scholarly journals Age-Related Changes in the Behaviour of Domestic Horses as Reported by Owners

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 2321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bibiana Burattini ◽  
Kate Fenner ◽  
Ashley Anzulewicz ◽  
Nicole Romness ◽  
Jessica McKenzie ◽  
...  

The broad traits of boldness and independence in domestic horses can affect their usefulness and, indirectly, their welfare. The objective of the current study was to explore associations between attributes that reflect equine boldness and independence with both the age of horses and the age at which they were started under saddle, as well as other variables including breed, colour and primary equestrian discipline. All data were sourced from responses (n = 1940) to the 97-question online Equine Behaviour Assessment and Research Questionnaire (E-BARQ). Twenty E-BARQ items from the dataset were selected to reflect boldness and independence and were tested for univariate significance at p < 0.2. Multivariable modelling of the effect of age on remaining traits was assessed by an ordinal logistic regression, using a cumulative log odds model. This revealed that older horses were bolder (p = 0.012). However, horses started under saddle at an older age were less bold and less independent (p = 0.040 and p = 0.010, respectively). Australian Stock Horses were bolder and more independent (p = 0.014 and p = 0.007, respectively) than crossbreed horses. Horses used for breeding conformation (p = 0.039), working equitation (p = 0.045), eventing (p = 0.044) and traditional working horses (p = 0.034) were bolder than those used for other disciplines. Dressage (p = 0.039) and therapy (p = 0.040) horses were less bold than horses used for other disciplines. Stallions were bolder (p = −0.034) than geldings. Brown (p = 0.049) and chestnut (p = 0.027) horses were less bold than bay horses. Compared to crossbreed horses, Thoroughbreds (p = 0.000) and companion horses (p = 0.017) were less bold whilst heavy horses (p = 0.029) and ponies (p = 0.044) were bolder. Compared to pleasure horses, mounted games horses (p = 0.033) were less independent whereas working equitation horses (p = 0.020) were more independent. Riders with more than eight years’ experience reported more independence in their horses (p = 0.015) than those who had ridden their whole lives. The study findings suggest that boldness and independence are separate traits and only boldness was associated with the age of the horse. Factors that relate to desirable boldness and independence are important in ridden horses because they can affect rider safety. Results from this study should improve horse–rider matching and thereby potentially enhance horse welfare.

Author(s):  
Rene Franco-Elizondo ◽  
Sukanya Pranathiageswaran ◽  
M. Safwan Badr ◽  
Susmita Chowdhuri

2001 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 602-611
Author(s):  
Eiji Hozumi ◽  
Daisuke Kato ◽  
Hiroshi Murakami ◽  
Takashi Yokoyama ◽  
Yutaka Ito ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (5) ◽  
pp. 1552-1566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neeraja Sadagopan ◽  
Anne Smith

PurposeThe study was aimed at characterizing age-related changes in speech motor performance on a nonword repetition task as a function of practice and nonword length and complexity.MethodNonword repetition accuracy, lip aperture coordination, and nonword production durations were assessed on 2 consecutive days for 16 young and 16 elderly participants for the production of 6 novel nonwords increasing in length and complexity.ResultsThe effect of age on the ability to accurately and rapidly repeat long, complex nonwords was significant. However, the authors found no differences between the speech motor coordinative patterns of young and elderly adults. Further, the authors demonstrated age- and nonword-specific within- and between-session gains in speech motor performance.ConclusionsThe authors speculate that cognitive, sensory, and motor factors interact in complex ways in elderly individuals to produce individual differences in nonword repetition ability at the levels of both behavioral and speech motor performance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 459-459
Author(s):  
Thomas Hansen

Abstract Much gerontological research has focused on the paradoxical observation that older people, despite their lower objective quality of life, report higher well-being than younger people. High well-being in old age is believed to be caused by adaptation, emotional regulation, and accommodative strategies. We aim to add nuance by examining whether the “paradox” holds across dimensions of well-being; for men and women; in young old and old-old age; and before introducing statistical controls (e.g for health and social factors). Using fixed effects models and 15-years panel data from the Norwegian NorLAG study (n=2,700, age 40+), we explore age-related changes in cognitive, affective, and eudaimonic dimensions of wellbeing. Results indicate a general pattern of stability well into older age, but negative changes in advanced age, cross-sectionally and longitudinally, and for each well-being measure. Declines in well-being are less pronounced and with a later onset for the cognitive compared with the other measures. Results are similar for men and women. Loss of health and partner are the main causes of declining well-being in older age. Findings suggest qualifications to the “well-being paradox”, e.g.: some dimensions of well-being remain more stable than others; across dimensions of well-being change is more negative in old-old than in young-old age; and patterns of increasing well-being in older age are more pronounced after controlling for age-related changes in health and social roles. We argue that the use of controls makes for false impressions of the psychological changes that actually occur when people grow older.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nattai Borges ◽  
Peter Reaburn ◽  
Matthew Driller ◽  
Christos Argus

