Equine Behavior

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Equine Behavior
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What Affects Behavior?

• Environment
• Experiences
• Diet
• Exercise
• Stress

• Genetics
• Gender
• Type
• Breed
• Family group

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• Smell
• Identify other horses
• Mating
• Locate water, feed
• Vomeronasal organ
• Pheromones
• Ears Hearing
• Detect sounds
• Determine location of sound
• To provide sensory information
• Hear in range 14 Hz to 25 kHz (humans 20 Hz to 20
  kHz)
• Auricle 180o rotation
• Ear position generally relates to visual attention

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• Touch
• Responsive to pain, pressure, cold and heat
• Sensitive areas
• Eyes, ears and nose
• Withers, ribs, flanks and legs
• Suffers fatigue  

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VISION

• Primary detector of danger
• Acute ability to detect movement
• Monocular Binocular vision
• Monocular field of vision 215o for each eye
• Binocular field of vision 60o-70o
• Often raise head to observe close objects
• Lower head to observe faraway objects

Monocular field Up to 215o
Binocular field 60-70o
Marginal zone
Monocular field
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Visual Signs

• Ears
• Tail
• Mouth lips
• Eyes
• Nostrils

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Horse BehaviorSocial Organization

• Harem groups Domestic horses, Przewalski horse
  some zebra

• Territorial breeders-Donkeys some zebras

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Social Organization

• Harem
• Family
• Mares
• Stallion
• Bachelor Group

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Ten Natural Survival Traits

• Depends on flight as its primary means of
  survival
• One of the most perceptive of all domestic
  animals
• Very fast response time
• Can be desensitized from frightening stimuli
• Horses forgive, but do not forget

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Ten Natural Survival Traits

• Horses categorize
• A) something not to fear, so ignore or explore
• B) Something to fear, so flee
• Horses are easily dominated
• Horses exert dominance by controlling the
  movement of their peers. Horse accept dominance
  when
• We or another animal cause them to move when they
  prefer not to
• We or another animal inhibit movement when they
  want to flee

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Ten Natural Survival Traits

• The body language of a horse is unique to the
  equine species
• Horse is a precocial species (newborn foals are
  neurologically mature at birth)

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Types of Horse Behavior

• Ingestive behavior
• Eliminative behavior
• Epimeletic behavior -Care-giving care-seeking
  behavior

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Types of Horse Behavior

• Sexual
• Polygamous
• One offspring
• Seasonal Breeders
• Fetal behavior
• Parturient behavior

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Horse Behavior

• Self-care behavior
• Homeostatic influences
• Grooming
• Rest
• Awake 80
• Drowsiness 8
• Sleep 12

• Autogroom
• Mutual Groom

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Types of Horse BehaviorInvestigative Behavior

• Play behavior
• Exploratory behavior

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Types of Horse Behavior

• Allelomimetic Behavior
• Mimicry

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Types of Horse BehaviorAgonistic Behavior
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Types of Horse Behavior

• Dominance/Submission (Social Order)

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Horse Behavior

• Spacing
• Individual distance
• Group distance
• Social distance
• Flight distance
• Home range
• Territorial

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Activity

• Diurnal
• Travel up to 16 km/d (10 mile/d)
• Home range, can be up to 1000 ha.(2500 acres)
• Range 0.8-303 sq. km (0.5-188 sq. mile)

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Average Time Budgets For Horses
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Behavioral Considerations in Equine Handling

• HERD INSTINCT
• HOMING INSTINCT
• FLIGHT
• DOMINANCE HEIREACHY
• TERRITORIAL BEHAVIOR
• SELF-DEFENSE
• HABIT

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Stress

• Good Stress The stressful condition in which
  the horse can find a solution that will relieve
  the stress

• Harmful Stress A stressful condition in which
  there is no possible solution or escape.

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Responses To Harmful Stress

• Habituate
• Develop abnormal behavior
• Permanent fear memory

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Equine Stereotypes

• Oral
• Cribbing
• Tongue movements
• Lip movements

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Equine Stereotypes

• Locomotion
• Head movements (bobbing, tossing, shaking,
  swinging, nodding)
• Throat rubbing
• Pacing
• Weaving
• Fence or stall walking

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Equine Stereotypes

• Locomotion
• Circling
• Stomping
• Kicking
• Pawing
• Digging
• Tail rubbing

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Equine Stereotypes

• Self-Mutilation
• Self-biting (flank, chest, shoulder)
• Wall-kicking
• Lunging into objects

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EQUINE VICES

• AGGRESSIVE VICES
• Biting
• Charging
• Crowding
• Rearing
• Kicking
• Striking
• Fighting

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EQUINE VICES

• METABOLIC VICES
• Coprophagy or dirt eating
• Cribbing
• Mane and tail chewing
• Wood chewing

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