Stable Vices (Book Excerpt)
Michael Ball, DVM
May 24, 2006
A stable vice is an undesirable behavior shown by horses that are stall bound but also in pastures or small paddocks.
A stable vice is an undesirable behavior shown by horses that are stall bound but also in pastures or small paddocks.
The 2006 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event drew more than 90,000 equine enthusiasts to the Kentucky Horse Park, and Lexington’s Hagyard Equine Medical Institute (HEMI) used the opportunity to educate horse owners on common health issues
If you’re going to enjoy trail riding, you need a horse with a good temperament. You may have the best-conformed horse in the world, with sound limbs and body, but that will matter little if the horse is mentally and emotionally unsuited
I have a BS in animal science and am now taking graduate courses in animal behavior while working to save up for vet school. A topic we are discussing in class is comparative cognition in a psychology and neurobiology program. This has to do wit
To work with horses successfully, we must be able to communicate adequately with voice, touch, and body language.
I am looking into ways to settle down a colt that is showing full-blown sexual interest already at a 1 1/2 years of age. He’s just too much for us to handle, but we are not ready to geld him. If you try to correct him when he’s all excited, he
Throughout their existence, horses have been prey animals. Predators have been pursuing and feasting on them for eons, and they continue doing so today, despite the fact that domestication of the horse and the spread of civilization in general
When your horse’s behavior changes, you wonder what caused the change–did he start kicking his stall because he is in pain, or just because he hates his new stablemate? Behavior changes can stem from physical problems, psychological ones, or a
“Until recently, horses have been estimated to have average intelligence at best,” said Evelyn B. Hanggi, MS, PhD, president and, along with Jerry Ingersoll, co-founder of the Equine Research Foundation (ERF) in Aptos, Calif., during her review
It comes as no surprise that a Swiss study of kick injuries to veterinarians found that the risk of injury to veterinarians treating horses is highest when performing painful procedures on the horse. In the study, Sabina Jaeggin, assistant at th
I’m studying for an MSc in Equine Science and am researching equine behavior. Having studied scientific literature, including your catalog of horse behavior (The Equid Ethogram, A Practical Field Guide to Horse Behavior), I cannot find any
An English researcher wants to provide a reliable and accurate way of identifying the personality of individual horses. Adele Lloyd, MSc, a Moulton College research associate based in Northampton (Central England), wants to study whether a horse
Is it possible to keep a gelding at pasture with a stallion and his harem?
My horse constantly kicks his stall, and in the pasture he’s very rough with other horses, biting and kicking them.
I hope you remember me from psychology graduate school back in the early ’80s. Time flies. Anyway, I still have horses and enjoy your contributions on behavior to The Horse magazine and web site. Sometimes I wish I had gone into horse or dog
What suggestions do you have for keeping a horse calm during transport without hay, or reducing the dust in the trailer?
Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with
