Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The breeding goal for The Swedish Warmblood horse is a performance-oriented temperament with good riding ability, which makes the horse competitive internationally in the different contests. It could be assumed that horses with high competitive temperament are more sensitive, and have higher reactivity towards the environment, human handling and new objects. Thus, making them harder to break and educate. The primary aim of this study was to investigate if a handling test could be used as a prognostic tool to predict how a horse would react during the break in. While the secondary aim of the study was to investigate if by judging the horse’s reactivity, cooperation and relaxation compile how the individual horse would react during break in. In this study five two-year old horses, two mares and three geldings, was used during a period of eight weeks, in which they were handled and broken in. Three handling test was performed; one test before the breaking in process, the second during the breaking process, and the third after the horses were broken in. During the first two tests, the horses where led through the course with unknown handlers with experience of horse handling, and at the third test the horses were led by a person with no earlier experience with horses where used. There were no differences between horses in results from the handling tests, but the handler with no earlier experience of horses affected the horses during the last test, and the horses scored lower points. The conclusion of the study was that the handling test couldn’t be used to determine how the horses would behave during the period of the break in, but it was concluded that a person with or without experience of handling horses does affects its behavior, when handled.