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…
A study by the British Horse Society, in conjunction with the Electric Vehicle Association Scotland, sought to determine how well horses could hear electric vehicles and what their reaction to these electric vehicles was.
Pasturing horses can promote better mental and physical health compared to stalling. While pastures allow horses the opportunity to increase their physical activity, factors such as weather may impact whether or not they take advantage of this opportunity. Researchers at Michigan State University evaluated the effects of temperature, humidity, precipitation and wind speed on horse…