A Comparative Study of Feral and Domestic Horses

Emily House

Date of Award

2005

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Beulig, Alfred

Keywords

Animal Behavior, Horses, Ethnology

Area of Concentration

Biological Psychology

Abstract

If a dog is man's best friend, a horse is man's best slave, says an old adage. The domestication of the horse has been a long and difficult process. Certain unnecessary byproducts of this domestication occur in many well-managed horse farms. These products take many forms, but more often than not appear as 'problem' behaviors, or vices. These include cribbing, pica, aerophagia, weaving, stall-walking, stamping, pawing...etc. These vices occur with the most prevalence in farms that severely restrict a horse's exercise, while at the same time feeding high-protein energy feed. These practices completely disregard the evolution, physiology, anatomy and social behavior of the horse. This thesis attempts to convince the reader that the problem behaviors previously described could be eliminated or reduced through management that took the complexities of the horse into consideration.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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