Abstract: With most modern horse husbandry systems, horses’ locomotory behavior is quantitatively as well as qualitatively considerably altered, compared to the slow and continuous movement shown by horses living under conditions similar to those they have evolved under. This lack of locomotion as well as the change in quality of locomotion is thought to be responsible for a number of health issues seen in present day horses. The aim of the present study was to assess behaviour and particularly locomotion in horses kept in a husbandry system specifically designed to stimulate locomotory behaviour in horses. This type of husbandry system is named “Paddock Trail”, (PT) but is also known as “Paddock Paradise”, and the key concept of this husbandry system involves strategic placement of small portions of feed along a track which is an integral part of this husbandry system. For the present study, 11 horses, not used for riding or other activities and kept in one Paddock Trail husbandry system were available. Seven horses used in equine assisted therapy lessons and housed individually in conventional paddock-boxes (IB) served as a control group. Both groups of horses were composed of a similar mixture of horses with regard to age and breeds. Using time-sampling, behaviour of the horses was observed in 8 bouts (4 morning and 4 afternoon sessions) of 5 hours each. In addition, the average speed and distance covered was assessed in 3 (PT) and 5 (IB) horses, respectively, using a GPS system. Since the GPS signal is blocked by buildings and reliable recording would not be possible indoors, the IB horses were recorded only during their work in the therapy sessions. The behavioural observations revealed that the PT horses allocated a larger proportion of time to locomotory behaviour compared to the IB horses (on average 12 vs 3% of the 5 h observation periods; P<0,05), and in turn resting behaviour was reduced in PT horses compared to IB horses (30 vs. 46%; P<0,05). Time spent grazing (10 vs. 8%) and feeding other than grazing (47 vs. 44%) did not differ significantly between the two groups of horses in the two different husbandry systems (P>0,1). In addition, resting and feeding behaviour was influenced by social rank, such that higher ranking horses spent more time feeding and less time resting compared to horses of lower ranks (both P<0,05). Within the 5 hour observation periods, horses of the PT system covered on average a distance of 2,7 km at an average speed of 0,5 km/h. In comparison, IB horses covered during their work in the therapy sessions on average a distance of 2,1 km at an average speed of 3,6 km/h for a duration of 35 minutes. Although the confounding of groups of horses with husbandry system and although the GPS data does not allow for a direct comparison of the husbandry systems and does not cover the entire 24 hours of a day, these data indicate along with the behavioural observations that the PT system stimulates the horses to increase their locomotory behaviour.
Keywords horse, husbandry, paddock trail, locomotion, behaviour

Abstract: We collected data from 248 horses of different breeds, age, sex and use, forming four groups: 74 trotters, 70 gallop horses, 60 horseback archery horses and 44 police horses. All horses were trained and ridden/driven in a regular base. Caretakers or owners who were familiar with the target animals were asked to assess their horses’ temperament. The temperament scores were obtained with the 7-point scale questionnaire according to the Horse Personality Questionnaire which has 25 items and has previously been shown to be reliable for the assessment of personality in horses. It measures six personality components in horses: Dominance, Anxiousness, Excitability, Protection, Sociability and Inquisitiveness.
Component scores were calculated according to Lloyd, A.S., Martin, J.E., Bornett-Gauci, H.L.I., Wilkinson, R.G. (2008) Horse personality: Variation between breeds. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 112. 369–383. The component scores were compared across the four examined groups using the Kruskal–Wallis test. Post hoc multiple comparisons tests were then carried out to explore specific breed differences on each component. The value of alpha was set at 0.05 for all statistical tests.
Groups differed significantly regarding Anxiousness and Excitability, but no significant differences were found regarding Dominance, Protection, Sociability or Inquisitiveness among groups. This finding is in line with the findings of Lloyd et al. (2008) who showed that Anxiousness and Excitability components have the highest level of variation between breeds.In our study, gallop horses had the highest rank regarding Excitability and they differed significantly from police horses which had the lowest rank for this personality component. Interestingly gallop horses had the lowest rank regarding Anxiousness, and trotters got the highest rank in in this component.
According to our results gallop horses are the most extreme in their personality. It is conceivable that being excitable is a more favourable trait for a race horse than for a working police horse. However, it is interesting that trotters are more anxious than gallop horses since they also have a high thoroughbred ancestry. The effect of work and training on these horses needs further surveys.

