Exploring aggression regulation in managed groups of horses<i>Equus caballus</i>

International audienceHorses are highly social animals that have evolved to live in social groups. However, in modern husbandry systems, single housing prevails where horses experience social isolation, a challenge-to-welfare factor. One major reason for this single housing is the owners' concerns that horses may injure each other during aggressive encounters. However, in natural conditions, serious injuries due to aggressive encounters are rare. What could therefore explain the claimed risks of group living for domestic horses? Basing our questioning on the current knowledge of the social life of horses in natural conditions, we review different practices that may lead to higher levels of aggression in horses and propose practical solutions. Observations of natural and feral horses mostly indicate a predominance of low frequencies and mild forms of aggression, based on subtle communication signals and ritualized displays and made possible by group stability (i.e. stable composition), dominance hierarchy and learning of appropriate social skills by young horses. Obviously, adults play a major role here in canalizing undesirable behaviours, and social experience during development, associated with a diversity of social partners, seems to be a prerequisite for the young horse to become socially skilled. Given the natural propensity of horses to have a regulation of aggression in groups, the tendency to display more aggression in groups of domestic horses under some management practices seems clearly related to the conditions offered. We therefore review the managing practices that could trigger aggressiveness in horses. Non social practices (space, resource availability) and social practices (group size, stability of membership, composition and opportunities for social experiences during development) in groups of domestic horses are discussed here. Finally, we propose simple practical solutions leading to more peaceful interactions in groups of domestic horses, based on the knowledge of horses' natural social life which therefore should be enhanced (e.g. ensuring roughage availability, favouring group stability, introducing socially experienced adults in groups of young horses, etc.). The state of the art indicates that many questions still need to be answered. Given the importance of the associated welfare issues and the consequences on the use of horses, further research is required, which could benefit horses ... and humans. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Locomotor Inhibition in Adult Horses Faced to Stressors: A Single Postpartum Experience May be Enough!

International audienceDespite the number of postpartum handling that a newborn experiences, few studies focus on their long-term consequences. In rats, regular long separations from the mother, during the early life, led to modifications of the locomotor activity when the animal is confronted to a stressor. In horses, one component of the behavioral response to stressful situation is active locomotion. We wondered if the routine postpartum handling undergone by foals, would affect their level of reactivity or the way they express their stress, when older. One single prolonged bout of handling just after birth clearly affected later adult expression of stress reactivity. In social separation associated with novelty, handled, and unhandled horses produced an equal amount of whinnies, showing a similar vocal response to stress. However, both groups differed in their locomotor response to the situations. Early handled foals expressed less of the active forms of locomotion than the control group. Our findings highlight the need of further reflections on long-term effects of routine handlings procedures close to birth

The Way to a Man's Heart Is through His Stomach: What about Horses?

International audienceBACKGROUND: How do we bond to one another? While in some species, like humans, physical contact plays a role in the process of attachment, it has been suggested that tactile contact's value may greatly differ according to the species considered. Nevertheless, grooming is often considered as a pleasurable experience for domestic animals, even though scientific data is lacking. On another hand, food seems to be involved in the creation of most relationships in a variety of species. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this study, we used the horse training context to test the effects of food versus grooming during repeated human-horse interactions. The results reveal that food certainly holds a key role in the attachment process, while tactile contact was here clearly insufficient for bonding to occur. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This study raises important questions on the way tactile contact is perceived, and shows that large inter-species differences are to be expected

How to ensure a simple, secure and efficient training of the young horse

International audienceHorses’ education requires repeated interactions with a trainer and training sessions may be special moments during which the horse builds up its own positive or negative representation of humans, depending on the quality of the interaction. Previous works shed light on the beneficial effects of using the maternal influence in order to establish a trustful human-foal relation and facilitate the first education (haltering for instance) of the foal. But, how to ensure more efficiently the learning of more complex tasks such as saddle-breaking? In a series of studies, we demonstrate that: (1) the use of a positive reinforcement-based training improves not only speed of training (learning to remain immobile and undergo several handling procedures, accepting the first steps of saddle-breaking), but also attitude of young horses during training (i.e. less agressive behaviours) and horse-trainer relationship in contexts other than training, with long-term and generalized effects; (2) a negative reinforcement-based training induces conversely an increased emotional state in the horse leading to a less positive relationship; (3) only food reward is efficient as a primary positive reinforcement, as scratching the withers (commonly used as a classical reward in horse training) do not allow real progress in training, nor do it impact on the human-horse relationship during the tests. In conclusion, creating a positive learning situation appeared to benefit both learning and behaviour during the training sessions. It is also essential in order to ensure secure training in horses

