Social Box: Influence of a New Housing System on the Social Interactions of Stallions When Driven in Pairs.
Authors: Gmel Annik Imogen, Zollinger Anja, Wyss Christa, Bachmann Iris, Briefer Freymond Sabrina
Journal: Animals : an open access journal from MDPI
Summary
# Editorial Summary: Social Box Housing and Stallion Behaviour During Carriage Driving Conventional individual box housing severely restricts physical contact between neighbouring stallions, potentially contributing to behavioural problems when animals are subsequently worked together. Researchers at Swiss equine institutions tested whether a modified "social box" system—designed to permit increased tactile interaction between adjacent horses—could reduce unwanted social behaviours in pairs of Franches-Montagnes stallions driven together. Eight breeding stallions were driven on standardised routes over four days in three phases (before, during, and after social box housing), with one animal always housed conventionally as a control, whilst behaviours, interactions, and handler interventions were recorded both live and on video. Housing in social boxes significantly decreased unwanted social interactions between driving pairs (p < 0.001), with improvements sustained after animals returned to conventional boxes, and a secondary habituation effect observed across the four-day driving period (p < 0.01). These findings suggest that providing tactile contact opportunities between stallions can meaningfully reduce problematic behaviours during work, offering handlers, drivers, and facility managers an evidence-based environmental enrichment strategy that may improve both welfare and workplace safety when handling or driving stallions in pairs.
Read the full abstract on PubMed
Practical Takeaways
- •Consider retrofitting individual stallion boxes with social box design features to allow controlled physical contact with neighbouring horses, which may reduce aggression during paired work
- •Social boxes appear to be an effective environmental enrichment strategy that reduces unwanted behaviours when stallions are worked in pairs, potentially improving safety for handlers and drivers
- •Allowing stallions housing contact with neighbours may help them habituate better to social situations during paired carriage driving, reducing management challenges
Key Findings
- •Unwanted social interactions between stallions decreased significantly during and after housing in social boxes (p < 0.001)
- •Stallion interactions also decreased over four days of testing (p < 0.01), suggesting habituation or subtle dominance settlement
- •Social box housing tended to reduce unwanted social behaviours in paired driving situations
- •Environmental enrichment through increased physical contact between neighbouring horses may improve stallion welfare in individual box systems