A review of the human–horse relationship

Hausberger, Martine; Roche, Hélène; Henry, Séverine; Visser, E.K.

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2007.04.015

Cited by 253 publications

(228 citation statements)

References 120 publications

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“…As animals are tested by human experimenters in object choice tests, their relationship with the human should be considered, as the familiarity of a human experimenter may be of central importance. Socialisation and training may be the key factors in the different responses to familiar and unfamiliar persons in horses (Hausberger et al 2008), as has been reported for approaches to unknown and known persons in dogs (Rappolt 1979). Results for approaches and interactions with known and unknown persons by cattle are partly contradictory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…The approach to persons may indicate that some horses simply expected, or have learned, that food can be obtained from familiar persons. As the horse's long term memory has recently been shown to be excellent (Hanggi and Ingersoll 2009) and a multitude of prior experiences with well known humans would affect the horse's behaviour towards specific persons (Hausberger et al 2008), the horse's expectation of receiving food from familiar persons is not very surprising. However only one horse nudged at the person after the approach, which may be considered attention demanding behaviour , so it is possible that the horses may rather have adjusted to the person's focus of attention.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For this study we hypothesize: a) That the horse's performance may vary according to whether the tester is an unfamiliar or a familiar person. Previous findings (dogs: Rappolt 1979, horses: Hausberger et al 2008) suggest that some animals perform better in training tasks when tested by familiar persons. It remains to be seen whether this also applies to object choice tasks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Heart rate in cats varied according to whether they were petted by familiar or unfamiliar persons (Slingerland et al 2008). Generally, horses show similar reactions towards familiar and unfamiliar humans (Henry et al 2005;Lansade and Bouissou 2008), and they discriminate familiar and unfamiliar persons at the same speed (Stone 2010), which may be caused by the horse's generalization of positive and negative experiences from familiar to unfamiliar persons (Hausberger and Muller 2002;Hausberger et al 2008;Krueger 2007). Some authors propose that early contact with foals can lead to positive or negative associations with humans (Henry et al 2005(Henry et al , 2006Landsade et al 2004Landsade et al , 2005.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Horses (Equus caballus) use human local enhancement cues and adjust to human attention

et al. 2010

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This study evaluates the horse (Equus caballus) use of human local enhancement cues and reaction to human attention when making feeding decisions. The superior performance of dogs in observing human states of attention suggests this ability evolved with domestication. However, some species show an improved ability to read human cues through socialization and training. We observed 60 horses approach a bucket with feed in a three-way object choice task when confronted with a) an unfamiliar or b) a familiar person in 4 different situations: 1) squatting behind the bucket, facing the horse (2) standing behind the bucket, facing the horse (3) standing behind the bucket in a back-turned position, gazing away from the horse and (4) standing a few meters from the bucket in a distant, back-turned position, again gazing away from the horse. Additionally, postures 1 and 2 were tested both with the person looking permanently at the horse, and with the person alternating their gaze between the horse and the bucket. When the person remained behind the correct bucket it was chosen significantly above chance. However, when the test person was turned and distant from the buckets, the horses' performance deteriorated. In the turned person situations the horses approached a familiar person and walked towards their focus of attention significantly more often than with an unfamiliar person. Additionally, in the squatting and standing person situations, some horses approached the person before approaching the correct bucket. This happened more with a familiar person. We therefore conclude that horses can use humans as a local enhancement cue independently of their body posture or gaze consistency when the persons remain close to the food source, and that horses seem to orientate on the attention of familiar more than of unfamiliar persons. We suggest that socialization and training improve the ability of horses to read human cues.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Horses (Equus caballus) use human local enhancement cues and adjust to human attention

et al. 2010

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“…For this purpose, the investigation of the modality in which both human and horse can communicate might be crucial. Measuring and evaluating the impact of the interaction experience might be relevant [3]. Some studies investigated the equine perception of humans in terms of positive, negative or neutral valence [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Wearable System for the Evaluation of the Human-Horse Interaction: A Preliminary Study

et al. 2016

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Abstract:This study reports on a preliminary estimation of the human-horse interaction through the analysis of the heart rate variability (HRV) in both human and animal by using the dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm. Here, we present a wearable system for HRV monitoring in horses. Specifically, we first present a validation of a wearable electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring system for horses in terms of comfort and robustness, then we introduce a preliminary objective estimation of the human-horse interaction. The performance of the proposed wearable system for horses was compared with a standard system in terms of movement artifact (MA) percentage. Seven healthy horses were monitored without any movement constraints. As a result, the lower amount of MA% of the wearable system suggests that it could be profitably used for reliable measurement of physiological parameters related to the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity in horses, such as the HRV. Human-horse interaction estimation was achieved through the analysis of their HRV time series. Specifically, DTW was applied to estimate dynamic coupling between human and horse in a group of fourteen human subjects and one horse. Moreover, a support vector machine (SVM) classifier was able to recognize the three classes of interaction with an accuracy greater than 78%. Preliminary significant results showed the discrimination of three distinct real human-animal interaction levels. These results open the measurement and characterization of the already empirically-proven relationship between human and horse.

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