THE EFFECT OF A FORAGING DEVICE (A MODIFIED EDINBURGH FOODBALL) ON THE BEHAVIOR OF THE STABLED HORSE

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.