23/09/2023
Ik kan het zelf niet beter verwoorden dan dit⬇️
At the end of the day, horses are herd animals, no matter how “normal” it is to see them kept individual. It seems normal to us as humans because it is what has been done for so long, but it is incredibly abnormal for horses as a species.
Why are domestic horse-horse interactions oftentimes so distinctly different from what is seen in feral horse herds?
The differences we see in domesticated horse behaviour are a driving factor behind the believe of dominance theory & the "alpha" horse, so let's discuss some of the factors that inevitably alter equine interactions in domestication.
It often starts off with weaning. From the time they are born until weaned, horses have the comfort and stability that their dam brings. Such stability may be influenced by the dam's stress behaviour as well as environmental factors such as lack of space, lack of food and other resources, but they at least have the social stability that is being at their dam's side.
The stress of weaning depends on how the humans choose to go about it. "Cold turkey" weaning where the mare is abruptly taken away from the foal all at once is incredibly traumatic. If the foal is then completely isolated from all other horses, this makes an already stressful situation even worse. If they're offered friends who are not their dam, this softens the blow but still remains a high stress experience.
Herds of abruptly weaned foals with no mature horses bring together the naive social skills of babies who are all experiencing a trauma that is losing their mom suddenly. The dynamic is not likely to be as healthy and stable as what you might see with healthy, well socialized mature horses alongside youngsters.
Now, following most weaning scenarios, the horse has already sustained damage on their social dynamic that may impact their attachment and create issues such as herd boundedness, intense resource guarding etc.
But, this can be further compounded by common horse-industry environmental factors such as individual turnout.
Prior to being turned into riding horses, it is relatively common to keep young horses out in groups. But, often when they go into training to become riding horses, they end up being placed in individual turnout situations with limited to no ability to interact with other horses.
Isolation stress can create problem behaviours like aggression to other horses. When horses lack social skills and struggle to communicate effectively with other horses or respond anxiously to horse interactions due to lack of socialization, they may choose aggression as a response.
This is where you get people claiming their horse "doesn't like" other horses, when this is almost guaranteed to be a manmade behaviour that is caused by poor management and the resulting stresss.
Lack of resources plays a role, too. Having limited space to get away from other horses even when allowed group turnout can result in intense resource guarding induced aggression. The frustration that comes with a lack of environmental enrichment can result in horses taking out their unease of the horses around them.
Horses who are hungry and do not have ad lib access to hay are also more likely to display resource guarding aggressive behaviours due to forage being perceived as a limited resource. This will create more anxiety around feeding time.
Physical discomfort can also increase the prevalence of aggressive behaviours. Horses who are in pain are much more likely to have less patience with horses around them and engage in displacement behaviours due to physical pain.
Ultimately, there are a multitude of factors that can result in issues that we will see in domesticated horses that are not actually representative of how horses as a species will interact when they have a healthy dynamic.
Because of how prevalent these issues are, many humans view them to be normal when really they are signs of dysfunction.
There are many normalized practices that impact the development of healthy social skills amongst horses and can then create issues that may follow the horse for the entirety of their life.
As their caretakers, it is our job to look into the underlying causes of these behaviours and address them because the toll total isolation takes on horses' overall health is not something that should be taken lightly. Behaviour modification programs and environmental changes should always be explored to help reintroduce horses to healthy socialization in a way that is safe for them and the horses around them.
At the end of the day, horses are herd animals, no matter how "normal" it is to see them kept individual. It seems normal to us as humans because it is what has been done for so long, but it is incredibly abnormal for horses as a species.
Equine isolation is one of the more pressing welfare issues in the industry that absolutely needs to be addressed.