behavior | Horse Racing Free Tips

Study Suggests Dangerous Behavior Could Be Caused By Skeletal Pain

Horses that exhibit undesirable behaviors like bolting, rearing or kicking under saddle are often assumed to have poor training or to simply be ill-tempered, but a new study shows that horses acting progressively more dangerously may be reacting to axial skeletal pain.

Dr. Melissa Story studied 14 horses that had exhibited increasingly dangerous behavior, putting their riders' safety at risk, and had subsequently been euthanized.

She and her research team performed spinal exams, gait evaluations, diagnostic imaging, neurologic evaluations, and pathologic and histopathologic exams of the axial skeleton (the skull, the rib cage, and the backbone).

Those evaluations, along with prior medical records, owner and trainer complaints, and an exam completed once the horses had been euthanized, allowed the scientists to tentatively determine that skeletal pain may have been to blame for the horses' behavior.

Ten horses showed severe behavioral responses during both the mobilization and myofascial exams. The most common areas of concern were the lumbosacral and cervicothoracic regions. Additionally, 71 percent of study horses had hemorrhage or hematomas in these areas.

The scientists concluded that structural pain (neuropathic) was the root cause of the dangerous behavior. They noted that ganglia relay peripheral sensory information to the central nervous system and that ganglionitis has been associated with neuropathic pain syndromes. More research is needed.

Is Your Horse Into Everything? He Could Be An Equine Study Star

Researchers from Nürtingen-Geislingen University of Applied Science in Nürtingen, Germany, are seeking videos of horses doing unusual things – like opening stall latches or creatively stealing their friend's food – to feature on the Equine Science Talk YouTube channel. This channel is produced by equine behavioral scientists to highlight research advances and promote discussions of equine problem solving and innovation.

If you have a horse that's found a creative way to solve their “problem,” the research team would love to see it for possible study and video inclusion. The innovative strategies horses use are behaviors they don't typically show in a natural environment.

Click here to view the YouTube Channel.

For more information on how to submit videos, please contact konstanze.krueger at hfwu.de

Is A Happy Horse Or A Needy Horse More Inventive?

Horses are goal-driven innovators when seeking out food, but they're also innovators when it comes to playing and developing comfort behaviors.

There is ongoing debate among behaviorists about whether horses invent solutions in response to needs, or if they innovate more when their needs are met. Dr. Konstanz Krueger and a team of scientists contacted horse owners and caretakers directly and through web postings to find horses that exhibited unusual behaviors and also scoured the internet for videos of horses doing unusual things. In total, the team found 746 cases of horses that had developed an innovative behavior, like opening doors or gates.

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The team then investigated the behavior to see if there was a need or an opportunity for the different innovations. They also looked at the frequency of the behavior and the sex, age, and breed of the horse, as well as the influence of management factors like access to pasture, social contact and housing condition.

The study team had so many responses relating to horses, mules or donkeys opening doors and gates that a more specific questionnaire had to be developed. In total, 632 reports described 1,011 innovative behaviors. They were from 427 horses, four donkeys and three mules.

One equine science professor and two people with bachelor's degrees in equine science rated the behaviors to determine if they were truly “novel.” The actions not deemed “novel” were excluded from the study.

The team found that the innovations were not affected by age, sex, breed, or specie. Though both groups of horses were innovative, horses housed in groups and those that were turned out 24/7 developed a wider variety of innovative behaviors because they had the opportunity – they were not seeking relief from environmental pressures.

The team concluded that equids that experience social conflict, those that are stalled, or those that are hungry produce a restricted amount of goal-driven innovations they repeated often to try to address their needs, such as escaping or foraging.

Read the study here.

When Is Choke Not A One-And-Done Emergency For Horses?

Choke in horses is always an emergency. Though some horses may resolve a choking episode on their own, others may behave as if they're colicking, throwing themselves on the ground. Horses may hold their necks out and down, in odd positions. Often the only signs a horse has a blockage in his esophagus are a frequent cough or s a mix of feed and saliva dripping out through his mouth or nostrils. Sometimes the obstruction can actually be seen as a lump on the side of the neck.

Unlike a choking human, a choking horse is not at risk of imminent death because the organs used to swallow food and to deliver air to the lungs are not shared in the same way there are with people, so a food obstruction will not hinder a horse's breathing. Still, a choking horse should be kept quiet and away from food and water, either until he passes the obstruction or until a veterinarian can be called in to assist. A vet will pass a tube down the esophagus and try flush the blockage down with water.

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If a horse chokes repeatedly, it's worthwhile to investigate the cause, Dr. Melina Freckleton tells EQUUS. The first step is to check the horse's teeth, in case dental problems are inhibiting the horse from chewing and swallowing properly.

If that doesn't uncover a cause, it's time to dig a bit deeper and see if he has physical or behavioral issues that are causing him to choke. Look first at how the horse is fed — is he fed in a quiet stall with no neighbors harassing him, or is he fed on a fence line where he must bolt his food to get anything to eat? A horse that eats too quickly is more inclined to choke.

To determine if there is a physical issue that's causing a horse to choke, taking a closer look at the esophagus is key. The vet will snake a long endoscope down the horse's esophagus to see if any injuries have caused scar tissue that make the esophagus more narrow, causing food to get trapped. In other cases, the esophageal wall can weaken, allowing a pocket where feed can accumulate.

A horse that chokes repeatedly can cause and worsen damage to his esophagus, and potentially develop aspiration pneumonia, a serious health issue. It's imperative to find out why a horse is choking and to make management changes to prevent its recurrence.