How Social Setting Impacts a Horse\u27\u27s Behavior: A Behavioral Analysis of Horses Through Scan-Sampling

Equus ferus caballus, commonly known as the domestic horse, is a non-territorial social animal that lives in herds. Herds have a dominance hierarchy, and social bonds between E. f. caballus contribute to herd stability and are reflected in behavior. E. f. caballus can display both aggressive and relaxed behaviors. In this experiment, behaviors of E. f. caballus were assessed in the subjects’ original social environment, and then again in a novel social environment to determine if this change altered their behaviors. I used scan-sampling to record the behaviors of the observed horses each minute for thirty minutes. When placed into a novel social environment the total number of aggressive behaviors between all observed horses rose, while the total number of relaxed behaviors fell. In the chi-square test, the p-value was less than 0.05, meaning there was statistically significant difference between behaviors in the original social environment versus a novel social environment. It can be concluded that horses respond to a change in social environment by becoming more aggressive