Project highlights

Group composition

• Gender composition (groups of geldings and mares or mixed sex groups) does not seem to affect aggression level, spacing between horses or injuries.

Jørgensen, G.H.M., Borsheim, L., Mejdell, C.M., Søndergaard, E. & Bøe, K.E. (2009). Grouping horses according to gender - Effects on aggression, spacing and injuries. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 120, 94-99.

Mixing unfamiliar horses

• Injury incidence was very low and those injuries were only superficial immediately after mixing unfamiliar horses in a paddock. Aggressive interactions between horses mainly consisted of threats.
• Pre-exposing young horses in neighbouring boxes has the potential to lower aggression of the type that involves physical contact (biting) immediately after mixing. This effect was less pronounced in older and more socially experienced horses.

Hartmann, E., Winther Christensen, J., Keeling, L.J. (2009). Social interactions of unfamiliar horses during paired encounters: Effect of pre-exposure on aggression level and so risk of injury. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 121, 214-221.

Hartmann, E., Rundgren, M., Keeling, L.J. (in press). Comparison of 3 methods for mixing unfamiliar horses (Equus caballus). Journal of Equine Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research.

Stable versus dynamic groups

• There was no difference between horses in stable and dynamic groups in the likelihood of behaviours to occur and in the risk of injuries caused by physical aggression.

Søndergaard, E., Christensen, J. W., 2009. Stable versus unstable groups of horses – effects on social behaviour and injuries. In: Proceedings of the 21st Nordic Symposium of the International Society for Applied Ethology, Bjerringbro, Denmark, p 20.

 

 

Separating horses from groups

• Separating a horse from its group can be considered relatively safe and unproblematic, but being stationary for longer periods may put the handler and potentially the horse being led in an unsafe situation as other horses can gather around and interfere.
• A greater proportion of loose horses followed when two horses were taken out of the group, compared to one horse.

Hartmann, E., Søndergaard, E., Keeling, L.J. Identifying potential risk situations for humans when removing horses from groups. Manuscript.

Training methods for social separation

• It was not effective to train naïve young horses to social separation initially with a familiar companion because these horses seemed to have to re-learn being in the training situation in the absence of the partner.

Hartmann, E., Christensen, J.W., Keeling, L.J. (in press). Training young horses to social separation: Effect of a companion horse on training efficiency. Equine Veterinary Journal.