When you think about it, we ask our horses to live relatively unnatural lives. Instead of allowing them to roam freely as they would in the wild, we confine them in fields and stables, often with only one or two companions (selected by us and sometimes a source of frustration) as a replacement for a herd with its varied social interactions. Fortunately, the vast majority cope quite happily with this more restricted, yet safer, way of life. Some, however, do not and that’s when we might see behaviour developing that scientists call stereotypic.
Photos: Jon Stroud, C.Hamilton, pixinoo/shutterstock.com
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