Facial expressions of the Caspian pony to its own picture, mirror and a combination of these two

Document Type : Full Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor, Institute of Technical & Vocational Higher Education of Agriculture Jahad.

Abstract

Abnormal behaviors of the horses are among the most important problems, in the ridding clubs, with the loneliness and boredom the two most important causes of these abnormal behaviors. The man power scarcity is the important reason many ridding clubs face and this is the reason why the abnormal behavior are mostly observed in such clubs. Current study is the first report regarding facial expressions of the Caspian Pony to different objects. Totally 10 Caspian ponies were used in this study. The pictures were taken both in the calm and in the furious (nervous) situation The pony’s pictures were the alternatives we used in this research to combat the man power scarcity!. We also used mirror to compare the expressions of the ponies to the pictures and mirror. The results of this study showed that the ponies showed more attention to the picture in calm position when compared with the picture in nervous position. In the box with the mirror and the picture (in calm position) in it, the ponies paid much more attention to the mirror than the picture. We conclude that despite of resistant of ponies for leaving outdoor and entering to indoor (paddock to box), installing mirror can prevent (almost completely) the horse’s boredom and loneliness, a very cheap (but not wise! alternative for manpower). The results of this research were applicable and were suggested to many ridding clubs with the horses with stereotypic behaviors, received almost completely positive results.

Keywords

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 21 April 2013
  • Revise Date: 30 January 2016
  • Accept Date: 23 July 2013

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