Abstract: Recent results suggest that wild Northern herbivores exhibit signs of a hypometabolism during times of low ambient temperature and food shortage in order to reduce their energetic needs. However, there are speculations that domestic animals lost the ability to reduce energy expenditure. To examine energetic and behavioural responses 10 Shetland pony mares were exposed to different environmental conditions (summer and winter). During winter ponies were allocated into two groups receiving two different food quantities (60% and 100% of maintenance energy requirement). We measured the field metabolic rate, water turn over, body temperature, locomotor activity, lying time, resting heart rate, body mass and body condition score.
In summer, the field metabolic rate of all ponies (FMR; 63.4±15.0 MJ/day) was considerably higher compared with food restricted and control animals in winter (24.6±7.8 and 15.0±1.1 MJ/day, respectively). Furthermore, during summer, locomotor activity, resting heart rate and total water turnover were significantly elevated (P<0.001) compared with winter. Animals receiving a reduced amount of food (N=5) reduced their FMR by 26% compared with control animals (N=5) to compensate for the decreased energy supply. Furthermore, resting heart rate, body mass and body condition score were lower(29.2±2.7 beats/min, 140±22 kg and 3.0±1.0 points, respectively) than in control animals (36.8±41 beats/min, 165±31 kg, 4.4±0.7 points; P<0.05). While no difference could be found in the observed behaviour, nocturnal hypothermia was elevated in restrictively fed animals. Our results indicate that ponies adapt to different climatic conditions by changing their metabolic rate, behaviour and some physiological parameters. When exposed to energy shortage, ponies, like wild herbivores, exhibited hypometabolism and nocturnal hypothermia.
Keywords:
Body temperature, Energy expenditure, Food restriction, Hypometabolism, Locomotor activity, Shetland pony

Abstract: The complex housing environment and the close contact between humans and horses in equine sports place high demands on the learning capacity of horses. To date only limited information is available on the learning ability of the horse including higher order cognition. A type of higher order cognition is to perceive and discriminate quantities. Several mammals and birds have shown to be capable of discriminating objects due to their quantity (Brannon and Roitman, 2003). With regard to horses, there are only few studies available concerning their numerosity judgment (Uller and Lewis, 2009) and this ability is discussed controversially (Henselek et al, 2012). Possibly, the legacy of ‘‘Clever Hans’’ overshadowed further research on numerical capacity in horses, a horse to whom several psychologists incorrectly attributed the capacity of symbolic calculation (Pfungst, 1907; Rosenthal, 1965). In the present study we wanted to show whether Shetland ponies are able to transfer a previously learned concept of sameness to a numerosity judgment. The base of the test design was a “matching to sample” task, where the ponies had learned to relate abstract symbols to another which were presented on a LCD screen. Three Shetland ponies, which previously solved the matching to sample task, were tested in two test phases. In the first test phase different quantities of dots were presented (1 vs. 2; 2 vs. 3; 3 vs. 4; 4 vs. 5). To exclude discrimination due to the shape of the stimuli, the dots were varied in size and arrangement. The stimuli were presented in a triangular arrangement on the LCD screen; the sample stimulus was presented in the middle above and the discrimination stimuli in the two lower corners (S+ and S-). The pony received a food reward, by choosing the positive stimulus (S+). When the negative stimulus (S-) was chosen, the pony entered the next trial. Each learning session consisted of 20 decision trials. To investigate whether the numerosity judgment was transferable to mixed geometrical symbols (tri-, rectangle, rhomb, dot and cross) a second test phase was designed. All of the three Shetland ponies met the learning criterion of the first test phase (80% correct responses in two consecutive sessions) within the first eight sessions. One pony could transfer all judgments to the mixed symbols (up to 4 vs. 5), another pony up to 3 vs. 5 and the third on the level 2 vs. 3. These are the first reported findings that ponies are able to discriminate up to five objects. The numerosity judgment seemed to be easier for the ponies when homogenous objects were presented, than in the case of heterogeneous symbols. The reaction of the ponies occurred within few seconds, suggesting that the animals used subitizing for their numerosity judgment.
Keywords:
Cognition, numerical capacity, numerosity judgment, Shetland ponys
References:
Brannon E, Roitman J (2003) Nonverbal representations of time and number in animals and human infants. In: Meck WH (ed) Functional and neural mechanisms of interval timing. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 143–182
Henselek Y, Fischer J, Schloegl C (2012) Does the stimulus type influence horses’ performance in a quantity discrimination task? Front Psychol 3:504
Pfungst O (1907) Der Kluge Hans. Ein Beitrag zur nicht-verbalen Kommunikation. 3rd edn. (reprint of the original 1983) Frankfurter Fachbuchhandlung für Psychologie, Frankfurt
Rosenthal R (1965) Clever Hans: the horse of Mr. Von Osten. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York
Uller C, Lewis J (2009) Horses (Equus caballus) select the greater of two quantities in small numerical sets. Anim Cogn 12:733–738

