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Horse behaviour

Before horses were domesticated by people, they lived a life of unlimited freedom. When people started to domesticate them, they gradually had less freedom. This change to their natural lifestyle pattern can be detrimental to their health, and wellbeing, not to mention their state of mind.

The horse’s behaviour is still based on its life before domestication. We have taken a lot away from the horse by completely changing its lifestyle. To compensate for this we need to provide good husbandry and management practices.

Behaviour patterns in horses are individual displays of feelings, emotions and reactions. These are often based on the horse’s age, what sex it is, its particular breed and temperament. Behaviour patterns and disorders can be learnt as well as man-made.

To successfully work with horses, we need to understand their normal behaviour patterns and treat them as horses, not people, dogs or anything else.

Behaviour patterns Nervous behaviour in horses can be inherited or learnt, but is often based on reaction through the senses––sight, smell, sound. Horses also react to your behaviour. So, if you are nervous when dealing with horses, they will react to your behaviour. Therefore, as hard as it may seem, try to relax when you are with them and they will relax with you.

A vice is an undesirable type of behaviour, often caused by modern horse husbandry practices, or improper handling.

Normal behaviour patterns are influenced by:  herd instinct  social hierarchy  body language.

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Main areas of behaviour patterns

Horse behaviour patterns can be divided into eleven individual areas:  wild behaviour  social behaviour  sexual behaviour  maternal behaviour  feeding behaviour  domination  eliminative behaviour  locomotory  exploratory behaviour  thermoregulatory behaviour  resting and sleeping behaviour.

Wild behaviour

In the wild horses live in groups, usually with a stallion as the dominant animal over a group of mares and possible young stock. Their instinct is to survive, as the horse is a prey animal and perceives man as the predator. A typical example of this, is that all horses react in one of two ways known as fight or flight behaviour.

Horses are herd animals and prefer to live in groups. They are referred to as ‘gregarious’ creatures because they like the company of other horses.

In domesticated environments, horses of mixed sex––mares and geldings–– still form strong group or herd bonds with a dominant leader, often a mare. The photo below shows a pair of woodland yearlings.

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Social behaviour

This is the way horses act and interact with other horses. Their social behaviours include:  aggression and submission  forming and reinforcing pecking orders  non-verbal communication––eg body language  verbal or vocal communication.

The most common vocal calls are:  snort––horse has seen something it is afraid of  neigh or whinny––greeting a friend or mate, seeking company when alone  nicker––mare calling her foal, horse response to seeing his owner or food  squeal––affronted, excited  stallion calls, or mating call––mare awareness, showing superiority.

Any of these calls can be given at different times. It is a good idea to distinguish between different vocal calls as they may be indicators of a warning.

Horses who are mates often enjoy giving each other a scratch using their incisor teeth. This photo shows two horses doing some mutual grooming.

Sexual behaviour

Sexual behaviour shows the onset of puberty in male and female. Characteristics of sexual behaviours include:  colts, play fighting, biting, teasing, dominating or mounting each other – as can be seen in photo below

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 cycling activity in females and demonstration of heat  aggression in some females or ‘scatty’ behaviour  colts become harder to control, try to dominate and bite  some females have hormonal imbalances and show stallion type behaviour  mating behaviour—stallion dominates the herd and kicks out colts  mares show interest and submission to stallion or even geldings.

Maternal behaviour

Maternal behaviour applies to mares that are pregnant and preparing for birth. They display maternal behaviour during birth and when their foal is feeding. Examples are:  mare separates from others and chooses a birthing area as parturition nears  mare avoids others late in pregnancy, avoids fights, kicks and aggression  mare has temperament changes during pregnancy  mare keeps young foal away from herds  mare protects her foal by keeping herself between foal and others, including people  mare may show aggression to people when she has a foal at foot  mare very aggressive to other horses, especially dry mares, who pose a threat  stallion ignores foal, but still disciplines mare, but he will discipline an older foal

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 mares maternal instinct is inherited from her own dam  maiden mares are often poor mothers, but this often improves.

