Equine Behavioural Problems
Various studies have looked at the occurrence of repetitive behaviours in the horse commonly known as vices or stereotypies
Prevalence of "vices" in reported studies 1993-1998 (Nicol 1999)
|
|
Behaviour | |||
Crib-biting |
Weaving |
Box-walking |
Wood chewing |
|
No. of populations studied |
13 | 13 | 13 | 6 |
mean |
4.13 | 3.25 | 2.20 | 11.78 |
sd |
2.57 | 3.23 | 2.33 | 6.12 |
median |
3.66 | 1.98 | 3.5 | 12.00 |
min |
0 | 0 | 0 | 5.00 |
max |
8.3 | 9.5 | 7.32 | 20.00 |
These are not the only type of problem that horses have. The following data are from New York State College of Veterinary Medicine and are the cases seen prior to 1980 -Houpt
- Stable "vices" 27%
- Aggression 27%
- Misbehaviour under saddle 16%
- Trailer problems 8%
- Self-mutilation 8%
- Refusal to run 5%
- Refusal to race 5%
- Phobias 5%
- Failure to breed 5%
- Cross cantering 5%
-
Headshaking 5%