Biology Reference
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determine how “threatening” humans are perceived. Even short periods of
post-birth handling have long-term effects. Research shows that even brief
forced contact in newborn foals (assisting foals to stand and nurse), may
cause foals to avoid future contact with humans. The pre- and post-weaning
period is a critical period of behavioral development. Conditioned fear of
humans during this period by forced handling may, in some circumstances,
have long-term negative effects on behavior, health, and welfare.
The ability to select a horse for a particular role, especially from a young
age, is an attractive idea for breeders and trainers. Temperament tests have
been created by a range of organizations and researchers in order to predict
behavioral tendencies. The ultimate aim of temperament tests is that inter-
ested groups can perform the tests themselves and make use of the results.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Some tests are impractical, com-
plicated, and time consuming. Furthermore, in order for tests to be useful,
they must be able to predict a consistency of temperament over time. Since
consistency of the horse's response is what characterizes temperament, it is
important that measures are chosen that clearly demonstrate this consistency.
However, tests conducted over long periods of time are not practical for
most trainers or people interested in purchasing a horse. In a review of the
literature, the most reliable and consistent results are often found by expos-
ing horses to sudden, unexpected novelty, or exposing them to novel objects
or novel arenas that provoke sometimes severe reactions. In test situations
such as these, consideration should be given to the welfare of the animals
being evaluated, particularly when tests provoke fear, anxiety, or aggressive
behavior. Creating a situation which causes fear in horses to learn if they
have a fearful temperament, may have an effect on their future perception.
Horses don't know it's a test, all they know and learn is that humans make
them afraid. The umbrella tests used by the first author to illustrate the dif-
ferent reactions of his horses, had negative effects on one of the horses that
persisted for several days following the test. For some time after the test, his
calm and gentle mare, which was always easy to approach, became distrust-
ful and reluctant to approach. Another problem with temperament tests
conducted on adult horses is the influence of previous experience on temper-
ament. Severe stress during adolescence is known to be related to tempera-
ment change, but mild stress is also common during adolescence and should
not be ignored when studying temperament change. Even mild stressors can
influence changes in temperament, especially when multiple evens are expe-
rienced. However, evidence for stressful events during adolescence being
related to changes in temperament is scarce. Adding to the scarcity of
evidence of early environmental influences on temperament, stressful early
experiences may be more detrimental to individuals biologically predisposed
to fearfulness. All these factors are critical to understanding individual differ-
ences in temperament. Clearly, an easy and general means to assess biologi-
cal factors related to temperament are needed.
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