Are You Setting Your Horse Up For Bad Behavior?

Research shows that confinement, feeding practices and other lifestyle factors can make a horse more likely to develop undesirable behaviors.

New research from Brazil confirms the connection between confining a horse to a stall without sufficient food to keep him occupied and an increased likelihood of undesirable behaviors.

The study focused on 105 mature Quarter Horses kept in box stalls at three separate training facilities. For at least 30 days before the study began, the horses were confined full-time, leaving their stalls only for one-hour daily training sessions to prepare them for barrel racing, team roping or cutting competitions.

Stall-kept horses who do not have sufficient may develop stereotypes and undesirable behaviors.

At each facility, the horses received two grain meals daily and were fed hay four times a day. The amount of hay and concentrates given to each horse was determined by his owner or the manager of the facility. The horses were all considered healthy with an average body condition score of 4 (moderately thin on a scale of 1 to 9), which is typical for horses in training.

The researchers analyzed the average diets of all the study horses to determine the approximate amount of dry-matter intake, along with protein, fiber and total energy. They then compared these amounts to recommendations made by the U.S. National Research Council (NRC).

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