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Animals : an open access journal from MDPI2024; 14(13); 1999; doi: 10.3390/ani14131999

Are Users Good Assessors of Social Dominance in Domestic Horses?

Abstract: Horse users and caretakers must be aware of the risks of mixing social groups. The current study investigated whether eight equine practitioners can assess the social dominance rank of 20 horses. The horses' feeding time and agonistic/aggressive and submissive behaviours were observed during the feed confrontation test, and the dominance index (DI) was calculated. Kendal's W, Spearman correlations and factor analysis were applied to test the raters' agreement, the relationship between dominance ranks and the behavioural variables, and to determine the clustered behaviours. The agreement between all raters in the classification of dominance order ranged from moderate to perfect. The ranking by every rater was strongly and negatively correlated with the time of eating in feed confrontation tests and with the DI, evidencing shorter feeding times for more submissive horses. The withdrawal of the horse when threatened was the behavioural variable that was most often correlated with raters' ranking. The current study confirmed the abilities of practitioners to categorise the horses under their care according to their social interactions. Additionally, rolling when denied access to feed was proposed as frustration-releasing (redirected) behaviour.
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Publication Date: 2024-07-07 PubMed ID: 38998111PubMed Central: PMC11240818DOI: 10.3390/ani14131999Google Scholar: Lookup
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Summary

This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.

The study primarily investigates the ability of horse care practitioners to accurately assess the social hierarchy among horses in their care. The results suggest that practitioners are largely able to correctly identify submissive horses, with indications such as feed time and certain behaviors effectively signaling the social rank of each horse.

Objective and Methodology

  • This study aimed to examine whether eight horse caretakers can accurately determine the social dominance in a group of 20 horses under their care.
  • The horses’ feeding time, aggressive/submissive behaviors, and confrontation behaviors during feeding were observed and recorded for assessment.
  • The dominance index (DI) was computed and shared to raters. Various statistical test like Kendal’s W, Spearman correlations, and factor analysis methods were used to measure the raters’ agreement, the relationship between the behaviors, and the ranking of dominance.

Results and Findings

  • The raters’ agreement on the dominance hierarchy among the horses ranged from moderate to strong, suggesting a general consensus on the social ranks among the horses.
  • The study found strong negative correlations between the raters’ ranking and behaviors like feeding time and calculated DI, suggesting that more submissive horses have shorter feeding times.
  • The primary indicator of a horse’s rank was its withdrawal when threatened, which was most closely linked to raters’ assessments of the horses’ ranks.

Conclusion and Implications

  • The study confirmed that horse caregivers possess a reasonable ability to categorize the horses under their care according to the animals’ social interactions.
  • In addition, a unique finding of the study was the proposal of a potential redirected behavior in horses: the act of rolling when denied access to feed could indicate the release of frustration.
  • These findings can have practical implications for caretakers and those in the equine industry regarding the management of social groupings among horses and understanding their behavior better.

Cite This Article

APA
Jastrzębska E, Siemieniuch M, Bizio A, Pietruszka J, Górecka-Bruzda A. (2024). Are Users Good Assessors of Social Dominance in Domestic Horses? Animals (Basel), 14(13), 1999. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14131999

Publication

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
ISSN: 2076-2615
NlmUniqueID: 101635614
Country: Switzerland
Language: English
Volume: 14
Issue: 13
PII: 1999

Researcher Affiliations

Jastrzębska, Ewa
  • Department of Horse Breeding and Riding, Faculty of Animal Bioengineering, University of Warmia and Mazury, Oczapowskiego 5, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland.
Siemieniuch, Marta
  • Research Station of the Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research of PAS, Popielno 25, 12-220 Ruciane-Nida, Poland.
Bizio, Adriana
  • Department of Horse Breeding and Riding, Faculty of Animal Bioengineering, University of Warmia and Mazury, Oczapowskiego 5, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland.
Pietruszka, Julia
  • Department of Horse Breeding and Riding, Faculty of Animal Bioengineering, University of Warmia and Mazury, Oczapowskiego 5, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland.
Górecka-Bruzda, Aleksandra
  • Department of Animal Behaviour and Welfare, Institute of Genetics and Animal Biotechnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 05-552 Jastrzębiec, Poland.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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