Would you call your relationship with your horse a partnership? Being partners means you’ve “negotiated the terms of the relationship,” including your shared goals, according to a leading welfare expert. Winning medals probably doesn’t constitute a shared goal with the horse. But goals that involve living a good life—for both horse and human—qualify as a…
Historically, lameness exams involve watching a horse move, often at the walk and trot, in a straight line or in a circle. New research suggests that a horse gives clues to her soundness even while standing still.
When you’re riding a course or out hacking — your horse’s unique way of seeing the world around him becomes hugely important. It’s a driving factor in what he’ll find scary, and also how (or whether!) he’ll tackle a jump. That means that learning to understand his view, and keep it in mind while you’re…
Stall rest is sometimes necessary for an injury to heal, especially in cases of severe tissue damage (such as tendon or ligament injuries and fractures), but other times keeping horses moving is a better approach. The key is choosing the right exercise for the type and location of the injury. We cannot just tell horses,…
Humans, it turns out, appear well attuned to the whinnies and neighs of horses, showing an ability to understand whether an animal is content or upset.
Horses are able to exert self control to wait for a better food reward. Self-control is defined as the ability to forgo immediate satisfaction in favour of better pay-offs in the future. Researchers assessed the self-control abilities of horses in a simplified delay-of-gratification test in a farm setting.
German zoologist and behaviour researcher Konstanze Krueger and her colleagues, reporting in the journal Animals, said they identified 13 cases of tool use in their study involving twelve horses and a mule.
Understanding horse behavior is an important, but often missing, component of improving equine welfare. This audio podcast features an interview with Dr Kris Hiney about how misinterpretation of equine behaviors can have a significant impact on health and welfare.
Self-control is defined as the ability to forgo immediate satisfaction in favor of better pay-offs in the future. Researchers assessed the self-control abilities of horses in a simplified delay-of-gratification test in a farm setting.
Horses have a much wider thermoneutral zone then humans do. Research has shown this means a fit and healthy unclipped horse typically feels cold only when the weather creates temperatures below 0°C and they feel hot when it reaches 25°C. Humans have a much narrower thermoneutral zone of between 25 and 30°C. So when we…