By Jessica Morton Surely every horse owner has wondered at one point or another what their horse would say to them if they could talk. One of the questions many...
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Chloe Bailey
Attachment theory and the safe haven effect Attachment theory is a psychological theory that describes the bond between a child and a caregiver. Attachment theory has been observed in both...
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Chloe Bailey
Humans have trained horses for thousands of years. Many methods of keeping and handling horses have been inherited from tradition and not necessarily from science. The equestrian community is gradually...
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Chloe Bailey
Competition horses are sometimes not turned out for fear of injury. Horses naturally like to live in herds, but in modern times competition horses are sometimes not turned out with...
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Chloe Bailey
A group of researchers in the Canada set out to see if magnesium supplements could reduce stress in horses performing difficult tasks. Six horses were given either acepromazine (a tranquillizer...
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Chloe Bailey
When training horses, it is common to use both visual and auditory cues, especially when working from the ground. Researchers based in Australia set out to test four hypothesis: whether...
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Chloe Bailey
Social learning is the process whereby animals learn by observing each other. Previously, we reported on a study which concluded horses cannot solve a spatial task by watching another horse....
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Chloe Bailey
Photo credit: Margo Harrison / Shutterstock.com Over the last few years, the popularity of bitless bridles has increased. This has generated alot of debate around whether bitted or bitless is...
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Chloe Bailey
Natural horsemanship methods as taught by Pat Parelli and Monty Roberts involve interpreting the horse’s body language during training to decipher whether the horse is relaxed and accepting of the...
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Chloe Bailey
A recent study conducted by Italian researchers showed horses can use observed human activity to solve a delayed task more accurately than previously thought. In this particular experiment they...
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Chloe Bailey
A joint study by researchers in the USA and Europe looked at whether horses respond to harsh versus soft voice cues when completing a frightening task. The researchers hypothesized that...
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Chloe Bailey
A study by researchers at the University of Sydney found that Thoroughbreds sell for less and are valued for different attributes compared to other breeds sold for adult recreational riding...
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Chloe Bailey
Researchers at the University of Bristol conducted a study of 194 pasture kept horses living in groups, and found that body condition score correlated significantly with herd hierarchy. Dominant horses...
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Chloe Bailey
Recent research from Iceland can be added to a long list of studies which have found that horses do not learn very well by observing others. Social learning is where...
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Chloe Bailey
Researchers at the University of Nottingham Trent explored the differences in stress levels and handling behaviour of horses in four different housing situations, ranging for isolated to group housing. The...
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Chloe Bailey
In humans, clinical depression is diagnosed by the occurrence of a variety of symptoms. One of these symptoms can be anhedonia- the loss of pleasure. Anhedonia has been successfully modelled...
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Chloe Bailey