Abstract: In contrast to the great similarity in behaviour and ecology of the 6 extant Equid species, 2 distinct types of social organisation have evolved, and both are adapted to life in semi-arid to arid regions where environmental conditions force them to migrate seasonally or opportunistically.
The ranges of the various species overlap: Mountain Zebra Equus zebra and Plains Zebra E. quagga in South Africa and Namibia, Plains Zebra and Grevy's Zebra E. grevyi in Kenya and Ethiopia, Grevy's Zebra and African Wild Ass E. africanus in Ethiopia, Asiatic Wild Ass E. hemionus and Przewalski Horse E. przewalski in Mongolia and China. Although, in the overlap zones, individuals of the different species are using the same resources like water and grazing next to each other, they rarely make closer contacts.
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In the type 1 species, Horse, Plains Zebra and Mountain Zebra, the adults live in non-territorial, stable, one-male families and as single bachelors and in bachelor groups. Family stallions have the exclusive mating rights with the mares in their harems. These consist of up to 6 unrelated mares plus their offspring, totalling up to 20 members.
Mares stay in their harem until death. Stallions' tenure is from age 5-6 years, i.e. when they succeed in controlling a harem, for close to life time, but are replaced when dead or incapacitated. Harems are stable even in the absence of a stallion, indicating voluntary membership. Adolescent mares leave their parental families to become members of another harem.
In Plains Zebra the adolescent mares are abducted, during an oestrus, by suitors who fight the defending family stallion/father. Successful stallions are bachelors who start a family, or family stallions enlarging their harem. Young stallions leave their parental families voluntarily at age 2-3 years and join bachelor stallion groups from where the family stallions are recruited.
An individualised dominance hierarchy excists with the stallion in the alpha position. It is based on individual knowledge and recognition of the members.
In the type 2 species Grevy's Zebra, African Wild Ass and Asiatic Wild Ass adult stallions monopolise territories in which they have the exclusive mating rights. Stallions are tolerant of any conspecifics entering their territory. Bachelor stallions behave subordinately – or fight for the possession of the territory which is a prerequisite for reproduction.
Mares join up to form anonymous and unstable groups or herds. The only stable unit is of a mare and her offspring. In Grevy's Zebra mares with foal join preferentially conspecifics of the same soial status, as do mares without foal.
Matings take place inside the territory. There is no lasting relationship of the mare with a particular stallion, and the mare may be mated by any stallion whose territory she is visiting.
Territories measure up to 10 or more square kilometres, and tenure is for several years.
Grevy Zebra territorial owners leave their territories for a few hours to visit a water hole, or for months when grazing and water conditions are below requirements, and re-occupy it upon return, unchallenged.

Abstract: Animals with eyes placed laterally on their head would respond differently to stimuli detected on their different sides. Visual cues from the left eye are processed in the right hemisphere which controls the intensive emotion expression and fast response to the stimuli, while the left hemisphere receiving the information from the contralateral eye is responsible for the routine behaviour and concentration. Different use of left/right eye for exploring environment and evaluation of different stimuli was recently described in domestic horses. They use left eye predominantly for watching novel object or frightening stimulus which indicates specialization of right hemisphere (RH) for appraisal of these types of stimuli. We presumed such lateralisation also in foals during suckling when only monocular vision can be employed for observing surroundings (foals suck mostly in antiparallel body position). Two mutually exclusive hypotheses about the origin of probable foal’s preference for particular suckling side were postulated: 1) visual lateralization, then the foals should suck more often from the mother’s right side (‘from right’), so as potential danger would be detected by the better adapted right hemisphere (i.e. left eye); 2) motor lateralization (the analogous concept as human “handness”), then a foal should suck predominantly from one side, either left or right, more often. Within two seasons, suckling behaviour of 59 Kladruby mares giving birth to 79 foals was observed from deliveries to abrupt weaning (4-7 months of age). From 10 607 recorded suckling solicitations, 50.2% were performed from right, thus there was no preference of the suckling side on a population level. However, we found large variability in the probability of suckling from right among individual foals (p<0.0001); the probability ranged from 0.22-0.98. One third of the foals (35.4%) showed strong, either right (N=13) or left (N=15) side preference which further strengthened with age (interaction suckling side preference*foal’s age: p<0.0001). Other tested variables, i.e. sex of the foal, age of the mother and identity of the herd were not significant. The probability that the mother rejected foal’s suckling solicitation (N=108) did not differ according to the suckling side (right/left) or suckling side preference (right/left/no preference). Suckling bout duration was not significantly influenced neither by the suckling side nor suckling side preference regardless the mother or the foal terminated the suckling bout. In conclusion, only 16 % of the foals revealed significant right side preference for suckling while 19 % left side and 65 % no preference. Thus, we can reject the visual hypothesis because a general trait to suck with left eye open for better danger detection and recognition is unlikely to occur, at least in up to 7 months old foals. Such a young foal is probably fully focused on suckling and relies on mother’s vigilance. Observed individual side preferences indicated more likely a kind of motor lateralization in part of the foals. Further research is needed to clear up the effects of age and individual experience of the foal. Supported by AWIN, EU FP7 project No. 266213.

