To stable, or not to stable? That is the question

Goodwin, Deborah, Davidson, Nell and Harris, Pat (2001) To stable, or not to stable? That is the question. ISAZ 10th Anniversary Conference. Human-Animal Conflict: Exploring the Refationships with Conflicts Between Humans and other Animals, Davis, California. 01 - 03 Aug 2001. pp. 14-15 .

Abstract

The horse:human conflict of interests began as a predator prey relationship. When the horse was domesticated it traded its freedom of movement ability to choose its own mates and diet, for a relationship with man where food, protection from predators and health care were provided. However, the ease with which domestic horses can assume a feral lifestyle indicates that the basic biology of its behavior, which ensured its survival for 65 million years, remains relatively unchanged. One of the major changes that domestication has imposed on the horse has been restriction in its opportunity to choose its own food. Many competition and leisure horses are currently maintained under very different conditions from those in which their ancestors evolved. The diet of feral domestic horses includesa range of forbes, grasses and browse species, however, the majority of stabled horses are provided with a single forage. In the trials reported here we offered horses the opportunity to choose between environments with restricted and multiple forage sources available and studied their behavior.
In a series of four replicated trials, twelve competition horses were introduced for five minutes into each of two identical stables which contained either a single forage, or six forages.Their behavior as recorded on videotape and compared using an ethogram of 13 mutually exclusive behavior patterns. At the end of these sessions the horses were allowed a further five minutes to choose between the stables and the duration in each stable was recorded and compared.
Data was analyzed using the Observer 3 and SPSSPCV 8. Square root transformations normalized the data allowing GLM factorial ANOVAs to be used. When in the single forage stable, horses looked out over the stable door more frequently (F=66.0, df=ll P<0.001), moved around the stable for longer (F=161.6, df=ll P<0.001), manipulated straw bedding for longer (F=34.8, df=ll P<0.001), and exhibited a group of other behavior patterns which may have been indicative of frustration (F=8.5, df=ll P<0.05). When allowed to choose between the stables horses were found to spend significantly more time in the Multiple forage stable (t58.3, 10df, P0.001).
In these trials the behavior of stabled horses with single or multiple forages available was significantly different. When allowed to choose between these stables the horses showed a clear preference for the multiple forages table. Further study is required to determine whether these effects persist over longer periods. However, it appears that when horses are allowed to choose a diverse forage diet, more closely resembling the abundance of forage species available in the feral or free-ranging state, these stabled domestic horses preferred the multiple forage stable. As the stable environment restricts much of the horses' behavioral repertoire through social isolation, making the stable environment more diverse through foraging enrichment may represent an important method of promoting the welfare of domestic horses.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Download statistics