Straw-enriched bedding enhances behavioural indicators of positive welfare but not behavioural synchrony in individually housed horses

Luštrek, Barbara (author), Potočnik, Klemen (author), Štuhec, Ivan (author), Zupan Šemrov, Manja (author)

Contemporary animal welfare research increasingly emphasises positive welfare, focusing on animals’ opportunities to express species-typical behaviours that reflect engagement with their environment rather than solely the absence of negative states. In individually housed horses, environmental enrichment is widely applied, yet its contribution to behavioural expression associated with positive welfare and the temporal organisation of behaviour remains insufficiently understood. This study investigated whether bedding enrichment, achieved by adding straw to pine shavings, influences behavioural patterns and behavioural synchrony in individually housed horses. Ten Lipizzan horses were housed in individual boxes and assigned to either a control condition with pine shavings (n = 5) or a straw-enriched condition (n = 5). Behaviour was recorded during four overnight observation periods (16 h each). Fourteen event and state behaviours were analysed using regression-based approaches, non-parametric tests, and correlation analyses to evaluate individual behavioural patterns and synchrony among horses. Straw-enriched bedding significantly increased behaviours involving active interaction with the substrate, particularly bedding manipulation (p < 0.001), and increased body care behaviour (p < 0.01), while urination and defecation occurred less frequently (p < 0.01). Horses housed on straw-enriched bedding spent more time resting while standing (p < 0.001), whereas total resting time was reduced (p < 0.001); resting while lying and feeding behaviours were not affected by bedding condition. Across all horses, clear activity–rest patterns and behavioural synchrony were observed, especially for feeding and resting behaviours. However, bedding enrichment did not significantly influence the strength or structure of behavioural synchrony, which was primarily associated with shared management routines and temporal organisation. These findings demonstrate that straw-enriched bedding increases horses’ opportunities to express behaviour types widely used as behavioural indicators of positive welfare, while modifying resting patterns in individually housed horses without disrupting overall behavioural organisation. Behavioural synchrony appears to reflect broader temporal structuring driven by stable management and circadian timing rather than local enrichment effects. Together, these results highlight the complementary value of individual behavioural expression for assessing positive welfare and of behavioural synchrony for understanding temporal organisation under restricted housing conditions.

• Language: English
• Keywords: equine, positive welfare, individual housing, straw, environmental enrichment, behavioural synchrony
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 30.04.2026
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 12 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 301, [article no.] 107021
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-182279
• UDC: 636.1:591.5
• ISSN on article: 1872-9045
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2026.107021
• COBISS.SI-ID: 277165315
• Publication date in RUL: 06.05.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Applied animal behaviour science
• Shortened title: Appl. anim. behav. sci.
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 1872-9045
• COBISS.SI-ID: 23187973

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: konji, individualna uhlevitev, obogatitev okolja, slama, obnašanje živali, dobrobit živali