Stability over situations in temperamental traits of horses as revealed by experimental and scoring approaches

• Published in: Behavioural processes Vol. 41; no. 3; pp. 257 - 266
• Main Authors: Le Scolan, Nathalie, Hausberger, Martine, Wolff, Anja
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shannon Elsevier B.V 01.12.1997; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animal biology; Animal ethology; Behavioural tests; Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Horse; Life Sciences; Mammalia; Neurons and Cognition; Psychology and behavior; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Ratings; Temperament; Vertebrata; Behavioural tests; Temperament; Horse; Ratings; Equus caballus; Affect affectivity; Evaluation; Memory; Teacher; Instrumental conditioning; Emotion emotionality; Man animal relation; Learning; Sport; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Acquisition process; Behavioral analysis; Familiarity strangeness; Equitation; Object; Perissodactyla; Ungulata
• ISSN: 0376-6357; 1872-8308
• DOI: 10.1016/S0376-6357(97)00052-1

Individual behavioural reactions of adult horses in a variety of experimental tests were compared with ratings by riding teachers. The tests were made in a non working situation, with the animals being released in an arena, a box (arena test, new object test, learning tests) or handled (new object/handling situation). The traits rated by teachers were fearfulness, nervousness, gregariousness and learning abilities at work (ridden or handled). Despite a great homogeneity in the reactions exhibited by the horses in the different situations, large individual differences were present. Correlations appeared between the reactivity in the arena test and the score of gregariousness, between the reactivity in the novel object test and the rating of nervousness when ridden, between the results in the handling test and the rating of general fearfulness and between the ability to memorise an instrumental task and the score of general learning ability. Such results strengthen the idea that there are underlying behavioural dispositions that are stable across situations and that the experimental tests may be good predictors of the temperament in untrained animals.