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Abstract: The objective of the study was to analyze certain factors influencing the condition of free-ranging Konik Polski horses in a fenced area measuring 200 ha located in the Biebrza National Park (Biebrza NP). The Body Condition Scoring system (BCS) was used not only as means of assessment of health and fitness of the horses but also for evaluation of the quality and productivity of the grazing area selected for horses, as well as stocking rate. Body Condition Scoring was determine with a 9-point scale by averaging the scores that were assigned to each of the six body areas that are most responsive to changes of body fat (Hennecke, 1983). The condition of horses was assessed 7 times from February 2009 to December 2011 on a total of 59 horses (3 stallions (n= 12 observations), 21 females 3–8 year olds (n=81) and 35 youngsters (up to 2 year olds) (n=88). The number (from 1 to 3) and composition of family bands varied throughout the period of investigation. The horse population in the Biebrza NP consist of horses from 3 different breeding centers. The analysis of variance (GLM) was used to investigate the effects of the fixed factors – weather conditions, family band, breeder of the horses, age and sex, on the mean of BCS points of horses (SPSS, version 19.0). The most important factor influencing the condition of free-ranging Konik Polski horses in the Biebrza NP were weather conditions, what is shown by the data concerning temperature from 3-month period preceding condition scoring (P < 0.01). This factor influenced not only animals, but also vegetation characteristics. The highest BCS means of horses (5.09) were achieved when average temperature during the 3-month period preceding condition scoring amounted between +1 to +8°C, and was better than obtained when average temperature amounted +18°C (4.80). The last temperature seems too high for horses and can be connected also with other factors, like high incidence of insects which could deteriorate grazing activity of animals. The lowest BCS means (4.56) were obtained when mean temperature was below 0°C. Other factors had no significant effect on the BCS means. As concern to breeder, the highest BCS means achieved mares from Popielno (5.08) – the oldest Polish free-ranging population of Konik Polski horses, which confirms that horses from this breeding center are justly considered to be the toughest and well adapting to difficult environmental conditions. The horses from the Biebrza NP achieved also high BCS means (4.79) which prove that they were well suited to the specific conditions of this habitat, which is overgrown mostly with forest – 73,7%, and willow and birch shrubs – 13,3% of area. The grazing area measures about 40 hectares and consists of wetlands dominated by sedges (Carex sp.). The horses moved from the Seven Island Reservation to Biebrza NP achieved the poorest results as far as adaptation to the conditions of the new habitat, and reached the lowest BCS means (4.57). The youngest horses (up to 2 year olds), 3-5 year olds, and 6-8 year olds had similar BCS means (respectively 4.94, 4.83, 4.68) which indicates good acclimatization of horses from different age categories to the grazing resources in the Biebrza NP. The highest means achieved by youngest horses indicate important trait of Konik Polski horses – mare`s careful care of offspring. The BCS means of horses from different family groups show the highest value of horses from family group of the most experienced stallion – Mrok (4.97). In every BCS scoring, stallions achieved the highest means, which was the reason to exclude their results from analysis. The results of this study suggest that the Body Condition Scoring of horses in the Biebrza National Park depends primarily on the acclimatization of horses to harsh environmental conditions and less importantly to belonging to a specific breeder, family band, age or sex.

Abstract: The interaction of horses with humans is a dynamic state, but it is not clearly understood how horses perceive humans. Nervousness is transmissible from humans to horses indicated by increased horse heart rate (HR), however no studies have investigated whether horses can differentiate between humans who are physiologicallystressed (eg. after exercising) as opposed to psychologically-stressed (eg. feeling nervous/afraid). Horses (N=10) were randomly subjected to each of four treatments: 1) no human [control], 2) a calm human comfortable around horses [CALM; N=2 humans], 3) a physically-stressed human [PHYS; human exercised to reach 70% of maximum HR; N=2 humans], and 4) a psychologically-stressed human [PSYCH; human who was nervous around horses; N=14 humans]. Humans ranked themselves on a scale of 1-10 for their nervousness around horses. Both humans and horses were equipped with a HR monitor. Behavioural observations of the horses [gait, head position relative to the withers, distance from human, orientation toward human] were recorded live. Horses were allowed to wander loose in a round pen for 5 minutes of baseline recordings, at which time the human subject entered the round pen, stood in the centre and placed a blindfold over his/her eyes. The human remained in the centre of the round pen for an additional 5 minutes. Horse HR during control did not differ from when the human was present in the CALM and PSYCH treatment, and was lower during the PHYS treatment (51a vs 54a vs 55a vs 45b bpm for control, CALM, PSYCH and PHYS respectively; a,b differ p<0.0001). Over the 5 minute test period, horse HR decreased in PHYS and PSYCH (p<0.01) whereas it increased in CALM (p<0.0001). Horse HR decreased with increasing human rank of nervousness around horses (p=0.0156), and horses stood nearer to the human when they faced the human (p<0.0001) regardless of treatment. Horses moved at a faster gait in the control treatment, and their gait was slowest in the PSYCH treatment (p<0.0001), and the horse’s head position was lower in the PHYS and PSYCH treatments compared to CALM or baseline (p< 0.0001). A lower horse head position was positively correlated to a lower horse HR (p<0.0001) and negatively correlated to horse age (p<0.0001). Human HR was affected by treatment, with PHYS having the highest HR (p<0.0001). Human HR increased when the horse was facing away from the human, even though the human was blindfolded (p=0.0395). Overall, horses appear to be influenced by the physiological and psychological state of a human without any direct contact. Horses’ posture does reflect their physiological state. Understanding how horses react to human physiological and psychological states is especially important in equine-assisted activities, where the response of the horse has specific implications for the human participant.