Male horses produce whinny to release sexual frustration when they cannot mate with female

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November 11, 2015 by emilymay21

A mare and a stallion (Equus caballus)

Introduction:

Have you ever gotten so mad or frustrated that you just scream? Or get upset and start crying? This is your body releasing the tension building up inside you. Horses have a similar way of releasing this tension but instead of screaming, they whinny, or produce a gentle, high-pitched neigh. A whinny is an indication that the horse is frustrated or upset by something and is releasing that frustration.

Hypothesis:

The researchers hypothesized that the stallions, or male horses, arousal would peak right before they whinnied and that this would release tenseness and cause the stallions heart rate to decrease. This would happen when they cannot get to the mares, or female horses, and are releasing their tenseness in the frustrating situation. The stallions in this study were only used for breeding, therefore, the results should match up with the hypothesis.

Methods

There were various stallions used in this experiment of different breeds and ages. The stallions were housed in single stalls and taken care of by the same caretaker throughout the experiment. The stallions would be led outside in random order by their caretaker for 10 minute intervals twice a day. Before they were led outside however, they were attached to a heart rate monitor in order to record their heart rate during the experiment. A mare was led out at the same time as the stallion and was placed 10-20 meters from him. The heart rates that were recorded during the study were: the 5 seconds when they were being led out of the stall, the 5 seconds during which the whinny was produced, 5 seconds after the whinny was produced, and the overall heart rate in the 10 minute session.

Predictions:

If the horses arousal peaks before the whinny, relaxes tenseness, and decreases heart rate, then the researchers hypothesis would be correct. This indicates that the whinny releases tenseness in the stallion when he cannot reach the mare. If the arousal does not peak before the whinny, the tension is not relieved, and the heart rate does not decrease, then the researchers would have to reevaluate their hypothesis. This indicates that whinnying does not release tension in the horse when it is aroused.

Results

Figure 1: The stallions heart rate before being exposed to the mare, the stallions heart rate during and after the whinny when exposed to the mare, and their heart rate overall.

The stallions heart rates were almost twice as high in the presence of the mare then when the mare was absent. The stallions heart rates did not differ when it came to vocalization in the first 5 minutes or the second 5 minutes that the mare was present. The heart rate also did not make a difference in the time the whinny was made after seeing the mare. The stallions heart rate did increase however in the 5 seconds before the horse whinnied then during the whinnying, and was higher than the overall heart rate of the stallion in the 10 minute session.These results show that the horses arousal did increase before whinnying and that tenseness and heart rate decreased after the whinny.

Researcher’s Conclusions

Whinnying can be seen as an emotional release due to the increase of heart rate before whinnying and the heart rate returning to normal while the stallion was whinnying. This is only a short term emotional release, as no long-term effect of whinnying was found. The stallions may have been frustrated due to the distance away from the mares they were or just simply sexually aroused, which could have increased their heart rate. Vocal expression is seen as both a human and animal trait that is used for finding social contact because social encounters usually trigger a sudden increase in shouting, or in this case, whinnying.

Personal Commentary

I feel as though the study wasn’t through enough. It is hard to test whether or not an animal is tense because they cannot speak, but I wouldn’t classify this study as measuring that. I simply feel the study just tested sexual arousal in horses and the release of that sexual frustration when the stallion could not physically get to the mare. I would’ve liked to see them test this but on top of that do another test that puts them in an aggravating situation, not sexual, to see If their heart rate increases when they are frustrated and sexually frustrated or just one or the other. This would prove that it is not just due to sexual frustration when they whinny.

Lemasson, A., Remeuf, K., & Hausberger, M. (2015). Tenseness relaxed by vocalizing, illustrated by horses (Equus caballus) whinnying. Journal Of Comparative Psychology, 129(3), 311-315.

By: Emily May