Play is an important factor in the development of young horses
Take Home Message: Play is very important to the behavioural development of growing horses
Social play is a regular part of the behavioural repertoire of young horses, even when in an established group. And young horses kept in isolation will, therefore, be lacking the opportunity to express these behaviours that have been demonstrated to have real and adaptive benefits to the developing animal.
Just two of the findings of a study, by Hartpury College scientists, to describe and quantify the involvement in social play and its initiation within an established group of young horses.
“Social play was observed in the established group young horses and all individuals were involved in its initiation,” Lucy Dumbell told delegates at the British Society of Animal Science’s annual conference.
“The majority of social play bouts were initiated by a single individual, however up to six individuals were involved in the initiation of a single play bout.
“And although all individuals were observed to initiate social play they were not equally represented with one individual involved in the initiation of more than half of the social play bouts observed,” she added.
Social play studies have largely focussed on the time budgets and generalised interactions between herds rather than specific social behaviour sequences between limited numbers of horses.
Play appears to be considered as either functionless or as serving different roles depending on species, age and even sex of individuals. “But further knowledge of equine social play may be of benefit to equine welfare and performance,” said Miss Dumbell, explaining the rational behind her work.
The study involved an established grazing group of eight horses, aged between 18 months and three years, which were observed in a single eight-acre pasture enclosure. Human interference was minimised and horses received no additional food.
Observations were made from outside the enclosure perimeter following a period of acclimatisation and behavioural data were collected during 100 hours of direct observation using continuous behaviour sampling for two-hour periods between 06.30 and 08.30 hours.
A total of 134 social play bouts were noted, giving a mean frequency of 1.34 social play bouts per hour. Social play bouts were observed in 71 of the 100 hours of observation.
“So during 29 hours of the study, no social play was displayed. And of the 134 social play bouts observed 115 were initiated by an individual horse and 19 by groups of horses,” said Miss Dumbell.
The number of play bouts initiated by individual horses ranged from between 3.0% and 50.7% and this number varied significantly between individuals.
“These results highlight that while further research in this area is required, there is sufficient weight of evidence to suppose that welfare may be reduced by preventing the expression of these behaviours,” she added.
To view proceedings of all summaries presented at the Annual Conference 2009 http://www.bsas.org.uk/Publications/Annual_Conference_Proceedings/ To view all Powerpoint presentations http://www.bsas.org.uk/Members_Area/ For further information contact: BSAS on 0131 445 4508 or bsas@sac.ac.uk
For further information contact: BSAS on 0131 445 4508
