Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

As a prey animal, living life in groups has been a crucial part in the evolutionary survival of horses (Equus caballus), which has been enabled by their social behavior. In the wild, horses live in small, socially stable bands with established hierarchies. The social bonds are maintained by affiliative behaviors such as allogrooming, and aggressive behaviors are rare. Horses’ social behavior can be affected by outer factors such as access to highly valued resources, available space, group size and composition. This, and the management of housing and feeding of domestic horses, can in turn affect the feeding behavior.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how the social interactions were affected by a housing system with a feeding table, by comparing aggressive and affiliative behavior around and outside of feeding. How the interactions express themselves based on group size, sex and feed ratio was also investigated, as well as how the horses positioned themselves at the feed table in relation to other individuals.

The results show that there was a significantly higher frequency of aggressive behaviors at feeding, than outside of feeding. The affiliative behaviors on the other hand had a much higher occurrence than the aggressive, which has been interpreted as a sign of satisfactory conditions in this housing system. When positioning themselves at the feed table the results show that the horses for the most part stood right next to each other or with one empty feeding slot in between. This can be explained by the presence of a highly valued resource in a small area. The results also show that when the number of horses was four, and when the feed ratio was 5 kg feed/horse, the highest frequency of aggressive behaviors at the feed table was detected. Geldings were slightly more aggressive than mares, and mares were more affiliative toward each other.

In conclusion, further research needs to be done to be able to say more definitely how this system affects the horses’ wellbeing.