The Horse | Battling Boredom: Study Proves Food-Related Items Most Successful

The Horse Battling Boredom: Study Proves Food-Related Items Most Successful


The old saying goes, "Idle hands are the devil's tools," but horse owners know an idle horse's lips can cause just as much mischief. For many owners it can be a daily challenge to keep curious horses occupied when not being ridden or handled. In her recent study, Grete Helen Meisfjord Jørgensen, PhD, of the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, observed horses' reactions to several types of "enrichment items" and determined that food-related items helped battle boredom best.

Jørgensen and her team observed the reactions of eight horses rotated through eight individual paddocks that each contained a different enrichment item (a cone, a ball, a pole, peat, straw, branches, a ball filled with concentrate, and an empty paddock used as a control). Among the most popular items were the straw, the concentrate-filled ball, the branches, and the scratching pole.

The researchers then observed six groups of horses (three to six horses in a group) that were offered the four items that appeared to be most popular to the individual horses. The researchers observed that whether alone or in groups, the enrichment items horses liked best involved food.

"Our data show that edible items were most popular," Jørgensen explained. "Other toys were seldom investigated, and no horses spent a lot of time playing with the objects that did not have any relationship to food."

The notable exception was the scratching post, which was investigated more by the horses when they were alone in a paddock rather than in a group. She said that this was likely because the post allowed them to reach certain itchy spots on their bodies they couldn't reach without the help of a herdmate.

When providing enrichments for groups, make sure there is enough for everyone, Jørgensen cautioned: "The study showed that providing several piles of roughage (like straw) might reduce the amount of aggressive interactions--an effect that most horse owners would cherish. The fear of injuries is often the main reason that owners choose to keep their horses individually rather than give them social contact with other horses."

She added that for horses that can be managed on pasture, simple green grass is the best enrichment item they can be offered.

"One of the most important findings from our study is the great motivation that horses have for eating green grass," she said. "Even if our test paddocks had only a few green plants growing on the surface and horses were using the paddocks every day, they spent large amounts of time nibbling on this grass."

The study, "Effects of enrichment items on activity and social interactions in domestic horses (Equus caballus)," was published in January in Applied Animal Behaviour Science. The abstract is available online.

Murphy's Law

Murphy Horse Law: "Your favorite tack always gets chewed on, and your new blanket gets torn. Tack you hate will never wear out and blankets you hate cannot be destroyed."

Chubby Pony

My silly mare is endeavoring to achieve THIS look for the summer. I'm desperately trying to thwart her efforts.

Thelwell Ivan

Yup, this pretty much summarizes what Ivan tries to pull whenever we try to canter. Maybe not the first time, maybe not the second, but at least at some point. Usually when he's trying to widen his circle and get closer to the fence, and when he's getting anxious about the footing in the arena. The closer he gets to the roundpen fencing, the more nervous I am about getting my knees hit, the more tense I get, and the faster and stronger he gets. I need to get that stinker in an arena and canter some bigger circles WITHOUT him pulling one of these...

Why I Don't Jump

I saw this on someone else's blog and thought it very neatly summarized why I DON'T jump anymore other than incidentals on the trail :) Enjoy!

How's This To Start Off A Person's Morning?

I deleted the chain letter at the bottom; it was just a chain letter complaining about world crisis going on but the media only wanting to talk about Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Charlie Sheen. As you can see, I asked that she remove me from her mailing list, and that started the ball rolling on the rest of the morning...

From: Lynn Caruso [mailto:lcaruso@knology.net]
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2011 8:49 AM
To: 'Erika '

Subject: RE: DAMN RIGHT I'LL FORWARD IT

You are absolutely void of any humanity whatsoever.  In other words, you are a beast!!

From: Erika [mailto:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 12:37 PM
To: 'Lynn Caruso'
Subject: RE: DAMN RIGHT I'LL FORWARD IT

Please remove me permanently from your address book. Neither Mark nor I have forgotten what was written in those last few emails.

From: Lynn Caruso [mailto:lcaruso@knology.net]
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 12:01 PM
To: nancywam02@comcast.net; 'Erika'; 'Caruso, Royce H'; 'Jessica Wynn'; merrypainter@bellsouth.net; 'Michael Haas Jr'; 'Margaret White'; 'Mark '; slaydentallab@bellsouth.net; ltilton4@gmail.com
Subject: RE: DAMN RIGHT I'LL FORWARD IT

This  came from Mark's MOTHER!!! I'm so fed up with all the drama and bullshit that comes out of that household. The email kicked off a phone call from Mark to his mother in which he screamed at her and told her to never contact us again. I thought I had already blocked her email from contacting me, but I guess not... Woohoo, yay Wednesdays...

Asshole Alert

Fair warning to all models: If you ever have occasion to work with Oleg Volk, DON'T. Or at the very least, make sure he pays you in advance and leave when you're supposed to because otherwise he'll either try to make you work for free or he'll pay you for 1 or 2 hours but make you work 16 hours instead! I will not be working with him again, so don't ask me for a reference for him.