Talk:Horse behavior

message: Nice job moving this article from the horse page and illustrating it!
Montanabw 15:01, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

message: The Russian Wikipedia has a partially overlapping article specifically about horse herds, over here.  The first section deals with herds in the wild, while the second deals with herds in captivity. Just thought I'd mention it, since this article is strangely bereft of interwiki links currently... Esn 04:26, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: In other languages

message: Discussion of herd behavior should be carried out here instead of reverting and edit warring.  Wild horses are subject to considerable anthromorphism and romanticism.  I suggest that this sections begin to be sourced.  To that end, I have started to add some material.
If there are differences of opinion, then the controversy should be worked out here and if consensus cannot be reached, the controversy itself can be described and discussed in a fair manner within the article, not by an edit war of reverting other people's hard work.  Thanks Montanabw 19:08, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Discuss terminology here, not more edit warring, please 

message: Currently:
"This is to be expected of a prey animal, one that needs to be ready on a moment's notice to flee from predators." 
(Etc., about "prey" status.)
Do mice sleep standing up? Can a cat, a "predator" be killed and eaten if caught asleep?
So it looks like the issue is not being "prey", but the specific nature of the horse and its environment -- being exposed on grassy plains, having a certain time delay to get standing and start running, having limited self-defense capabilities and limited group social defense behavior.
But being Wikipedia that thesis needs to be supported by references -- not my logic.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.36.148.235 (talk) 19:39, 6 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: There are references, and if you feel more are needed, feel free to add the "fact" tag and we can dig up yet more.  I can see if rephrasing the sentence clarifies matters.  Montanabw(talk) 05:30, 7 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sleep Patterns of "Prey" Animal 

message: Hello,
we are having a problem with our mare freaking out when saddled. We have had her one year was told she was slightly cinchy but she never did anything. Over the winter she reared after getting the saddle on then was fine for the rest of the winter.
This Spring she started getting nervous when you put the saddle on but doesn't do much until you lunge her with it on. Then she bucks, kicks and races around. after a while she calms done and is fine. We have had a chiropractor and a therapist work on her but could not find anything significant...no soreness.  The chiropractor did say she had very tight neck and shoulder muscles that we do stretches for and they have gone down a lot but hasn't changed her behavior.  
She does not act like she is being naughty but more like she is afraid and is trying to get-away from something. What else could this be?  I want to help her.  Thank you, 
Cynde  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.52.255.9 (talk) 15:49, 18 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Sorry, this is an area for discussing the article on saddling.  I recommend you post your question over on the horse section or Yahoo! Answers or some of the other horse chat forums (Horse Illustrated magazine also has a good one for beginners).  There are usually some good people there who can help you.  You may also want to look for a good horse trainer in your local area who can give you personal advice.  Good luck! Montanabw(talk) 06:19, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

text: Well, this isn't a problem-solving forum, so note the advice given to the person above.  But to answer you anyway, what's going on is just a dominance battle.  If no one is fighting, then over time the new horse may be accepted into the herd.  (However, horses are like 1000 pound cats, and sometimes just will be quirky and decide to pick on one member of the herd.  I don't know why)  For more advice, though, I'd go to a bulletin board forum where you are apt to get a wide range of answers.  Montanabw(talk) 18:25, 1 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Saddleing Troubles 

message: I am no expert in horse behavior, but I noticed that much of the information in this article is not attributed to any source.  Some of it may therefore be original research.  I have added tags noting this issue.  69.211.26.45 (talk) 06:06, 28 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Unsourced Claims

message: The headline could and should be changed to Domesticated horse behavior or an additional section with the different behavior of asses is needed. 
Reason for that being is that the Ass is a member of the horse family and does show some quite different behavior. Please compare the [African Wild Ass] with this article.Amrbc (talk) 14:26, 23 December 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: This article is about horses, not asses.  No need for a title change.  The only living true "wild" horse species is the Przewalski's horse.  If someone wishes to create a separate article on the behavior of asses, I would not stop them.   Montanabw(talk) 02:30, 26 December 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Change of article headline 

message: I think it would be great if the article had audio samples of each of the different types of noises horses make. That would be particularly useful for people not 100% familiar with English, as well as people that haven't been around horse related conversations much. --TiagoTiago (talk) 02:04, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: If you find any, put the URL here are we will take a listen.  Montanabw(talk) 23:04, 14 January 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Audio samples of each of the different type of vocalizations/sounds please? 

message: I have seen references to stallions in all-stallion (domesticated) paddocks in the middle-east, where large owners keep more ungelded horses than is usual in the US and Europe, forming pair-bonds and "looking out" for each other in the wider group. This seems to help to stablise the social structure of what is in effect a large bachelor group, and decreases aggression. I have no reference for this, so will not try and add it to the article, but I find it interesting. In a smaller, domensticated group I notice that a newly added (elderly) mare quickly sought the companionship of the largest gelding, presumably for the same reason. I have no information on how domestic all-mare, non-breeding groups organise themselves (this is probably a rare situation). 212.159.59.41 (talk) 10:19, 6 June 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: All-stallion "bachelor herds" are used by the Piber Federal Stud with young Lipizzans as well.  I have not seen specific "pair bonds" discussed, though horses in general DO seem to have "buddies" that they get along with better than others within a herd.  If you find some source material here, feel free to share the link as herd dynamics are rather interesting in that respect.  Montanabw(talk) 17:14, 6 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Stallion behaviour in all-stallion groups 

message: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion#Other_animals
if someone wants to include this.. btw: the etymology of the word Harassment by itself is interesting when it comes to horses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harassment#Etymology
Paranoid Android1208 (talk) 21:10, 19 June 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Looks to be more medical than behaviorial.  Montanabw(talk) 15:25, 20 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Harassment/Abortion 

