Takes a look at the technique and problems of handling young horses and re-educating older ones without the use of aggression and punishment. The author advocates the use of the "war bridle", a simple, pain-free and effective training aid.

Observations of feral horse stallions (Equus caballus) and other equids suggest these animals engage in assertive antipredator tactics. These are behaviors which increase an animal's exposure to a predator or which decrease the distance between the prey and the predator. Examples of assertive antipredator behaviors include sentinel behavior, predator inspection and approach, and predator harassment or mobbing. Many different taxa engage in these behaviors. Because assertive antipredator behaviors seemingly increase the risk to the performer, their widespread appearance in the taxonomic record needs to be explained. Chapter one of this dissertation reviews the major functional and evolutionary hypotheses for assertive antipredator behavior. This chapter brings together disparate research avenues to create a cohesive conceptual framework for future studies of assertive antipredator behavior. Chapter two investigates antipredator behavior in feral horses and challenges the popular notion that predation risk is not a significant determinant of feral horse behavior. For this study, I presented a realistic-looking model of a predatory mountain lion (Puma concolor) and a nonpredator control model of a pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana). The stallions were able to distinguish between the two models, identifying the predator model as more dangerous. Chapter two concludes that feral horse stallions engage in assertive antipredator behavior after model detection and disappearance, as part of a larger suite of antipredator tactics. It further concludes that the threat of predation is extremely relevant to behavioral decision-making in feral horses. Accordingly, I suggest the effects of predation need to be considered in any theories about the origins or maintenance of equid social organization. Finally, chapter three combines the work of the first two chapters, using feral horses as a model organism to test major hypotheses about the evolutionary maintenance of assertive antipredator behaviors. Specifically, I test the competing predictions of the kin-selection and individual-state hypotheses. By manipulating the perception of risk in stallions with different social and energetic constraints, I determine that there is tentative support for the kin-selection hypothesis, but almost no support for the individual-state hypothesis.

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Description:
In order to test the possibility of large migrations of wild horses between the North and the South of Western Europe during the Late Glacial, we addressed the population diversity in this area, especially during the Bolling/Allerod periods. We based this appreciation upon the detailed morphology of the distal part of the metapodials. Landmark approaches were applied to archaeological and palaeontological samples from three distinct areas: Switzerland Plateau, Paris Basin, and Charente (France). Little differences of isometric size characterized the three regional samples. Multivariate analyses of shape (principal component analysis, discriminant, canonical variates and neural network analyses) revealed similar sets of complex shape features on both metacarpals and metatarsals. In addition, regional groups appeared clearly differentiated by well defined shape patterns, the functional implications of which remain to be established. These results evidence the existence of a regional structuration of populations (particularly clear on the CVA of both metacarpals and metatarsals) suggesting the absence of long distance migrations. Finally, it appears that the distinction between size and shape systematically operated by geometric morphometrics can provide better insights into the study of the mobility of ancient populations. Geometric morphometrics approaches such as 3D Procrustes superimpositions, appear therefore to be of great interest for archaeological purposes.