Abstract: In a 2 x 3 factorial experiment we examined the effect of exercise (no exercise/daily exercise) and paddock size (small: 150 m2, medium: 300 m2 and large: 450 m2) on the behaviour of horses. In both these treatment periods nine (three cold blood and six warm blood) adult horses were exposed to all the three paddock size treatments for 2 h daily, for 1 week in each paddock size, and the order of paddock size treatments were rotated systematically. In between turnout in paddocks the horses were all housed in tie stalls. In the non-exercise period the horses walked significantly more, they travelled a longer distance, explored more and stood more alert, than in the period with exercise. The horses stood less passively in the large paddock compared to the medium and the small paddock, and they also travelled a longer distance in the larger paddock sizes. At days with heavy rain and wind, the horses were more restless and walked significantly more than in warmer weather. In conclusion; daily exercise significantly reduced the general activity in the paddocks. Increasing the paddock size to 450 m2, increased the time spent eating grass from under the fence and decreased the time spent standing passively.

Abstract: Weaving is a common locomotor stereotypy in horses, which has been shown to be reduced by the presence of a mirror in the stable; however, it remains unclear whether this effect is due to the reflected image of a horse or some other property associated with the introduction of a mirror. To investigate this further, the response of six known weaving horses to each of three different types of poster was recorded. The poster images consisted of a life-size image of a horse's face (true image), a version of the same image cut into 54 squares, which were then randomly rearranged (pixilated image) and a blank (white image) display of the same size as the other posters. Four observation periods were included in each of the two days of observation per treatment condition: 08:00-08:30 h, 10:00-10:30 h, 12:00-12:30 h and 16:00-17:00 h. The first observation period was followed by the provision of concentrate feed and forage, the second observation period by exercise, the third by further forage and the fourth by concentrate feed and forage. The horses' activities and positions in the box were scanned at 1 min intervals and the number of observations registering each activity and position was calculated as a percentage of the total number of observations for each observation period. Weaving was significantly less when the horses were provided with the image of a horse's face (mean percentage of observations +/- S.E.M.; 5.56 +/- 1.57), compared to both the pixilated (14.85 +/- 3.06) and white (20.52 +/- 4.12) images. Nodding was significantly less when provided with the true image of a horse (0.45 +/- 0.15) compared to the pixilated image (2.15 +/- 0.67). The pattern of weaving throughout the day differed from that of nodding, and together these results suggest that the two behaviours are not analogous. The presence of the image of the horse's face was associated with a significant increase in alertness (F112,2 = 11.31, p < 0.001) and recorded time spent looking at the poster(F112,2 = 3.46, p < 0.05). The timing of stereotypic head movements in the horse in this study suggests that they are not associated with boredom, or lack of stimulation but rather acute frustration.

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: Repeated encounters with unfamiliar conspecifics in large groups of domestic birds create a potentially stressful social environment which can affect the birds' emotional reactivity and consequently their welfare. As social relationships between young quail are particularly influenced by their social motivation (i.e., the motivation to seek close proximity with conspecifics), it is likely that the reaction of quail to repeated encounters with strangers depends on their social motivation. The aim of this study was to assess the emotional reactivity of quail chicks with high (HSR) or low (LSR) social motivation housed under stable and unstable social conditions. Quail chicks were housed either in stable pairs, i.e. remaining with the same cagemate until testing (NHSR = 19 and NLSR = 18 pairs), or in unstable pairs, i.e. changing cagemate daily from 6 to 13 days of age (NHSR = 20 and NLSR = 19 pairs). Emotional reactivity was measured using a novel object test on day 14, and an emergence test and a tonic immobility test on day 15. The social condition affected the number of induction attempts of quail chicks in the tonic immobility test but only in the LSR ones. This number of inductions was lower under the stable than under the unstable social condition in this line. Moreover, the HSR chicks showed greater disturbance than the LSR ones in the three behavioural tests. In conclusion, social instability did not affect the emotional reactivity of HSR quail chicks, which was high, regardless of social condition. In contrast, repeated cagemate changes seemed to decrease the emotional reactivity of LSR quail chicks. These results suggest that low social motivation makes easier the adaptation to the potential social instability encountered in large flocks.

Abstract: Horses frequently react nervously when passing animal production farms and other places with distinctive smells, leading riders to believe that horses are innately frightened by certain odours. In three experiments, we investigated how horses respond to (1) urine from wolves and lions, (2) blood from slaughtered conspecifics and fur-derived wolf odour, and (3) a sudden auditory stimulus in either presence or absence of fur-derived wolf odour. The experiments were carried out under standardised conditions using a total of 45 naive, 2-year-old horses. In the first two experiments we found that horses showed significant changes in behaviour (Experiments 1 and 2: increased sniffing; Experiment 2 only: increased vigilance, decreased eating, and more behavioural shifts), but no increase in heart rate compared to controls when exposed to predator odours and conspecific blood in a known test environment. However, the third experiment showed that exposure to a combination of wolf odour and a sudden stimulus (sound of a moving plastic bag) caused significantly increased heart rate responses and a tendency to a longer latency to resume feeding, compared to control horses exposed to the sudden stimulus without the wolf odour. The results indicate that predator odour per se does not frighten horses but it may cause an increased level of vigilance. The presence of predator odour may, however, cause an increased heart rate response if horses are presented to an additional fear-eliciting stimulus. This strategy may be adaptive in the wild where equids share habitats with their predators, and have to trade-off time and energy spent on anti-predation responses against time allocated to essential non-defensive activities.