What makes a horse happy and how can you measure that happiness? These questions are vexing the horse world following public criticism of training methods and competition conditions in high level sport.
Equine scientists are keen to find out how to induce and measure contentment and pleasure in equines to back up arguments about social license to ride and compete horses — and new research from University Centre Askham Bryan (UCAB) could be a step on that road of discovery.
The research explores the link between a horse’s personality and emotional wellbeing and is a collaboration between UCAB and Newcastle University.
They found that horses exposed to the same pleasurable stimulus — high value food, wither scratches, positive reinforcement training and a companion — showed different levels of pleasure, based on their personalities and previous experience.
“This study is relevant in the current climate where social license to operate has become a significant factor within the equine industry, within which equine welfare is being scrutinised, especially within the competitive sphere,” the researchers wrote.
“Increased knowledge of how to induce positive affect [positive emotions and mood] could improve their welfare and thus prevent the development of [unhealthy physical and mental states] resulting from chronic impaired emotional welfare.”
Measuring pleasure and contentment
The researchers took 20 healthy horses of different breeds and ages, whose owners had scored their personality using the same set of questions.
They applied the four pleasant experiences and then looked at 27 positive measures of pleasure — including ear movement, respiration, amount of cortisol in saliva and heart rate — as the horses underwent these experiences.
They found that although individual horses seemed to enjoy different things, they could create a list of potential ways to measure pleasure and contentment that can be used in further research.
Past research into equine contentment has rarely considered the animal’s character, say the researchers, but they believe their study “underscores its importance” and has added to the knowledge within this field.
The research is available to read in full here.
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