I love seeing the adorable semi-feral ponies as I'm driving past the New Bolton Center campus, and equine behavior specialist Dr. Sue McDonnell gave a fascinating lecture about them on Nov. 5. In her slide-illustrated lecture, she explained some of the research that she and her colleagues have done on the ponies over the years, including measuring the extraordinary distance they travel around their pastures using pedometers, GPS trackers and helmet-cams (the helmet-cam footage doesn't sound very thrilling; there's a lot of grazing involved). She outlined her "top ten important observations" about the ponies' behavior that "are known or suspected to be important factors underlying the extraordinarily good health, fertility and freedom from injury of these horses compared with domestically managed horses" and explained how horse lovers can improve the health of their own equines by using some of these principles.
One point I found especially interesting was that turkey buzzards and foxes seem to know when a mare in the herd is about to give birth; the researchers have noticed that both are seen hovering around with increased frequency as the time approaches.
The lecture was packed. I think I heard additional chairs being set up at the back of Alumni Hall to accommodate more people, but I didn't want to turn away lest I miss any of the slides of cute foals.
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