Where the wild horses roam free, daily hoof tracks can be followed for miles. Now thanks to new, lightweight GPS technology, Australian researchers are no longer following tracks but recording satellite signals from various wild horse herds as well as domestic horses. Their studies suggest that through domestication and stabling, horses have taken on movement patterns that might be negatively affecting their well-being.

GPS-equipped collars, weighing 1.5-pounds each, were fitted onto the horses and worn for study periods lasting 6.5 days, according to Brian Hampson, postgraduate PhD scholar at the School of Veterinary Sciences of the University of Queensland and primary author of two recently published studies on the research. Wild horses were immobilized for 15 minutes using humane darts to put the collars on and take them off later. The animals were tracked every five seconds, allowing the researchers to create detailed maps and calculate precise information on the horses' movement patterns.

Their results showed that horses are naturally good travelers, covering average distances of around 10.6 miles per day in the wild. They would even get as far as 5 miles away from a watering source–or 34 miles away for the wild desert horses. These horses would frequently go up to four days without water and walk 12 hours nonstop to their watering point. However, Hampson cautioned that desert horses have probably genetically adapted to dry conditions over the past 140 years. Even so, other wild horses in the study living in rich grazing areas would go from one to three days without water, he said.

Meanwhile, domestic horses at pasture averaged only about four miles of movement every day, regardless of the size or structure of the pasture. Even in pastures as large as 39.5 acres with relatively few horses, the maximum daily average was only 4.5 miles. Movement was significantly less for stalled horses given turnout time in a yard, Hampson said. They averaged only about 0.6 miles of free daily movement