THE PREVALENCE OF ABNORMAL BEHAVIORS IN DRESSAGE, EVENTING AND ENDURANCE HORSES IN RELATION TO STABLING

The behaviour of horses competing in different disciplines was studied and the relationship between the time they spent out of the stable an d the prevalence of abnormal behaviour was examined, The owners of dre ssage, eventing and endurance horses were sent a questionnaire and a t otal of 1101 responses were received, giving data on 1750 horses, The behaviours studied were wood-chewing, weaving, crib-biting/wind-suckin g and box-walking, The reported percentage prevalences of abnormal beh aviour for the dressage, eventing and endurance horses were 32.5, 30.8 and 19.5, respectively. The relationship between the time spent in th e stable and the prevalence of abnormal behaviour was examined by chi( 2) tests which showed that there were significant linear trends for th e eventing group (P< 0.01) and the dressage group (P< 0.05). It is con cluded that the time a horse spends out of the stable is related to th e discipline for which it is being trained and in dressage and eventin g horses the time spent in a stable is correlated with an increased ri sk of abnormal behaviour.