The behavior of the domesticated horse is very similar to its behavior in the wild, so observing wild equids is a rich source of information for those who want to understand horses and care for them appropriately. The science of ethology consists in observing how horses live in the wild and better understanding their behavioral needs. Ethology also involves studying how horses behave in the wild, and even reproducing their natural feeding habits.
Ethology: horse behavior in the wild
There are many definitions of ethology, as the field is not confined to the equestrian world.
The image of Épinal the black stallion reigning over a huge herd of wild horses is misleading. In the wild, the basic social structure of Equus caballus is the family or, more accurately, the harem. The most common groups are made up of an adult stallion, surrounded by one to five mares (depending on the strength and skill of the male) followed by their foals (foals, yearlings from the previous year, 2-year-olds and sometimes a few 3-year-olds). Each family thus comprises between 20 and 30 individuals.
There are also groups of young single males. At the age of 2 or 3, the foals are ousted from the family by their sire. They then gather in groups of two to twenty bachelors (groups of four are the most numerous). These herds include foals from 2 to 5 years old, as well as adult horses too weak or too old to conquer or maintain a family.
Horses hate solitude! The myth of the lonely old male has no place with them. Even the oldest stallions, those who have lost all their mates, spend less than 35% of their time alone. As for young males or those in the prime of life, they can’t bear to be alone for more than 2 to 8% of their time. Isolating our domestic stallions is therefore heresy from an ethological point of view!
Ethology in mares and stallions
When it comes to conquering their first mares, sometimes 2 bachelors join forces. But families with more than one stallion have a much shorter life expectancy than mono-patriarchal families.
Equine harems are not very stable. Mares, especially young ones, tend to change groups quite easily. The stallion must therefore make every effort to prevent his youngest conquests from following the first man in line. Like a sheepdog, he quickly brings back to the fold any mare who tries to bolt. He then adopts the characteristic guiding posture. He lowers his head and neck sharply, ears back, and steers his girl from behind. This “macho” activity is very time-consuming for herd leaders.
The father of the family also must defend his female companions from attempted kidnapping by other males. This is when the famous stallion fights take place. These jousts are more frequent in spring when the mares become receptive again after foaling. The outcome of these fights often remains obscure to the human observer. Ethological researchers often confess to being unable to determine the winner, whether it’s the incumbent sultan or his challenger. The ferocity of these clashes between stallions is matched only by the indifference of the mares at stake. The coveted members of the gynaeceum continue to graze, as if nothing had happened. This is a very different kind of behavior from that of horses in a riding school or breeding farm.
Ethology in the way you feed your horse
It must be said that feeding horses is a full-time activity… with overtime. All ethological studies show that horses spend almost 60% of their time eating, i.e., between fourteen and sixteen hours a day, depending on the nutritional qualities of the grass. Equids are pre-programmed to snack in this way all day and well into the night. Therefore, they suffer from laminitis when grazed on overly rich grass. No sense of satiety interrupts their never-ending meal.
This apparent paradox is linked to the specific nature of horses. Their ecological niche, the one that determined their evolution, is the steppe: a vast expanse of poor vegetation. Horses are less efficient than ruminants (such as cows) when it comes to converting plant cellulose into energy. They do, however, have a trump card: they can spend much more time eating than ruminants (in fact, they have no choice), as they don’t need to ruminate. Therefore, equines can live in regions too arid for cattle. Horses also have a second card that enables them to survive in inhospitable regions, such as the Nevada desert: they are gifted endurance racers! It was long believed that the evolutionary driving force behind horses’ ability to grow and walk on the tip of a single finger was the pressure exerted by predators. The faster the wolves ran, the faster the horses had to run to escape them… In fact, this was not the only selection factor. The need to find food undoubtedly required the ability to make long migrations (as today’s wildebeests in Kenya and Tanzania do). Only the largest animals, with the greatest ability to move quickly and at low energy cost, would have survived. Therefore, the horse is the only mammal that is so strong, so fast and so enduring all at the same time.
