Equine Behaviour Flashcards
1
Q
Perception - about and hearing
A
- constantly aware of changes (good sensory systems)
- good to have routien
- see/hear things before humans
- change in voice/clothes and smells of people can confues horses
- ears can move in unison and independently
- faint sounds
- respond to sound 4400 metres away
- reliable recognition
2
Q
Perception - vision
A
- wide panorama (350deg)
- distance
- but have blind spot directly in front and behind (can startle horses)
3
Q
Perception - smell
A
- investigation
- social exchanges
- vomeronasal organ good
- avoid toxins
- flehmen response = push oder over roof of mouth during inhilation, over vomeronasal organ
4
Q
Perception - touch
A
- very sensitive areas e.g. withers, mouth, elbow
- vibrissae (whiskers around nose) detect vibrations, determine distance from surface
- trimmed - struggle determine distance, bang into things potentially hurt themselves (banned in france)
5
Q
Perception - prey in groups
A
- herd animal and use body language to communicate
- first trigger response flight rather than fight
- get away from predators as they are a prey animal
- natural behaviour
- vary in intensity between horses
6
Q
Body language - humans issues
A
- humans display postures and quite vocal = notice suble changes e.g. facial expressions
- not always full attention on what communicating
- lack of awareness about how horses interpret body language
- responsible for accidents when handling
- complication of clothes e.g. flapping coat may seem human threatening them
- not paying close attention to horses body language/perception
~ inappropriate position e.g. from behind
~ lateralised response to stimuli (preference for one side of body) e.g. use left eye more, approach other eye, startle = use that eye less, calmer if approach from left
7
Q
Body language - emotion
A
- emotional cues may be carried by humans (horse can pick up)
e. g. voice, posture, expression, pheramones
Studies:
- Hama et al (1996)
~ People with negative feelings towards animals induced an increase of heart rate in a horse in the first few minutes while stroking them
~ “Neutral” or “positive” persons did not have the same influence
- Morgan et al (2000)
~ Rider’s personality correlated with the behaviour pattern of the ridden horse
8
Q
Normal behaviour
A
- what living animals do and what dead animals dont
- product of genes and environemnt
- Domestication affects behaviour
- Using wild counterparts as models for “normal”
- Social herbivore – safety, mutual comfort, food detection, should be grazing for 16 hours
- Effects of domestication
~ kept individually
~ controlled food intake/richer
~ less movements
9
Q
Effects of domestication
A
- can we use wild horses as a model to understand effects of domestication on horse/welfare and behaviour
- many behaviours horses display have not changed due to domestication when compared to ferel/semi-feral groups
- genetically selected out animals that are quiet and benefit humans
- slight difference in how react to environment
- One of the biggest effects of domestication is group stability
~ Huge increase is number of aggressive acts per hour
~ Smaller spaces, more intense environment, multiple owner / home changes in lifetime
10
Q
Why is it important to understand behaviour and Tinbergens 4 questions
A
- indicator of health and welfare
- understanding facillitates handling and training
- Tinbergen’s 4 questions:
~ Causation of behaviour (mechanism)
~ Ontogeny of behaviour (developmental history within an individual)
~ Phylogeny of behaviour (history of the species / evolution of the behaviour)
~ Function of behaviour
E.G. galloping - causation = nerves from brain to spinal cord to muscles, cause to contract cordinated
ontogeny = during early development, foal learnt to coordinate limbs/body to gallop quick - phylogeny = ancestors did not move so quick therefore lost out on offspring, those survived moved quickly as part of evolution
function = survival, escape predators
11
Q
Instinctive and leaned behaviour
A
- Instinctive e.g. suckling, standing, running, neighing
~ Nearly complete the first time they are expressed
~ Association between behaviour and consequence made very rapidly
~ Triggered by a sign stimuli (fairly general event)
~ Less open to modification by environment (hardwired) - Learned e.g. picking up feet
~Longer to develop
~ Increases animal’s flexibility and ability to adapt within one lifetime
12
Q
horse as a learner
A
- good capacity to learn complex movements and sequences
- Intelligence difficult to assess:
~ Scope of learning – determining the cognitive ability of a horse to solve increasingly complex problems
~ Rate of learning - A quantitative measure of the time required for the horse to learn the task
~ Retention of learning – The ability of the horse to remember the learned behavior
13
Q
Learning - 2 major categories
A
- Two major categories of learning:
~ Non-associative learning - Exposed to a stimulus to which it becomes habituated or sensitised
