fixierten Regeln für das Turnierwesen der FN, je 30 Pferde in zwei Kategorien beobachtet: mit der Stirnlinie vor der Senkrechten und Pferde mit der Stirnlinie hinter der Senkrechten. Die Beobachtungen wurden unbemerkt von den Reitern auf den Abreiteplätzen von Turnieren durchgeführt. Die Anzahl an Verhaltensauffälligkeiten der Pferde mit der Stirnlinie hinter der Senkrechten war deutlich (89,3 %) erhöht im Gegensatz zu der anderen Gruppe (10,7 %). Die Pferde mit der Stirnlinie hinter der Senkrechten zeigten 8 Mal mehr Unmutsäußerungen als die mit der Stirnlinie vor der Senkrechten. Entgegen den Regeln der FN zeigten die durchgeführten Scans, dass unmittelbar vor den Prüfungen auf Turnieren 92,8% der Pferde mit der Stirnnasen-Linie hinter der Senkrechten geritten wurden. Ein Befund dieser Studie ist die Feststellung, dass die Praxis deutlich von den Regeln abweicht. Das Reiten mit der Stirnlinie hinter der Senkrechten ist nach diesen Befunden abzulehnen, da die Pferde deutliches Unwohlsein in dieser Haltung signalisieren.