Hästar i skrämmande situationer
en jämförelse mellan hanterad respektive fri habituering
In connection with riding and handling of horses, many accidents that can cause severe injuries to both horses and humans are existent. The cause is in most cases that the horse is frightened. The horse's fear also affects its usefulness and it has been shown to have adverse effects on the horse's welfare. To increase safety and improve the welfare of both humans and horses, it is important to find appropriate training methods to reduce the fear of horses in frightening situations. This experimental study compares handled habituation to free habituation. The aim was to study the impact of these training methods on the horse's behaviour and habituation, and to find out which method is most successful to reduce the fear of horses in frightening situations. Twenty horses were randomly divided into groups of ten horses per training method. The horses had three training sessions each and then they were tested for the task, to go over a bridge consisting of assembled plywood boards lying on the ground.
About half of the horses passed the task, to go over the bridge, either correctly or with some small error. Only a very small difference between the two training methods were observed, handled habituation was found to be slightly better. Instead, a difference between horses with different use/breed and personality could be observed. The results indicate that the horses in the both training methods were calm during the test, all went with lowered heads and without any signs of escape behaviours or tenseness. During the training sessions the horses in handled habituation were closer to the bridge (P