Despite increasing participation rates in masters sport and extensive research examining age-related changes in performance, little is known about the effect of age on recovery kinetics in masters athletes. This narrative review focuses on the relationship between aging and sport participation, and the effect on both performance and recovery following an exercise bout. Current research suggests the effect of age on performance and recovery may be smaller than originally suggested and that increasing sedentary lifestyles appear to play a larger role in any observed decrements in performance and recovery in masters athletes. Currently, it appears that performance decrements are inevitable with age. However, performance capacities can be maintained through systematic physical training. Moreover, the limited current research suggests there may be an age effect on recovery kinetics following an exercise bout, although further research is required to understand the acute and chronic recovery processes in the masters athlete.


BMC Genomics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick J. Jansen ◽  
Lin Tong ◽  
Maria Argos ◽  
Farzana Jasmine ◽  
Muhammad Rakibuz-Zaman ◽  
...  

Abstract Background It is well-known that methylation changes occur as humans age, however, understanding how age-related changes in DNA methylation vary by sex is lacking. In this study, we characterize the effect of age on DNA methylation in a sex-specific manner and determine if these effects vary by genomic context. We used the Illumina HumanMethylation 450 K array and DNA derived from whole blood for 400 adult participants (189 males and 211 females) from Bangladesh to identify age-associated CpG sites and regions and characterize the location of these age-associated sites with respect to CpG islands (vs. shore, shelf, or open sea) and gene regions (vs. intergenic). We conducted a genome-wide search for age-associated CpG sites (among 423,604 sites) using a reference-free approach to adjust for cell type composition (the R package RefFreeEWAS) and performed an independent replication analysis of age-associated CpGs. Results The number of age-associated CpGs (p < 5 x 10− 8) were 986 among men and 3479 among women of which 2027(63.8%) and 572 (64.1%) replicated (using Bonferroni adjusted p < 1.2 × 10− 5). For both sexes, age-associated CpG sites were more likely to be hyper-methylated with increasing age (compared to hypo-methylated) and were enriched in CpG islands and promoter regions compared with other locations and all CpGs on the array. Although we observed strong correlation between chronological age and previously-developed epigenetic age models (r ≈ 0.8), among our top (based on lowest p-value) age-associated CpG sites only 12 for males and 44 for females are included in these prediction models, and the median chronological age compared to predicted age was 44 vs. 51.7 in males and 45 vs. 52.1 in females. Conclusions Our results describe genome-wide features of age-related changes in DNA methylation. The observed associations between age and methylation were generally consistent for both sexes, although the associations tended to be stronger among women. Our population may have unique age-related methylation changes that are not captured in the established methylation-based age prediction model we used, which was developed to be non-tissue-specific.


1994 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. Mooradian ◽  
M. P. Habib ◽  
F. Dickerson ◽  
T. Yetskievych

The effect of age on thyroid hormone-induced lipid peroxidation in rats was determined by measuring ethane exhalation (EE) rate. The mean basal EE rates (in pmol.min-1 x 100 g-1) at room air in 25-mo-old aged rats [3.07 +/- 0.26 (SE)] and in intermediate age (18-mo-old) rats (3.42 +/- 0.18) were significantly lower than that in young (3- to 5-mo-old) rats (4.44 +/- 0.27) (P < 0.01). After 8 days of L-3,5,3′-triiodothyronine (T3) administration, EE rates in aged rats (4.10 +/- 0.25) and in intermediate-age rats (4.16 +/- 0.35) were significantly lower than that in young rats (5.61 +/- 0.36) (P < 0.01). T3-treated young rats pair-fed with aged rats for 2 wk had EE rates (5.53 +/- 0.18) comparable to ad libitum-fed young rats, although the basal rate of EE was significantly reduced with partial food restriction (4.44 +/- 0.27 vs. 3.50 +/- 0.24) (P < 0.01). These observations indicate that reduced food intake with age cannot account for the age-related changes in T3-stimulated peroxidation rate of lipids.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document