Herd dynamics

Horses living under natural social and foraging conditions generally thrive, often in inhospitable environments and climates. The all too common afflictions of domestic horses, such as gastrointestinal disorders, lameness, hoof abscesses and laminitis appear much less common among free-living horses. Behaviour problems are essentially nonexistent. And fertility and fecundity of feral and semi-feral herds far exceed anything expected for our managed horses.
Example differences between behaviour of domestically managed horses compared to those of horses living under natural social organisation/environmental conditions, with implications for differences in rate of behaviour problems, injuries, health and other welfare problems include:
1) Horses naturally move a lot. Typical 24 h movement during simple maintenance activities (grazing, trekking to water or shade) adds up to at least 10 miles a day. When forage becomes sparse, more miles are accumulated finding adequate nutrition. On top of that, the full complement social interactions of foals, yearlings, bachelor stallions, harem stallions, cycling and foaling mares, adds considerable daily mileage, depending on the season. […]