Ethology and the horse in the wild
The fact is horses today are not territorial. They don’t defend their private property against other representatives of their species, as do donkeys, dogs, or cats, for example. They are not attached to the land! In the meagre spaces granted to them by mankind in the great American parks or in the Australian bush, horses that have returned to the wild still move around a lot.
They spend at least two hours a day walking from one point to another, constantly on the move as they graze. Based on ethology, it is estimated that free-ranging horses cover an average of some 20 km a day, with peaks of 80 km a day when they need to find water. Interestingly, it’s often the oldest mare in the group who leads the way, at the head of the single file characteristic of horse processions. The stallion leads the way, to check that everyone is keeping up. Given the amount of time they spend feeding and moving around, horses have little time for rest: barely five or six hours a day. For potential prey, sleep is dangerous!
The members of a group therefore take it in turns to stand guard, with one animal always on the alert while the others sleep. What’s more, since most predators hunt at night, it’s in the horse’s interest to be a night owl. In fact, free horses spend 60% of their nights awake.
A horse’s sleep can be broken down into 3 distinct phases, divided between day and night. Sometimes, they’re content to doze standing up, with their hindquarters at rest. But to really sleep, horses need to lie down. They take their slow-wave (dreamless) sleep lying down in a cow-like position (ventral decubitus), in short periods of a few tens of minutes, totaling just under three hours a day. Periods of REM sleep are even shorter and more fragmented, with the horse taking around 9 per day, in five-minute periods. When he dreams, he’s completely relaxed and stretched out on his side (lateral decubitus). He hears nothing and sleeps through his deepest sleep. His status as prey forbids him to abandon himself so completely to Morpheus’ arms for longer periods.
Ethology and the observation of a complex hierarchy in horses
Within families, the hierarchical system is blurrier, more subtle, and more complex than we might imagine. When feeding on grass, access to food hardly requires competition between members of the species. On the other hand, spending years side by side forges strong friendships. Ethologist Marthe Kiley-Worthington points out that in horses, friendly, peaceful behavior is far more common than aggressive reactions. Nevertheless, when access to food and/or water is restricted, a hierarchy based on aggression is established within groups of horses. It’s often the older mares that take precedence over the younger ones.
Some broodmares allow their yearlings to suckle a few times. The foal then benefits from the example of both parents until his third year. He also learns to respect his elders, who are quick to put him firmly in his place when he becomes too intrusive. In contrast, the brutal weaning practiced before 6 months in breeding circles seems unnecessarily traumatic. On the other hand, keeping foals together, away from the adults, deprives them of the latter’s educational role and risks turning them into poorly socialized and badly behaved horses…
Another glaring discrepancy between the natural lifestyle of horses, as promoted by ethology, and that which is imposed on them: the breeding season. In nature, mares come into heat from late spring to late summer (April to October). For the Haras Nationaux (national stud farms), the breeding season for horses begins in February and ends in mid-July, i.e., with a gap of almost three months. As in all harems, crony relationships and rivalries are also formed. So, the horses have their heads too: those they find sympathetic and those they find unsympathetic.
But let’s return to the ethological teachings and the family group, formed around the stallion. Foals stay close to their mothers at least until the age of 2, often 3. It’s only at this age that the sire pushes the male foals away and the fillies run off with another stallion. So, foal weaning is very gradual. The mare only really pushes them away after a year, compared with the natural cycle. As a result, breeders’ resort to various drugs and subterfuges to bring forward the coming into heat of their broodmares. This aberration is due solely to the administrative regulations, which stipulate that all horses come into heat on the first of January. In competitions for young horses, foals born in midsummer are penalized in comparison with those born artificially in early spring or late winter.
If we are to become true riders, we need to make even greater efforts to create a more natural life for our horses.
To find out more: the ethology movement
