Summary Reasons for performing study: Responses of horses in frightening situations are important for both equine and human safety. Considerable scientific interest has been shown in development of reactivity tests, but little effort has been dedicated to the development of appropriate training methods for reducing fearfulness. Objectives: To investigate which of 3 different training methods (habituation, desensitisation and counter‐conditioning) was most effective in teaching horses to react calmly in a potentially frightening situation. Hypotheses: 1) Horses are able to generalise about the test stimulus such that, once familiar with the test stimulus in one situation, it appears less frightening and elicits a reduced response even when the stimulus intensity is increased or the stimulus is presented differently; and 2) alternative methods such as desensitisation and counter‐conditioning would be more efficient than a classic habituation approach. Methods: Twenty‐seven naïve 2‐year‐old Danish Warmblood stallions were trained according to 3 different methods, based on classical learning theory: 1) horses (n = 9) were exposed to the full stimulus (a moving, white nylon bag, 1.2 times 0.75 m) in 5 daily training sessions until they met a predefined habituation criterion (habituation); 2) horses (n = 9) were introduced gradually to the stimulus and habituated to each step before the full stimulus was applied (desensitisation); 3) horses (n = 9) were trained to associate the stimulus with a positive reward before being exposed to the full stimulus (counter‐conditioning). Each horse received 5 training sessions of 3 min per day. Heart rate and behavioural responses were recorded. Results: Horses trained with the desensitisation method showed fewer flight responses in total and needed fewer training sessions to learn to react calmly to test stimuli. Variations in heart rate persisted even when behavioural responses had ceased. In addition, all horses on the desensitisation method eventually habituated to the test stimulus whereas some horses on the other methods did not. Conclusions and potential relevance: Desensitisation appeared to be the most effective training method for horses in frightening situations. Further research is needed in order to investigate the role of positive reinforcement, such as offering food, in the training of horses.

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The effects of mixing on agonistic behaviour and performance were studied in 90 individually fed pigs, grouped at a mean live weight of 23 kg by one of the following three methods: (1) six unmixed littermates; (2) three pigs from each of two litters; and (3) one pig from each of six litters.Unmixed animals (treatment 1) did not fight and the mode of fighting differed between treatment 2 and 3. Mixing decreased daily weight gain in the period 23 to 100 kg for barrows, but not for gilts. For gilts, food conversion efficiency was negatively correlated with the number of received attacks in the observation period (80 min after mixing), and for the barrows to fighting injury scores.

Summary Reasons for performing study: Behavioural tests as well as observers' ratings have been used to study horses' temperament. However, the relationship between the ratings and the responses in behavioural tests has not yet been studied in detail. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to examine this relationship between ratings and responses. Methods: Eighteen mature Swedish Warmblood horses were subjected to 2 behavioural tests, one relating to novelty (novel object test) and one to handling (handling test). Subsequently, 16 of these horses were ridden by 16 equally experienced students, having no former experience with the horses. Immediately after each ride, the students scored the horse for10 temperamental traits using a line rating method. Results: It was shown that for each temperamental trait all 16 riders agreed on the ranking of the horses (0.212

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