Abstract: Understanding how groups of individuals with different motives come to daily decisions about the exploitation of their environment is a key question in animal behaviour. While interindividual differences are often seen only as a threat to group cohesion, growing evidence shows that they may to some extent facilitate effective collective action. Recent studies suggest that personality differences influence how individuals are attracted to conspecifics and affect their behaviour as an initiator or a follower. However, most of the existing studies are limited to a few taxa, mainly social fish and arthropods. Horses are social herbivores that live in long-lasting groups and show identifiable personality differences between individuals. We studied a group of 38 individuals living in a 30-ha hilly pasture. Over 200 h, we sought to identify how far individual differences such as personality and affinity distribution affect the dynamic of their collective movements. First, we report that individuals distribute their relationships according to similar personality and hierarchical rank. This is the first study that demonstrates a positive assortment between unrelated individuals according to personality in a mammal species. Second, we measured individual propensity to initiate and found that bold individuals initiated more often than shy individuals. However, their success in terms of number of followers and joining duration did not depend on their individual characteristics. Moreover, joining process is influenced by social network, with preferred partners following each other and bolder individuals being located more often at the front of the movement. Our results illustrate the importance of taking into account interindividual behavioural differences in studies of social behaviours.

Abstract: This study replicated an unreported finding observed in a color perception experiment (Pick, Lovell, Brown, & Dail, 1994) where, after using the method of successive approximations to train a blue-gray discrimination, red-gray trials were initiated without further training. Although a gray choice had never been reinforced, the subject chose gray on the first 20 trials (p < .000001). In the study reported here, a horse was trained to approach a red feed bucket and not a green feed bucket. After the subject mastered the discrimination, a blue bucket was substituted for the previously reinforced red bucket. With double-blind controls in place, the subject chose the unreinforced green bucket on 15 out of the first 20 blue-green trials yielding a binomial p = 0.0148 that this outcome could be due to chance alone. These results are contrary to all behavioristic psychological learning theories, but consistent with prospect theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979). Prospect theory predicts that given a choice between two previously unreinforced stimuli, one familiar and the other novel, humans will choose the familiar. It is argued that the bias toward the familiar is the basis to a heuristic that has a genetic origin and should exist in other animals on the phylogenetic scale. The results of this study indicate that the heuristic is available at least as far down the scale as the horse. Conceptual replications using shape stimuli and sound stimuli are in progress.

Abstract: The proliferation of genetically modified mouse models has exposed phenotypic variation between investigators and institutions that has been challenging to control1-5. In many cases, the microbiota is the presumed culprit of the variation. Current solutions to account for phenotypic variability include littermate and maternal controls or defined microbial consortia in gnotobiotic mice6,7. In conventionally raised mice, the microbiome is transmitted from the dam2,8,9. Here we show that microbially–driven dichotomous fecal IgA levels in WT mice within the same facility mimic the effects of chromosomal mutations. We observed in multiple facilities that vertically-transmissible bacteria in IgA-Low mice dominantly lowered fecal IgA levels in IgA-High mice after cohousing or fecal transplantation. In response to injury, IgA-Low mice showed increased damage that was transferable by fecal transplantation and driven by fecal IgA differences. We found that bacteria from IgA-Low mice degraded the secretory component (SC) of SIgA as well as IgA itself. These data indicate that phenotypic comparisons between mice must take into account the non-chromosomal hereditary variation between different breeders. We propose fecal IgA as one marker of microbial variability and conclude that cohousing and/or fecal transplantation enables analysis of progeny from different dams.