77% of equines demonstrate stereotypical behaviours

Over 77% of equines were reported as demonstrating one or more stereotypical behaviours in a recent survey by healthcare brand ArcEquine, which collated over 3000 individual responses assessing the prevalence and perceptions of a number of different behaviours.

Most serious was widely considered to be self-mutilation, followed by wind sucking, headshaking, cribbing, weaving and box walking. At the other end of the spectrum, owners considered pawing or digging, tongue playing and licking behaviours to be less of a problem, although still recognised them as potentially indicative of issues with health or management.

The responses related to equines of all ages and sexes and from competition horses and ponies to those used for hacking, breeding and either retired or living as companions.

The stereotypical behaviour reported most frequently was pawing or digging (30%), followed by tail rubbing (29%), box walking (21%) and wood chewing (21%).

Analysis of the time spent stabled, hours of exercise and turnout periods found that 23% of affected equines were living out, most (68%) were exercised for one hour a day and that less than 2% were never turned out. However over 19% had no unrestricted physical contact with horses or ponies on average day, whilst almost 17% had unrestricted 24-hour opportunities to socialise.

Over 83% of people are undecided about purchasing a horse or pony known to exhibit stereotypic behaviours, with the remainder split evenly between the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ viewpoint.

Asked about the extent to which stereotypic behaviours negatively affect competition performance, 32% said not at all and only 15% said yes, absolutely! In the context of health and welfare, fewer people – just over 24%, considered these behaviours to have no effect, with almost 22% at the other end of the spectrum.

When it comes to available information about causes, treatments or management and long term prognosis for horses and ponies exhibiting stereotypic behaviours, most respondents 39% considered it satisfactory and almost 32% as poor.

The survey confirmed that the majority of owners are well aware that these behaviours are strongly linked to physical and/or psychological (stress) issues that relate to feeding, management and workload and most demonstrated a practical understanding of how these causative factors can be changed and – from the horse’s viewpoint – improved, in order to maximise the potential for resolution.

However it was interesting to note that of all the equines reported as demonstrating stereotypies, over 46% had not suffered any disease, injury or other physical disorder in the previous 12 months. Following on from this, responses revealed that almost 37% of owners believed the behaviours resulted from boredom or frustration and almost 28%, from stress or a traumatic experience. There was also a strong belief (almost 27%) that stereotypies can be learned behaviours and 23% considered them to be attention seeking.

It is clear that this issue is a complex one, affecting a large percentage of equines and manifesting in a variety of unnatural behaviours to a greater or lesser extent. Perceptions vary from compassionate understanding and a desire to change circumstances for the better, to ignorance and irritation, but what no-one can doubt is the obvious need for greater availability of evidence-based information and advice to help owners adopt the most natural of management routines in order to improve the lives of affected individual horses and ponies in their care