1st Edition
Horse Behaviour Explained Origins, Treatment and Prevention of Problems
This book is a general guide to understanding horse behavior, how the horse learns and how horse handlers can adjust their behavior to avoid creating anxiety in the horse. The author begins by providing an overview of the evolution of the horse and the consequences of domestication. She goes on to provide a very detailed description of normal equine behavior and its impact on husbandry and training. This is followed by the causes of abnormal and undesirable behavior in the stable, handling and when being ridden. The author links difficulties arising from the management of horses today with the natural behavior of the horse and recommends therapeutic, as well as training, methods for horses exhibiting behavioral problems.
The central theme of this book is prevention or cure of undesirable behavior through understanding making this book useful to anyone who routinely works with horses, and is concerned with equine wellbeing.
The horse’s adaptability to the environment
Evolution
Domestication
Ontogenesis
Limitations of behavioral adaptability
Inborn behavioral patterns – implications for management and handling
Daily routine of free-roaming horses
Social behavior
Breeding behavior
Mare-foal behavior
Eating behavior
Drinking behavior
Resting behavior
Locomotion behavior
Excretion and marking behavior
Comfort behavior
Playing behavior
Curiosity and exploration behavior
Causes, diagnosis, therapy and prevention of problem behavior
Behavioural aberration or unwanted behavior?
Classification of behavioral abnormalities
Causes and triggers of problem behavior
Diagnosis of problem behavior
Basics of handling and learning psychology
Therapy and prevention of problem behavior
Problem behavior in the stable
Feeding behavior
Locomotion behavior
Social behavior
Comfort behavior
Resting behavior
Problem behavior during handling and use
Unwanted behavior during handling
Unwanted behavior during use
Biography
Margit Zeitler-Feicht
…the photographs and line drawings are of very high quality and are used very effectively…a useful and user-friendly text.
—Irish Veterinary Journal
This book is a welcome combination of the scientific and the practical…it would be hard to think of a behavioural problem which cannot be found in this book.
—Equine Behaviour Forum