- Simplest form of learning
~ Associative - Relationship between at least two stimuli
- Classical (creating an association between a naturally existing stimulus and a previously neutral) and Operant (rewards/punishments) conditioning
14
Q
Habituation
A
- animal learning not to respond to stimulus that has no consequences
- e.g. police officer horses to train horses not to react to people/flags/ noise
- walk through until no reaction (disappears
15
Q
Desensitisation
A
- stimulus/situation introduced to animal in increments
e. g. saddle - first put saddle on ground, te non horse, person leans on horse, person lies flat on horse, person sits on horse
16
Q
Counter conditioning
A
- animal leans alturnaive response to stimulus may find scary
e. g. animal scared washed off with hose pipe, horse may have plesent experience (stroke/food) whilst happening, realise when hose happens horse wont react badly, horse calm when hosed now on
17
Q
Flooding
A
- overexpose stimulus until unwanted response disappears
e. g. horse with saddle strapped onto back, very upset (running/bucking) trying to get away, sadle left on back until stop responding - BUT horse is no longer fearful = lose energy to respond, helpless, unreliabel = not lean not to be affraid, learnt sense of helplessness
- may feel brave enough to respond at a later date, dangerous to ride, more extreme reaction/fear
18
Q
Sensitisation
A
= animal exposed to something and increase response after repeated exposure
e.g. horse injected by vet
~ first experience = shock and a bit of pain
~ next time recognise situation, perceives it worse than the first time, animal more sensitised, react violently
19
Q
Classical conditioning
A
- associated learning = animal forms link between a cue and an outcome
e.g. when horse go to urinate, put bucket underneath and whistle every time horse urinated
~ eventually horse would not urinate unless owner put bucket underneath
20
Q
Operant conditining and reinforcement/punishment
A
= animal performs behaviour voluntarily and gets rewarded
- animal more control
- owner give cue and horse works it out
- if not get, keep trying
= Voluntary activity that is rewarded
- There is a response and a consequence – often there is also a cue
- Consequence can be a reinforcer or a punisher (as perceived by animal)
- Trial and error learning
~ Reinforcement
- Strengthens the correct response which results in increase of a response
- Association of a pleasant outcome when correct response displayed
~ Punishment
- Results in decrease of a response
- Association of an unpleasant outcome when the behaviour is displayed
21
Q
+ve reinforcement example
A
- horse walks into horse trailer = recieve carrot
- horse stand when change rugs = food/rubbing reward
22
Q
-ve reinforcement example
A
- apply pressure on horses side = horse move over, pressure released
23
Q
+ve punishment example
A
- horse bucks = horse hit until stop
- presure applied to horses side = horse dont move = pressure increased or whip used
24
Q
-ve punishment example
A
- handler rub horses head = horse head butts handler, handler stop rubbing until horse stop head butting and rubbing back
25
Shaping
= linking lots of behaviours together and reinforce sucesion of small behaviours
- add all into pattern, wait/naturally encourgae to happen
- start rewarding a behaviour consistently
- start to reserve reward for improved response to next step of sequence
e. g. teach bow (front leg forward and reward, brend leg and head down ect
26
Training horses
- encourage desirable behaviours by rewards or remove aversive stimulus - must be instant = to increase behaviour
- suppress undesirable behaviours by punishment - must ne instant = to reduce behaviour
- training shouls involve +ve reinforcement and -ve punishment
~ both result in positive learning experience with no harm to animal
- as well as encouraging some behaviours and discouraging others we teach horses to repond to a cue = desirable behaviour once horse made association
- if horse doesnt make associayion (trainers fault) often labled as stuborn and punished = learned helplessness
27
Breed differences in training
- difficult to assess
- differences in motivation to access a resource (food/space/social contact)
- differences in physical ability e.g dressage one breed better at forming shapes
- high flight response (quick run) = TB, arabs (warm bloods) racing
- low flight response (get used to situattions quick) = shires, draught horses
28
Temprement
- Horses own temperament very important
- Reactions of horses to human interaction are a result of:
~ Temperament
~ Temperament and skills of human
~ Previous experience with humans
29
Memory
- Single interactions will shape the relationship between human and horse
- Horse will use a single interaction to predict future ones and hence its behaviour is affected
- Study by Hanggi and Ingersoll (2009)
- Horses can remember relatively complex problem-solving strategies for a minimum of 7 years and as long as or longer than 10 years!!!
