When you greet your horse, or simply want to thank them for a nice ride, do you pat them or do you give them a good scratch? If you had to guess, which horse human interaction do you think horses prefer, to be patted or scratched?
Three researchers at Nottingham Trent University asked this very question, and set up an experiment to see if they could determine which interaction a horse preferred.
First, they wanted to find out what people were actually doing. How often did riders pat their horse when riding, and in what situations? What about people are simply handling a horse in a non-riding situation; what is the effect of patting and wither scratching in that situation? Curious? Do you think you already know what a horse prefers? Read about their research below and see if you’re right.
In the study, five frequently handled riding school horses with an average age of 13.4 and five infrequently handled rescue horses with an average age of 10.4 were patted or scratched for four 30-second intervals, each separated by 15 second breaks. In addition, a control period consisted of the handler simply standing next to the horse.
1. How many seconds in total was each horse patted or scratched?
2. How many minutes in total was each horse patted or scratched?
3. How long did the entire test session last?
4. The average age of the horses was calculated to what place value?
The tests were repeated using a crossover design.
Science Talk– crossover design: a repeated process where each horse received different treatments during the different time periods. In this case, the horses ‘cross over’ from patting to scratching during the course of the trial.
How could the researchers tell how the horses were reacting? Each horse was fitted with a heart rate monitor and their behaviour was filmed for the entire test.
In the handling phase of the experiment, heart rate did not differ between treatments, but the unhandled horses had a higher overall heart rate and spent more time alert overall. So, that part of the study didn’t really tell them much about preference.
On to the riding phase of the study; the researchers also looked at the use of patting in a ridden situation, using film footage of 16 horse-rider pairs at the 2012 London Olympics Games competing in dressage.
They collated information on timing, location of patting, and any follow on behavioural reactions by the horse.
Science Talk – collated: to collect and combine (texts, information, or sets of figures) in proper order.
Here are some of their observations:
Three riders interacted with their horses during the test,
15 patted their horse once the test was finished,
with 12 continuing patting for over a minute.
5. What fraction of riders interacted with their horses during the test? If necessary, reduce your answer to lowest terms.
Carl Hester at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
6. What percentage of riders patted their horse after the test was over? Round your answer to the nearest whole number.
7. What fraction of riders continued patting their horses for over a minute? If necessary, reduce your answer to lowest terms.
Nine of the riders patted their horse on the right side. Four of the riders patted their horse on the left, while nineteen percent of the riders patted their horse on both sides at the same time.
8. What percentage of the riders patted their horse on the right side? Round your answer to the nearest whole number.
9. What fraction of riders patted their horse on the left side? If necessary, reduce your answer to lowest terms.
The researchers recorded that 34% of the horses displayed visible behavioural reactions to being patted, with the most common reaction being speeding up their movements. However, the researchers could not definitely say that the reason was due to patting. It is possible that the acceleration could be explained by the rider moving forward in the seat.
10. How many of the horses displayed visible behavioural reactions?
Patting also resulted in more ear movement whereas head lowering was more commonly associated with scratching.
If you think about it, horses in the wild don’t pat each other, they groom each other. Scientists call this allogrooming, and it’s a beneficial part to a horse’s life.
Allogrooming in horses is when two horses bite at each other’s withers, back, and rump areas. These areas are usually difficult for an individual to groom or scratch at individually, and it is fairly common to see two horses allogrooming each other at the same time.
The researchers said this first study indicated that, although patting was frequently used during ridden work, more positive behavioural responses were associated with wither scratching.
Nottingham Trent University researchers Emily Hancock, Sarah Redgate and Carol Hall said patting horses as a positive reinforcer was poorly researched and its origins were unclear, despite being commonplace in equestrian culture.
“Wither scratching could potentially increase horse/human bonding and act as a more effective reward,” they said.
They added that their results called for further investigation with larger sample sizes.
Will this study affect the way you interact with the horses in your life? Knowing how to calculate a horse’s heart rate enables you to have a better understanding of how a horse is reacting at any given moment. If you know how to do that you could conduct a little research of your own!
Here’sa post about a fifth grade science project where three friends’ needed to calculate a horse’s heart rate. You can learn how they did it!
1. How many seconds in total was each horse patted or scratched? Answer: 4 (the number of sessions) × 30 sec = 120 sec. Each horse was patted or scratched a total of 120 seconds.
2. How many minutes in total was each horse patted or scratched? Answer: 120 sec ÷ 60 sec (number of seconds in 1 minute) = 2 minutes. Each horse was patted or scratched a total of 2 minutes.
3. How long did the entire test session last? Answer: 30 seconds + 15 seconds (1st break) + 30 seconds + 15 seconds (2nd break) + 30 seconds + 15 seconds (3rd break) + 30 seconds = 165 seconds. The entire test session lasted 165 seconds.
4. The average age of the horses was calculated to what place value? Answer: Tenths
5. What fraction of riders interacted with their horses during the test? If necessary, reduce your answer to lowest terms. Answer: 3 (number of riders who interacted)/16 (total number of horses) = 3/16. Three sixteenths of the riders interacted with their horses during the test.
6. What percentage of riders patted their horse after the test was over? Round your answer to the nearest whole number. Answer: 15/16 × 100% = 0.9375 × 100% = 94%. Ninety-four percent of riders patted their horses after the test.
7. What fraction of riders continued patting their horses for over a minute? Answer: 12/16 → 3/4. Three quarters of the riders patted their horses for over a minute.
8. What percentage of the riders patted their horse on the right side? Round your answer to the nearest whole number. Answer: 9/16 × 100% = 0.5625 × 100% = 56%. Fifty-six percent of the riders patted their horse on the right side.
9. What fraction of riders patted their horse on the left side? If necessary, reduce your answer to lowest terms. Answer: 4/16 = 1/4. One quarter of the riders patted their horse on the left side.
10. How many of the horses displayed visible behavioural reactions? Answer: 16 × 34% = 16 × .34 = 5.44. Five of the horses displayed a visible reaction to being patted.
Common Core: 4.MD.A.2 – Elapsed time: word problems 4.NF.A.1 – Write fractions in lowest terms 5.NF.A.1 – Write fractions in lowest terms 5.NBT.A.3a – Model decimals and fractions 5.NBT.A.4 – Use place value understanding to round decimals to any place 6.RP.A.3c – Find a percent of a quantity as a rate per 100