Positive interactions lead to lasting positive memories in horses, Equus caballus
Social relationships are important in social species. These relationships, based on repeated interactions, define each partner’s expectations during the following encounters. The creation of a relationship implies high social cognitive abilities which require that each partner is able to associate the positive or negative content of an interaction with a specific partner and to recall […]
Horses’ learning performances are under the influence of several temperamental dimensions
Learning performances are influenced by many factors, not only breed, age and sex, but also temperament. The purpose of this study was to understand how different temperamental dimensions affect the learning performance of horses, Equus caballus. First, we carried out a series of behavioural tests on 36 Welsh ponies aged 5–7 years to measure five […]
Suckling behaviour in domestic foals and the development of abnormal oral behaviour
We investigated how the behaviour of domestic foals, Equus caballus, living at pasture with their dams was associated with foal gender, mare rank and the development of abnormal oral behaviour, both during the preweaning period, and over a period of up to 4 years postweaning. A population of 186 foals belonging to private owners and […]
Seasonal variations in daily rhythms of activity in athletic horses
Circadian rhythms reflect extensive programming of biological activity that meets and exploits the challenges and opportunities offered by the periodic nature of the environment. In the present investigation, we recorded the total activity of athletic horses kept at four different times of the year (vernal equinox, summer solstice, autumn equinox and winter solstice), to evaluate […]
Temperament in preweanling horses: Development of reactions to humans and novelty, and startle responses
The purpose of this study was to investigate the development and the stability across situations and over time of three temperament traits in young foals: propensity to react to humans, propensity to react to novelty, and propensity to react to suddenness. In a comparative study, we examined the reactions of animals in three independent groups […]
Behaviour of horses in a judgment bias test associated with positive or negative reinforcement
Moods can influence our judgment of ambiguous stimuli as positive or negative. Measuring judgment bias in animals is a promising method to objectively assess their emotional states. Our study aimed to develop a cognitive bias test in horses, in order to assess the effect of training using positive reinforcement (PR) or negative reinforcement (NR) on […]
MOTIVATION, STRESS AND LEARNING CRITICAL CHARACTERISTICS THAT INFLUENCE THE HORSES’ VALUE AND TRAINING METHOD – A REVIEW
Equine husbandry is carried out in an environment unnatural to horses, which enforces their adaptation to artificial conditions. Besides housing conditions, the management and human-horse relationship is very important for both human safety and a high level of animal welfare and performance. This would not be possible if horses were not able to learn. For […]
Do horses with poor welfare show ‘pessimistic’ cognitive biases?
This field study tested the hypothesis that domestic horses living under putatively challenging-to-welfare conditions (for example involving social, spatial, feeding constraints) would present signs of poor welfare and cooccurring pessimistic judgement biases. Our subjects were 34 horses who had been housed for over 3 years in either restricted riding school situations (e.g. kept in single […]