Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Expectation for future events, anticipation, is formed through predictable
conditioned events and emotional memories. Learning quickly which events have
led to positive or negative outcomes, the horse is for example able to seek
favourable resources and avoid danger which favours the survival of horses. In the
context of human-horse interaction, horses can communicate through contact
seeking or avoidance which events with human they have experienced positively or
negatively.
This pilot study aimed to find out if the four treatments would lead to differences
in anticipatory behaviours that could be used to interpret underlying emotional
states. This was done by classically conditioned signals that predicted four different
treatments (two positive and two negative). In contrast to the expectations, there
was no statistically significant differences in behaviour during the anticipation
periods which could suggest some emotional overlap between treatments. Despite
the statistical insignificance, some behaviours might suggest positive and negative
association to humans and could be used in future studies. We discuss then more
the advances and limitations of this test protocol as well as the practical implications
of the results for horse-human interactions.