What looks like negative behavior can be your horse’s way of dealing with mental or physical stress. We all have our own ways of dealing with stress, setbacks, relationship woes, demanding workloads and all of the effects these discomforts bring to our minds and bodies. There are countless ways humans will try to distract themselves,…
Success at the top levels of show jumping sport is the culmination of years of careful development. But what patterns exist among the sport’s best equine athletes? For this case study, researchers sought to answer the following questions: Does success as a young horse correlate with success at the top level? How about longevity? Does…
A horse’s basic mental and emotional needs often come second to human needs, competition, convenience and economics. This gives rise to problematic social environments, especially for youngsters that depend on stable social structures to learn how to properly behave ‘as a horse.’
Here’s an article about all things hay-related and that will help you get a solid foundation of understanding for the importance of selecting and supplementing the forage in your horse’s diet.
Evidence suggests that mutual grooming in horses is sometimes used as a way to deal with increases in stress, in what appears to be a kind of “tend and befriend” coping strategy.
Researchers in Australia and New Zealand looked at the central aspects of horse life in determining what should be considered normal for the species. The review team focused in particular on the lives of wild free-roaming horses to gain a better understanding of the impacts of human interventions on the welfare of horses in both…
Horses have made a contribution to mankind’s efforts to colonize the Moon and Mars, by contributing manure for a food-growing experiment.
Today’s jockey position has its origins in both Native American horsemanship and the sprints that gave rise to Quarter Horse racing in the United States. Early riders and their peers likely rode this way off and on throughout the final decade of the 19th century, but, when the position found its way to England, the…
Certain sounds, especially unfamiliar ones, can stop a horse in its tracks. Researchers in Poland wondered whether sound could be used to create a virtual fence.
It is difficult to prove whether horses realize that their own behaviour is the source of the behaviour they are seeing in their reflections. Mirror self-recognition was recently studied in horses by Italian equine behaviourist Paolo Baragl.