The way to a man's heart is through his stomach: what about horses?

Carol Sankey (1) , Séverine Henry (1) , Aleksandra Gorecka-Bruzda (2) , Marie-Annick Richard-Yris (1) , Martine Hausberger (1)

1 EthoS - Ethologie animale et humaine
2 IGHZ - Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding Polish Academy of Sciences

BACKGROUND: How do we bond to one another? While in some species, like humans, physical contact plays a role in the process of attachment, it has been suggested that tactile contact's value may greatly differ according to the species considered. Nevertheless, grooming is often considered as a pleasurable experience for domestic animals, even though scientific data is lacking. On another hand, food seems to be involved in the creation of most relationships in a variety of species. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this study, we used the horse training context to test the effects of food versus grooming during repeated human-horse interactions. The results reveal that food certainly holds a key role in the attachment process, while tactile contact was here clearly insufficient for bonding to occur. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This study raises important questions on the way tactile contact is perceived, and shows that large inter-species differences are to be expected.

Mots clés: Animals; Horses; Food; Humans; Learning; Animal; Behavior; Reward; Object Attachment

Domaines: Médecine vétérinaire et santé animale

Carol Sankey, Séverine Henry, Aleksandra Gorecka-Bruzda, Marie-Annick Richard-Yris, Martine Hausberger. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach: what about horses?. PLoS ONE, 2010, 5 (11), pp.e15446. ⟨10.1371/journal.pone.0015446⟩. ⟨hal-01022561⟩