Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Today it is common to have adult horses stabled for most of the day. This limits the horses’ ability to perform some of their natural behaviors such as foraging and movement. The purpose of this review was to compare the feral horses’ diurnal rhythm and time budget with stabled horses. The study also examines whether it has consequences to change the time budget.
Feral and stabled horses with free access to forage have a similar time budget, while there are differences between these and stabled horses with limited access to forage. Instead of eating the stabled horses with limited amount of forage often spend time to stand passive, but they can also develop different stereotypes. These behaviors reflect deficiencies in the feeding or stable environment. There are many ways that stable environment and routines can affect the time budget and daily rhythm; including choice of feed, feed quantity, form of environmental enrichment but also the amount of exercise and the paddock size are of importance.
It was concluded that there is no significant difference between feral and stabled horses’ time budget and daily rhythm, provided that the stabled horses are able to search or eat feed a large part of the day. With a limited amount of forage, it will be large difference in time budget between stabled and feral horses. It is the people that affect the time budget by the feed and stable routines. The studies interpret that if horses are given the opportunity to follow their natural diurnal rhythm and time budget, they will do that.