A semi-feral herd at a U.S. university doesn’t experience many of the health problems seen in domestic horses
A world-renowned researcher said it’s time to rethink common beliefs about horse behaviour.
Education is key to understanding equine behaviour, said Sue McDonnell of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine.
“We’ve really just turned the corner culturally, at least in my part of the world, where people are really beginning to embrace some of the issues that have been on the mind of equine behaviours for a long time,” said McDonnell, who is the founding head of the equine behaviour program at the university’s New Bolton Centre, one of the largest animal teaching veterinary clinics in the United States.
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The behaviour specialist presented her research during the Saskatchewan Equine Expo in Saskatoon Feb. 14.
The talk was hosted by the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan.
McDonnell has published on stallion sexual behaviour and dysfunction and is author of The Equid Ethogram, A Practical Field Guide to Horse Behavior.
Much of what she has learned about the natural behaviour of horses is based on her observations of a semi-feral pony herd at UPenn’s New Bolton Centre.
In 1994, she established a semi-feral herd on 50 acres of pasture land to turn out Shetland-sized ponies: 13 stallions and 13 mares.
Largely undisturbed except for supplemental hay during most winters, the horses breed and socialize as they naturally would, which has allowed researchers to focus on their behaviour from an ecological perspective.
McDonnell said observing semi-feral and feral herds has helped inform practices surrounding domestic horses.
She said domestic horses experience many issues, such as teeth and hoof wear, and gastrointestinal and behavioural problems, that have not occurred in the semi-feral horses.
“There’s something different about how we’re managing that doesn’t bring these problems out,” she said.
A domestic horse’s compromised welfare can be attributed to a lack of understanding of its natural behaviour and less than ideal management, she said.
“Instead of just complaining about what we can’t do for our domestic horses in terms of giving them a richer, more natural behavioural and health experience, horse owners could try and come up with ideas to improve what they can do for horses,” she said.
McDonnell presented what she calls her equine behaviour bucket list — 10 concepts of natural horse behaviour, which she wishes every horse owner (and veterinarian) understood.
“Most of these points, I make them because they are not widely known and I think that they’re important if people do know them.”
- Horses move a lot — Horses living in natural social groups have evolved to never stop moving or eating for very long. Typical 24-hour movement during activities like grazing, trekking to water or shade adds up to at least 17 kilometres per day.
However, the distance can substantially increase (up to 160 kilometres per day) in relation to the availability of forage, as well as the social interactions of herds depending on the season.
The continuous movement has a positive impact on horses’ overall health and fitness, as well as their natural hoof wear.
- Horses evolved as trickle feeders — Horses traditionally lived in environments where available forages were fairly low in calories and contained high fibre. That means their digestive system is adapted for continuous input, processing and frequent output. They are designed to be moving as they eat.
Feeding concentrated meals with domestic horses can lead to gastrointestinal and behavioural problems like gastric ulcers, colic, cribbing, pacing, weaving and food-related aggression.
Inducing stall grazing by putting hay in different spots allows the horse to move while it’s eating.
- Horses evolved to be slow to show discomfort: As an open plains grazing prey species, horses are hard-wired not to show their discomfort, especially in threatened situations.
Almost any physical discomfort can result in behaviour changes, which may be interpreted as psychological, such as social, learned or normal adaptation to less than ideal environmental conditions.
Common examples could include kicking, stomping, pawing, biting, tail-wringing or slapping, teeth grinding, head-tossing, or self-mutilation at work or rest without appearing to be in discomfort.
One way to find out is to video the horse without anyone present to see if it’s doing more conspicuous discomfort behaviours.
- Serious injuries are rare in horses living under natural social conditions — Few injuries happen in spite of the large opportunity and frequency of interactions and contact among stallions, mares, foals, juveniles and maturing yearlings.
Most serious injuries for domestic horses occur as a result of social aggression caused from unsuited grouping and facilities.
- Horses use distance to signal submission — Most domestic horses in confinement situations do not have the space to express submission by moving far enough away, or get cornered.
Much can be done on farms to address this including paddock size and design, as well as decentralized feeding and watering locations, which will improve the quality of life and reduce injuries for dominant and submissive horses.
- Horses follow the laws of natural learning— Researchers have found that using straightforward behaviour modification techniques adapted to the horse are most effective in regaining and maintaining obedience. Positive reinforcement rather than negative or punishment is more efficient.
Horses are single trial aversion learners, so if they’ve had a really bad experience it’s understandable.
An example might be a frightening experience with a trailer, which they will be scared of next time. Handlers should be more respectful and understanding rather than thinking the horse is misbehaving or stubborn.
- Foals are precocious — Foals born in natural conditions are up and running far sooner than farm-managed conditions, especially with the stallion present. Within minutes of birth, the stallion usually urges the mare and foal to get up and move away from the after-birth site to a series of clean ones.
Foals born within a natural harem social environment are typically healthier, more advanced and develop faster behaviorally than foals born into farm social conditions.
- Stallions are active parents — Under natural social conditions the harem stallion does most of the parenting.
Often quickly pregnant again, the mare focuses on grazing and producing nutrition, while the stallion and older siblings take over other parenting functions, which includes protection and retrieval of wandering foals and even play behaviour.
- Weaning is very gradual — Foals frequently and regularly suckle up to six months of age, as well as yearlings and two-year-olds, and occasionally older offspring that have not left the natal band.
Early or stressful weaning is associated with oral problems such as tongue sucking and cribbing.
Early separation from the dam leads to changes in the structure and neurochemistry of the brain that could later lead to behaviour disorders, including separation anxiety, panic disorders and other neuroses.
- Many behaviours of horses once considered abnormal are actually quite normal — Many classic “undesirable” behaviours are actually normal, such as coprophagy in foals, play sexual behaviour in fillies and colts, and periodic spontaneous erection and penile movements in stallions and geldings.
There are ways to curb certain undesirable behaviours, yet they are natural impulses, said McDonnell. Punishing certain behaviours is not the answer or long-term solution.
