Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Horses are social animals that in the wild live in harem groups with one or several dominant stallions, several mares, and their young offspring. There are also bachelor stallion groups with several stallions, horses are rarely solitary in the wild. Stallions in captivity are mainly kept under solitary conditions. This study aims to look at what consequences solitary husbandry might have for the stallion’s welfare and what behaviour the stallions express in pasture. Ten stallions were observed in this study, five solitary and five who were kept in a group with other horses.
Our study shows that solitary stallion’s time-budgets differ from that of stallions in groups. They use less time for foraging. They use different coping mechanisms for handling the stress that solitary husbandry puts on them. Some run along the fence, some power walk and others become withdrawn and interact less with their environment. Which of these horses that are most stressed cannot be determined by this study. Stallions in solitary husbandry have poorer welfare than those kept in groups.
Since solitary stallions eat less it might be possible that the rumour that stallions are hard to keep in good condition have more to do with the solitary husbandry than the fact that they are stallions. They might both obtain better welfare and be easier to keep in good condition if they are kept in groups.