Questionnaires for Guessing Horses Emotions from Their Body Part Expressions Accompanied with Social Behavior

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  • 社会行動にともなう身体的特徴からウマの情動を推察するためのアンケート調査
  • シャカイ コウドウ ニ トモナウ シンタイテキ トクチョウ カラ ウマ ノ ジョウドウ オ スイサツ スル タメ ノ アンケート チョウサ

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Abstract

Understanding horses’ body expressions appearing with their social behavior can be a useful information for managing horses, because a horse might show the same expressions to humans as to other horses. In this study, we distributed questionnaires to horse handlers (trainers, riders and grooms) and non-horse handlers (panelists having little chances to see horses) asking them to guess horses social situations only from the pictures of pairs of horses, and asking them which parts of the body were observed for guessing. As the results, the average number of correct answers of 189 horse handlers or 53 non-horse handlers was 6.01 (out of eleven questions ; percentage of correct guessing was 54.6%) or 5.26 (47.9%), respectively. In both groups, the numbers of correct answers were significantly higher than the expected value assuming that they answered these questions randomly. But horse handlers answered more correctly than non-horse handlers. The most, second and third frequently observed body parts for guessing by horse handlers were ears (38.0% ; represented as percentage to opportunity of observations), whole body (33.5%) and whole face (23.9%), respectively. In non-horse handlers, the most frequently observed part was ears (29.6%), and the second and the third were whole face (20.6%) and eyes (15.6%), respectively. The horse handlers, who answered correctly to more than seven questions (“above 7”) observed ears and whole body more frequently than those who answered correctly to less than six questions (“below 6”). The non-horse handlers, “above 7” observed horses’ necks and whole body more frequently than “below 6”. In some questions, horses social situations could be guessed by observing that a horse turned his ears or neck toward another horse (ex. ; a submissive horse turned his ears to the dominant one to get attention), which were similar in horse handlers and non-horse handlers. In the case when the direction of horses’ ears or neck was at a certain aspect regardless of another’s position (ex, : a horse pointed back his ears to threaten another), the observed parts by horse handlers and non-horse handlers differed, and horse handlers guessed the situations more correctly than non-horse handlers. In conclusion, horses’ body expressions, especially the directions of ears and necks, can be a useful indicator for guessing horses’ social situations. And evaluating these aspects base on experience of seeing horses is important.

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