Department of Animal Science, Aarhus University, Tjele, Denmark.
Equine Vet J. 2013 May;45(3):298-301. doi: 10.1111/j.2042-3306.2012.00629.x. Epub 2012 Sep 26.
The ability of horses to habituate to novel objects influences safety in the horse-human relationship. However, the effectiveness of different habituation techniques has not been investigated in detail.
Twenty-two 2-3-year-old Danish Warmblood geldings were included. Half of the horses (NR group) were negatively reinforced by a familiar human handler to approach a collection of novel objects in a test arena. The other half were individually released in the arena and were free to explore the objects (VOL group). On the next day, the horses were exposed to the objects again without a human handler, to investigate the rate of habituation. Behavioural and heart rate responses were recorded.
All VOL horses initially avoided the unknown objects, whereas the handler was able to get all NR horses to approach and stand next to the objects within the first 2 min session. The NR horses had a significantly longer duration of alertness and a higher max heart rate in the first session. On the next day, however, NR horses spent significantly less time investigating the objects and had a shorter latency to approach a feed container, placed next to the objects, indicating increased habituation.
A negatively reinforced approach to novel objects increases stress responses during the initial exposure but facilitates habituation in young horses.
Although a negatively reinforced approach appears beneficial for habituation, the procedure should be carefully managed due to increased stress responses in the horse, which may constitute a safety risk. Further experiments should aim to investigate differences in stimulus intensity.
马对新物体产生习惯的能力会影响到马与人的关系中的安全性。然而，不同习惯化技术的效果尚未得到详细研究。
1）比较在负面强化条件下接近新物体的马与在自愿探索物体条件下的马，观察它们的应激反应是否增加，2）检验负面强化的接近方式是否有助于物体习惯化。
共有 22 匹 2-3 岁的丹麦温血公马参与本研究。其中一半的马（NR 组）在一个测试场地中，由一个熟悉的人类驯马师通过负面强化来接近一组新的物体。另一半马则单独被释放到场地中，并可以自由探索物体（VOL 组）。第二天，当没有驯马师时，再次向这些马展示这些物体，以调查其习惯化速度。记录行为和心率反应。
所有 VOL 马最初都避开了未知的物体，而驯马师能够在第一次 2 分钟的会话中让所有的 NR 马接近并站在物体旁边。NR 马在第一次会话中警觉持续时间明显更长，最大心率更高。然而，第二天，NR 马花在调查物体上的时间明显减少，而且靠近放置在物体旁边的饲料容器的潜伏期更短，这表明它们的习惯化程度更高。
对新物体进行负面强化的接近方式会增加马在最初暴露时的应激反应，但会促进幼马的习惯化。
虽然负面强化的接近方式似乎对习惯化有益，但由于马的应激反应增加，该程序应谨慎管理，因为这可能构成安全风险。进一步的实验应旨在调查刺激强度的差异。