Using positive reinforcement to train young horses to cooperate during handling

International audienc

Du poulain à l’athlète : évolution des comportements facteurs de risques

National audienc

The effects of using positive reinforcement in horse training on the human-horse relationship

International audienc

Éduquer le cheval (apprentissages individuels et sociaux)

Notre étude vise à examiner les modes d apprentissage, individuels et sociaux, chez le cheval domestique, Equus caballus. Dans une première partie de nos travaux, nous avons testé la possibilité d utiliser des renforcements positifs et négatifs, sur l acquisition de tâches et l acceptation de manipulations. Nos résultats révèlent que l utilisation d un renforcement positif favorise l apprentissage et l acceptation de manipulations plus ou moins invasives, tout en instaurant une relation homme-animal positive, alors que le renforcement négatif induit chez l animal une émotivité accrue. Dans une seconde partie, nous nous sommes interrogés sur la possibilité d utiliser des modèles sociaux. Les résultats suggèrent que ces derniers peuvent influencer l intérêt que l observateur portera à une tâche mais ne permettent pas de mettre en évidence un réel apprentissage par observation. Enfin, nous avons examiné comment le comportement des chevaux peut être affecté au cours d une interaction par des facteurs liés à l animal lui-même (latéralité, expérience) ou liés à l attitude de l homme (niveau d attention envers l animal). Nos résultats soulignent l importance de prendre en compte ces facteurs lors d une interaction. L ensemble de ce travail révèle que l application des règles classiques d apprentissage peut apporter une lumière nouvelle sur l éducation des animaux.Our study aims to investigate social and individual learning in the domestic horse, Equus caballus. In the first part of our work, we tested the possibility to use positive and negative and negative reinforcements, on the acquisition of tasks and acceptance of handling procedures. Our results reveal that using positive reinforcement facilitates learning and acceptance of more or less invasive procedures, and promotes a positive human-animal relationship, while negative reinforcement induces an increased emotionality. In the second part of our work, we questioned ourselves on the possibility to use social models. Our results suggest that these models can influence the observer s interest in a given task. Lastly, we examined how horse behaviour can be affected during an interaction, by factors linked to the animal itself (laterality, experience), or to our own attitude (visual attention). Our results underline the importance to take such factors into account when we interact with animals. Overall, this study shows that the application of classical learning rules can bring a new light on animals training and education.RENNES1-BU Sciences Philo (352382102) / SudocSudocFranceF

Favoring horses’ positive perceptions of the domestic environment: How does horses’ perception of humans and welfare interact?

International audienceCognition is a concept that deals with how individuals perceive and process the environmental information in order to produce appropriate responses. Humans can be considered as a major element in horses’ immediate environment, especially through the direct workrelated relationship these animals share with humans. However, a large part of the working horses might suffer from negative appraisal of the human-horse interactions, as revealed by the high rates of accidents involving horses reported in professionals. Here we will present a set of results highlighting how suffering from poor welfare (inferred from the presence of severe vertebral problems) could affect horses’ relational behaviour and might even “contaminate” the way horses react to humans in subsequent interactions. This, in turn, might also trigger poor welfare states. Indeed, work stressors have been shown to impact on the daily life of horses outside the work sessions, and repeated interspecific conflicts might, as in humans, lead to psychological stress and poor welfare. Keeping that in mind, we will present training/working practices which trigger good human-horse relationship and welfare states, therefore favoring horses’ positive perceptions of the domestic environment