Sound Enrichment Effects on the Welfare of Stabled Horses

Veterinary

Health Care

-- This study was conducted by Chloe Bolanos, Essam Mahmoud Abdelfattah, Susan Keen, and Amy McLean and presented at the 2024 ISES Conference

Sound Enrichment Effects on the Welfare of Stabled Horses

Summary

Equids exhibit frustration behaviours, such as pawing or kicking, due to management practices and confinement, thus indicating a past or current issue with welfare. To improve welfare and create a good life for horses, sound as a form of environmental enrichment may be used to decrease the performance of frustration behaviour. Based on the results of the present study, sound enrichment exposure decreases frustration behaviour in stabled horses. Furthermore, nature sounds may be an optimal sound as they increase foraging. Assessing sound enrichment further may help create a good life for horses by promoting natural behaviour and preventing abnormal behaviour.

The Study

Horses that are stabled spend most of their day standing with little to no enrichment. This may lead to the expression of frustration behaviours and other abnormal behaviours. Research in horses and other captive animals suggests that environmental enrichment may reduce the expression of frustration behaviours, such as pawing or kicking, and increase naturalistic behaviours, such as foraging.

Sound is one form of environmental enrichment that has been associated with reduced abnormal behaviour expression. As frustration and abnormal behaviours can be used as indicators of past or present welfare issues, sound was assessed for effectiveness as a tool to improve welfare in stabled horses.

This study aimed to investigate if sound enrichment decreased frustration behaviour compared to the control periods (Pre and Post-Enrichment). A second objective investigated which sound was an optimal environmental enrichment tool to improve the welfare of stabled horses.

Behavioural observations were done on stabled warmblood horses (n=6) for two weeks in 1-hour periods twice a day (12:00-13:00, 16:00-17:00). The expression of several behaviours was measured, including foraging, frustration, social interactions, and stereotypic behaviours across five different sounds (Jazz, Country, Nature Sounds, Lullaby and Classical) against a Pre- and Post-Enrichment Control Day. Statistical analysis was performed comparing differences between days using a mixed-effects logistic regression model in Stata, and significance was set at p<0.05. Frustration behaviour expression was significantly increased (p<0.05) when jazz music was played compared to the Pre-Enrichment Control Day. Furthermore, frustration behaviour expression was significantly decreased (p<0.05) from pre-enrichment to post-enrichment, thus displaying that sound enrichment may be a tool to improve the behavioural welfare of stabled horses.

Foraging behaviour was significantly increased when nature sounds were played compared to pre-enrichment, while a significant decrease in foraging behaviour was observed when jazz music was played.

These results suggest that sound enrichment may decrease the expression of frustration behaviour overall and that nature sounds may be the optimal form of sound enrichment to promote naturalistic behaviours such as foraging. Further research may assess the effectiveness of sound enrichment in reducing other equids' expression of frustration behaviour.