Lc. Winskill et al., THE EFFECT OF A FORAGING DEVICE (A MODIFIED EDINBURGH FOODBALL) ON THE BEHAVIOR OF THE STABLED HORSE, Applied animal behaviour science, 48(1-2), 1996, pp. 25-35
Horses that are stabled under confined conditions may develop stereoty
pies (e.g. stall-walking), which may be caused by the inability of hor
ses to express foraging behaviour. The objective of this study was to
determine whether horses will use a foraging device (modified version
of the 'Edinburgh Foodball,' British Patent No. 9200499.3) and if so,
whether it has an effect on their overall time budget. The Foodball co
mprised a cylinder shaped casing with a food dispensing hole and an in
ternal food store. Five Standardbred, individually stabled horses were
subjected to the following three consecutive test periods as follows,
Baseline (B): the animals were observed in their stable under normal
management practises for three consecutive days; Foodball (F): for the
following five consecutive days the Foodball, containing 4 kg of a hi
gh fibre pelleted diet was introduced to the horse and was refilled mo
rning and evening; and Post enrichment (P): for the following three co
nsecutive days the Foodball was removed from the stable. The horses we
re video recorded between 19:00 h and 12:00 h for the duration of the
experimental period (allowing the horses outside for 7 h per day in or
der to allow exercising and grazing) and behavioural data were collect
ed by time sampling every 2 min. The horses used the Foodball for more
than 0.14 of their overall time budget and except for Horse 1, in a m
anner resembling normal foraging behaviour. The use of the Foodball wa
s associated with significant decreases in the following behaviours wh
en compared with baseline conditions: ingesting concentrates (P < 0.05
); moving (P < 0.01); standing (P < 0.01); and nose bedding (P < 0.05)
. All behaviours except eliminate, were found to be highly significant
ly affected by time of day and the effect of test period significantly
altered the allocation of the proportion of time spent ingesting conc
entrates, moving and standing. The change in the overall time budget o
f the horses is more comparable with that of their free ranging counte
rparts, which is indicative of good animal welfare.