Abstract: An ethogram of play behavior among equids was developed. Several key English-language studies on equids were reviewed to derive a preliminary inventory of specific behaviors to be included in the ethogram. Our primary observations were based on a herd of semi-feral Shetland-type ponies kept at New Bolton Center, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Kennett Square, PA. Greater than 100 h of direct observation and photo-documentation focused specifically on play in order to identify play behaviors to be added to the preliminary inventory and to obtain detailed descriptions of each behavior. Additionally, these observations were supplemented with photographs obtained during several years of observational study of this herd for other purposes, and with the cumulative equid observational experience and study notes of the principal investigator with other equid species. An initial draft was sent out to 18 equine behavior colleagues for review. A total of 38 individual behaviors classified into four distinct categories were included in the ethogram. These included object play (14 entries), play sexual behavior (3 entries), locomotor play (14 entries) and play fighting (7 entries). All of the behaviors catalogued from direct observation of the herd were also found in the equid literature. The resulting ethogram offers a practical tool as a field guide or reference for quantitative research and other studies of equid play behavior as well as for teaching of equid behavior.

Abstract: The aim of this comparative study was to gain more information about the excretion of steroid hormones in farm animals. This should help to establish or improve non-invasive steroid monitoring procedures, especially in zoo and wildlife animals. Over a period of 4 h the 14C-steroid hormones (3.7 MBq) progesterone (three females), testosterone (three males), cortisol and oestrone (two males, two females) were infused intravenously in sheep, ponies and pigs. Faeces were collected immediately after defecation. Urine was sampled via a permanent catheter in females and after spontaneous urination in males. A total of 88 +/- 10% (mean +/- SD) of the administered radioactivity was recovered. Considerable interspecies differences were measured both in the amounts of steroid metabolites excreted via faeces or urine and the time course of excretion. Progesterone and oestrone in ewes, and progesterone in mares were excreted mainly in the faeces (over 75%). The primary route of excretion of all other 14C-steroids was via the urine but to a different extent. In general, sheep showed the highest degree of faecal excretion and pigs the least. The highest radioactivity in urine (per mmol creatinine) was observed during the infusion or in one of the next two samples thereafter, whereas in faeces it was measured about 12 h (sheep), 24 h (ponies) or 48 h (pigs) after the end of the infusion. Thereafter the radioactivity declined and reached background levels within 2-3 weeks. In faeces, steroid metabolites were present mainly in an unconjugated form, but in blood and urine as conjugates. Mean retention time of faecal radioactivity suggested that the passage rate of digesta (duodenum to rectum) played an important role in the time course of the excretion of steroids. The information derived from this investigation could improve the precision of sampling as well as the extraction of steroids from the faeces. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that it should be possible to establish methods for measuring faecal androgen and cortisol metabolites for assessing male reproductive endocrinology and stress in animals.