A new study published this month from the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science demonstrated what many of horse people have long suspected – that horses prefer having their “own person.” The study from Finland sought to explore how horses react to strange objects when handled by their owner or an unfamiliar person. The results indicate that horses do in fact feel more comfortable and confident when they’ve had less than two owners (including the breeder) compared to horses who have been bought and sold multiple times.

Call it the “Black Beauty” syndrome, where in the classic book readers follow the heartbreaking ordeal of one horse as he is sold from person to person with varying degrees of cruelty before ending up back in his original owners’ hands. It turns out, according to the study, that Anna Sewell’s fictional tale wasn’t far off the mark.

The Finnish study used 76 horses, and the length of time they were owned by one person ranged from six months to 15 years. The amount of times horses exchanged hands throughout their lives were put into two groups: horses still owned by their breeder or bought directly from the breeder, and horses sold more than once. As for familiar handlers, this was also broken down by horses that had been handled by one person and those handled by others. The study was completed in spring of 2021 with the tasks performed in the stables where the horses lived in Southern Finland.

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