Academics are researching whether changes in living conditions could cause depression in horses by using screens the animals touch with their muzzles.

At Aberystwyth University’s equestrian centre, horses will use purpose-built automated touch screens to test their cognitive ability.

The animals will be asked to distinguish and match different images on the screens and are rewarded with food when they identify them correctly.

It is thought that some horses respond to stressful environments through behavioural depression, like clinical depression in humans, with symptoms such as withdrawn behaviour, a fixed stare and lack of movement.

However, the extent to which horses suffer depression is not known. One reason for this uncertainty may be that the withdrawn state is viewed as normal equine behaviour in stables.

Using the touchscreen technology in conjunction with cognitive tests, research will start to identify these animals and work out what aspects of their environment are causing the depression.

The research has implications for how horses are treated and kept in places such as stables.

Dr Sebastian McBride, who is leading the research at the Department of Life Sciences as Aberystwyth University, said: “Behavioural depression is difficult to get a sense of in horses. If you look at a horse in a stable with its head down, is it in a state of drowsiness?

“Is it sleeping or just resting? Or is it in a state of behavioural depression? It is difficult to clinically identify it and is something that we are working on to improve our understanding.

“Many horses are kept in an environment where their daily behavioural needs are not being met or where they are experiencing regular bouts of stress. Such situations of chronic stress are known to produce neurophysiological changes that can bring about a range of behavioural symptoms. More recently, it has been suggested that some horses may be responding to stressful environments through behavioural depression.

“One of the aims of this study is to develop a method to identify whether behavioural depression in horses exists, and if it does, to start to assess its prevalence within horse populations. Physiological measures, such alterations in heart rate or blood pressure can be used to investigate the mental state of horses but it is often difficult to interpret these data because the same physical response can be caused by different affective states.

“A match-to-sample task has already been validated in horses, so it has strong potential to investigate the current incidence of behavioural depression in horses. The aim of this study, therefore, is to develop the technique and to begin a process of establishing baseline values for horses across breed, sex and age.”

The academics also plan to assess how small changes in the horse’s environment, such as new stables or beddings, affect their sleep and how this translates to changes in cognition.

Current research is assessing if performance in the ‘two choice discrimination task’ is reduced during disturbed sleep and thus, to determine whether this is a useful measure of the cognitive consequences of sleep disturbance in animals.