Feeding behaviour

This is how horses eat and drink – in other words, ingestive behaviour. The main characteristics of horse’s ingestive behaviour are:  horses are herbivores, they eat plant matter  they are continuous grazers, eating most of the time  in the hot months their eating pattern is more nocturnal––eat at night when it is cooler  during the winter they tend to eat more continuously  horses eat more at night in the wild  chew in a grinding motion, they bite and shear off their food with incisor teeth  eyes are set on the side of their heads so they can keep an eye out for predators while eating  their ears are mobile so they can also listen while eating  they drink larger amounts only a few times per day. They suck water in through their lips and swallow large mouthfuls

Horses living in groups, even without a stallion, have a pecking order. This is reinforced at feed time and when drinking.

Domination

The domination of a group might depend on various factors:

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 the horse which was first to live in the paddock  the temperament of the animals  the sex of the animal  amount of feed available  stocking rates in the paddock and size of the paddock––space.

When feeding, the most dominant horse will always be the first to eat or drink and will threaten others when they get too close.

Timid or young horses will usually get to the feed or water last and are often chased away by more dominant horses within the group, before they have finished.

In group situations, when putting food out, make sure there is adequate room to allow for horses to have separate feed piles, so everyone gets their share.

This can prevent serious injury to both horses and the people putting out the feed.

The photo below shows a group of horses under a tree. The horse closest to the tree is the dominant horse which commands the best position in the shade. The others are positioned according to their pecking order.

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The photo below shows a group of horses eating from a feeder. The horse closest to the feeder is the dominant horse, with the other horses positioned according to pecking orders.

Eliminative behaviour

Eliminative behaviour is the term used for a horse’s is urinating and defecating behaviour. The amount and frequency is dependent on:  the intake  the individual  age  temperament––nervous horses pass smaller amounts, more frequently  most horse have manure spots and urine spots.

All horse sniff each others wastes, as they can tell a lot about each other this way. Most horses prefer to urinate in longer grass (especially mares), or in the thick bedding when stabled, to avoid urine splashing onto their legs.

The photo below shows a stallion marking the dung pile. His hind legs are positioned so that he dungs on top of the pile. Also look at his outstretched neck, head and ear positions, he is exhibiting flehmen. This is typical stallion territorial behaviour.

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Some distinguishing factors of stallion’s eliminative are:  they are the cleanest  they have rituals and show authority by urinating on mares urine  stallions generally place their own manure on the top of the dung pile, this is one way of showing their dominance  stallions often turn around and sniff their own faeces after they pass it. Mares and geldings do not.

Mare’s eliminative behaviour is characterised by the following:  Winking of the vulva after urinating does not mean that the mare is in oestrus (season)––all mares wink after urination.  When in oestrus the mare passes small amounts of urine frequently and when she squats during oestrus she usually has more of an arch in her back.

Locomotory behaviour

This is how horses move, including their various gaits. Certain breeds have different gaits and ponies travel different to larger breeds. Some points to remember include:  Horses have tracks in their paddocks and home ranges that they follow, much like cattle and sheep.  The horse has long legs with small, hard hooves that allow them to travel at speed when in flight from a predator.  They can move off very quickly and travel fast over the roughest ground.

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 Newborn foals have good sight and are up on their feet capable of flight, within an hour or so after birth. This allows them to stick to their dams’ side and flee predators.

Exploratory behaviour

Exploratory behaviour refers to how the horse explores, how they check out new surrounds, or investigates something new in their company. This behaviour is recognisable by the following:  Foals mostly explore with their mouths at first, later tending to paw at strange objects.  During the first few weeks of life, foals tend to be fearless and very inquisitive, so their mothers have to call them away from danger.  As the months go by foals become increasingly mistrustful of anything strange.  All horses explore by looking, smelling, touching with the tactile hairs on their muzzle and eventually pawing and tasting.

Thermoregulatory behaviour

Thermoregulatory behaviour is the way horses keep warm or cool down. In other words, it is about how they control their body temperature. For example, stallions need to maintain an even temperature of the testicles. They do this by letting the testicles hang low in the scrotum during warm weather and pulling them up closer to the body cavity for warmth during cold weather.