message: Role of the lead mare: This section gives conflicting information.  The idea of a "Lead mare" is not supported by the 1 reference that is given. The section needs further references, or should follow the information given in the source.DrChrissy (talk) 11:01, 23 August 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: I posted the above without realising there was already a thread on this topic.  I will repost it on the thread above, so please take comments there to keep the page tidy.DrChrissy (talk) 11:10, 23 August 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: It's a complex topic.  Clearly horse herds have a hierarchy and mares are leaders.  The idea that the harem stallion "leads" the herd is a myth, he is a protector and such, but the mares are the leaders to water, etc.  Recent studies actually indicate that leadership is even more complex then a straight hierarchy; some horses have leadership roles in one domain (first to eat, first to drink) but not others (another horse may decide when to move to new grazing, etc.). My own thinking is that this article should be subjected to an article improvement drive where the most recent research is reviewed and added.  With common sense.  (There is a lot of nonsense research out there, too...)  Montanabw(talk) 22:31, 23 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Role of the lead mare 

message: It's too confusing to tease out all the old threads above, so let's look at them here.  I reviewed the studies cited and drew very different conclusions from the other editor, probably because a)  I know horses quite well, and b) There is simply very, very little rigorous study out there, and most of the newer stuff has been what I call "proving the obvious" stuff that I suppose must be done, but it still seems very silly (like the study I mentioned about how someone "proved" that too much hot feed made horses harder to handle...duh) or, very poorly designed studies to "prove" or disprove a theory... there was one where they hoped to debunk the value of imprinting on foals, but the study basically was so poorly done that the methods used weren't even proper imprinting methods.  I'm doing a bit of a rewrite to not draw conclusions beyond what is out there.  Montanabw(talk) 16:54, 25 August 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Montanabw - what topic are you talking about here?DrChrissy (talk) 21:34, 25 August 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: The lead mare stuff, mostly.  Kruger's study got a lot of press, but it wasn't a terribly good study, it was a bunch of grad students following a herd of horses around for 15 days over two years. No predator pressures, no food pressures, no water routes, no following herds under truly "wild" conditions.  As far as it went, even she had to acknowledge that the herd was more likely to follow the older, more dominant horses.  The only real point she made is that horse herds aren't completely rigid in their hierarchy, which is not news to anyone who actually understands herd dynamics... the dominant horse may become less dominant with age, they may have a personality that isn't particularly bossy, horses form smaller social groups (they do make "friends") and so on.  Her study did not "debunk" the "lead mare myth", it just noted situations where it was more fluid. Montanabw(talk) 05:23, 26 August 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not sure that anyone is claiming that the study "debunks" the lead mare idea.  However, the study is evidence contrary to the hypothesis that a single female regularly leads the remainder of the herd to resources.  When researching this, I was surprised at the lack of evidence for a lead mare, given that it is so strenuously argued by some. However, for the sake of a balanced argument, I have presented both sides.  I genuinely feel that a more adamant editor would insist on qualification of the first sentence with something like "It is believed by some, that herds have a lead mare".DrChrissy (talk) 11:46, 26 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  New discussion 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 5 external links on Horse behavior. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130306182338/http://www.endotext.org/adrenal/adrenal5/adrenal5.htm to http://www.endotext.org/adrenal/adrenal5/adrenal5.htm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130808004906/http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/fight_flight/ to http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/fight_flight/
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071114070850/http://sleepdisorders.about.com/cs/sleepdeprivation/a/animalkingdom_5.htm to http://sleepdisorders.about.com/cs/sleepdeprivation/a/animalkingdom_5.htm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070408100639/http://esc.rutgers.edu/publications/factsheets_nutrition/FS038.htm to http://www.esc.rutgers.edu/publications/factsheets_nutrition/FS038.htm
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070407081251/http://esc.rutgers.edu/publications/general/fs525.htm to http://www.esc.rutgers.edu/publications/general/fs525.htm
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 03:33, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Feral and wild bands may range from two to 25 individuals, mostly mares and their offspring, with one to five stallions.[17]
The cited paper does not contain anything  about 5 stallions in a harem . It contains that one stallion is at position 5 of the dominance hierarchy. Etron770 (talk) 07:27, 27 October 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  one to five stallions.[17] 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 5 external links on Horse behavior. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070328220918/http://www.horseconnection.com/site/archive/story-feb06.html to http://www.horseconnection.com/site/archive/story-feb06.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070630064947/http://www.advs.usu.edu/academics/pdf/ADVS3910WildHorses.pdf to http://www.advs.usu.edu/academics/pdf/ADVS3910WildHorses.pdf
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120308000149/http://www.effem-equine.com/Waltham%20-%20Horse/behavioural_aspects/the_natural_horse.html to http://www.effem-equine.com/Waltham%20-%20Horse/behavioural_aspects/the_natural_horse.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070927193341/http://equisearch.com/horses_care/health/behavior/eqzzz629/ to http://equisearch.com/horses_care/health/behavior/eqzzz629/
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070510051620/http://equisearch.com/horses_care/health/behavior/sleepdisorder_121506/ to http://equisearch.com/horses_care/health/behavior/sleepdisorder_121506/
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 21:20, 6 November 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: This is surely an appalling leading paragraph and not at all the good style we hope for on Wikipedia.  The first paragraph should introduce and summarise the whole subject, not go straight into one aspect of it, poorly written.  I know nothing of Horse behaviour, which is why I came here, but even I feel like trying to fix it. Yeah, I'm going to "Be Bold"- if you don't like it improve it :)
IceDragon64 (talk) 00:30, 1 February 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm going to copy edit this article as a whole, including the first paragraph. I won't be making any content changes or changing/adding citations.  -- Alkunzle (talk) 20:39, 14 September 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Leading Paragraph?