Are Fat Horses More Dominant Than Lean Ones?

Researchers found that dominant horses seem to be have higher body condition scores than their less-dominant herdmates.
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Imagine the scenario: You head to collect your horse from the field, peppermints in hand, only to find you can’t get close to him. Standing between you and your trusty companion is a roadblock—the dreaded dominant (and obese) herdmate, who refuses to let other horses near you until he’s cleaned up your peppermint supply.

“Could this horse’s size have something to do with his dominant position in the herd?” you wonder. Guess what—you’re not the first person to ask this question. A group of scientists from the University of Bristol and the WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition, both in the United Kingdom, had the same inquiry and set out to find the answer.

Sarah L. Giles, PhD, and colleagues recruited 194 horses and ponies from 42 herds in the United Kingdom; the horses in each herd had lived together for at least one month. The team gathered information on the sex, age, and height of each animal and evaluated each horse’s body condition score (on a nine-point scale, with animals scoring seven of higher classified as obese).

Then, the researchers determined the individual horses’ dominance ranks by conducting a feeding trial in which they distributed individual portions of food (either hay or chaff-based feed) at least one horse length apart. They recorded interactions using a video camera, starting when the first horse approached the feed and continuing until all of the feed was finished. The team also tallied the number of displacements—defined as one horse moving toward another and the second horse moving away—and used those numbers to calculate dominance rank within the herd

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Written by:

Kristen M. Janicki, a lifelong horsewoman, was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and later attended graduate school at the University of Kentucky, studying under Dr. Laurie Lawrence in the area of Equine Nutrition. Kristen has been a performance horse nutritionist for an industry feed manufacturer for more than a decade. Her job entails evaluating and improving the performance of the sport horse through proper nutrition.

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