Some of the ways horses cool down are:  sweating  rolling in water  swimming  rolling in mud, which is very cooling when wet. When it dries it helps keep the insects off and insulates  stand in the shade  mares cast a shadow over their sleeping foals in the heat.

To become warm, horses:  run around, play and frolic  shiver  eat  rest in shelter belts and lie down to sleep during the day in the sun  if confined, they pace or dig holes.

The photo below shows two horses in the warm sun with one horse rolling in the ground.

Resting and sleeping behaviour

Horses sleep in small bouts in a 24 hour span. They doze standing up, using their stay apparatus so their limbs do not become tired. They usually lie

down for at least one sleeping bout per day. They lie down more when they are young and, as they mature, they lie down less and less. Other characteristics of resting and sleeping behaviour are:  As young horses, they often rest in lateral recumbency––flat on their side––with their abdomen exposed to predators, making them vulnerable to attack.  As they get older, they rest more on their chest––in sternal recumbency. This protects their abdomen and keeps them more aware. It also makes getting up and fleeing easier and much quicker.  Horses often dream when they lie in lateral recumbency.  When they are sick, they tend to lie down less, as they seem to know that they cannot get up quickly.

In this photo, this young foal would spend a lot of time sleeping on the ground between suckling feeds. Because it is stabled and it cannot wander far, it would sleep lying down more than if they were out in the paddock.

Behaviour patterns of stallions, mares and geldings The behaviour patterns of stallions, mares and geldings are a comparison between the sexes.

Stallion behaviour patterns

Normal stallion behaviour is often characterised by the following:  Stallions show off in courtship, challenge and play, using elevated movements.  Rearing up is common in the stallion during courtship, play and is used a lot when fighting.  They commonly exhibit flehmen of the top lip to the smell of mare’s urine, manure and the smell of other horses.  Stallions neigh more frequently, being very vocal, and they tail off at the end of the neigh.  They exhibit a more aggressive threat; biting and ‘mouthiness’ are common (dominance). These behaviours may be seen more frequently with confinement.  Stallions drop their dung on the top of the dung pile, showing their dominance and superiority.  They commonly sniff then mark other horses’ dung and urine with their own dung or urine.  They like to herd, showing dominance and are possessive of mares.  Stallions exhibit paternal behaviour, are very tolerant of foals and normally will not harm them.  Stallions are bolder, more alert, more active, have heavy muscle masses and spend less time resting or sleeping.

Mare behaviour patterns

Here are some common behaviours for mares:  Mares show static courtship displays for the stallion. They only show off occasionally.  Rearing is not common in mares.  Flehmen is not common, although some mares show masculine behaviour. They may show flehmen with pain or as a reaction to strange smells.  Do not tail off when they neigh, being generally less vocal.  Mares generally exhibit a more defensive threat.  They do not pile their dung. When dunging they face into the dunging area.  Mares are not commonly interested in marking dung.  It is not common for mares to herd, but exhibiting possessiveness or dominance may occur.

 They often exhibit maternal behaviour, showing rejection of strange foals.  Mares are content to doze on their feet more, especially when lactating.

Gelding behaviour patterns

Normal behaviour for geldings includes:  Showing off by geldings varies with individuals.  Rearing is generally not common, but may vary.  Flehmen is not commonly seen in geldings but, like the mare, may exhibit it with pain or certain smells.  Their neighing patterns are similar to the mare.  The type of threat that they exhibit is variable with the individual.  Geldings do not pile their dung. When dunging they face outwards from the dunging area.  They are generally are not interested in marking dung, but this may vary between individuals.  Some geldings herd mares, some show stallion-like dominance.  Possessiveness over a particular mare in the mob is not uncommon. Behaviour towards foals and young horses does vary. Attacking and killing foals does occur.  Being alert or dozing varies with the individual.

Note: Geldings do vary in their degree of non-sexuality. If gelded late, or if they are not castrated correctly, they often display some stallion-like behaviour. If a stallion is gelded, he will nearly always show some stallion behaviour for the remainder of his life. If he has served mares and lived with a mob of mares in the paddock, his stallion behaviour will always remain strong.