relationships, play behaviour has also been linked with sociability towards humans. In a study of play and curiosity, Brubaker and colleagues investigated the association between the amount of time horses spent playing with a novel object and how quickly they approached a human. When presented with a
yoga ball, a plastic saucer and a collapsible cube, the team found that the more time the horses spent investigating the objects, the more sociable they were towards the handler.
Types of Play
To clarify what constitutes horseplay, two researchers from Pennsylvania, McDonnell and Poulin, undertook a study to document recreational behaviour. The researchers observed a group of semi-feral Shetland ponies for over 100 hours. They noted that play can be divided into 4 key areas: object play, play sexual behaviour, locomotor play and play fighting.
During object play, individuals make contact with and manipulate an object. Objects might be animate, like another horse, or inanimate like a bucket. Typical types of object play include a foal circling around a mare, pawing at a bucket or mouthing a rug.
Play sexual behaviour involves many of the rituals found in adult sexual behaviour but is often more exaggerated or performed out of order. It is a frequent occurrence in foals and adolescents, as well as among young and adult bachelor these
One youngster chases another in Locomotor play