Weaving in stabled horses and its relationship to other behavioural traits

Abstract

Abstract We investigated 71 horses at five stud farms. Their breeds were Thoroughbred ( n =48), Anglo-Arab ( n =7), Thoroughbred mixed breed ( n =5), Appaloosa ( n =3), Selle Francais ( n =2), Dutch Warmblood, Haflinger, Pinto, Quarter Horse and Westfalen ( n =1, respectively), and one horse's breed was not known, but was a heavy horse. Their genders were stallion ( n =5), gelding ( n =41) and female ( n =25). Their ages ranged from 4 to 24 and the average was 11.1±5.3 (S.D.). The horses' behaviour was twice observed for 2h both before and after feeding, using a scan sampling technique at 2min intervals. We investigated the relationship between management factors, age, sex, breed and behavioural patterns of stabled horses, and the occurrence of weaving by a least-squares analysis of variance, a correlation analysis, Chi-square test and an analysis of behavioural sequences. Thoroughbred horses displayed weaving more than other breeds ( P P P P P P P P P P P P