Parameters for the Analysis of Social Bonds in Horses

摘要

Simple SummaryAs more and more horses are being kept in group housing, it is important to take the horses’ likes and dislikes of other group members (their social bonds) into account to ensure the animals’ well-being and minimise aggressive encounters between group members. Methods for the analysis of social bonds need to be improved and integrated into horse welfare protocols. We observed social behaviour and spatial proximity in 145 feral horses, comprising five groups of Przewalski’s horses and six groups of feral horses. We found that 15 h of observation per group provided robust and reliable data for the analysis of social bonds. Either a combination of counts of friendly approaches and mutual grooming between pairs of horses, or the analysis of the horses’ nearest neighbors through measurements of the animals spatial proximity, are suitable ways of gaining insight into the horses’ social relationships.