Understanding and preventing box walking and weaving in stabled horses.
Horse stereotypies represent behavioral evidence of welfare compromise severe enough to alter the nervous system, as these behaviors emerge when horses cannot meet fundamental needs for movement, social contact, and foraging. The fact that stereotypies persist even after management improvement demonstrates the neurological changes they represent - they are not simply habits but symptoms of past welfare failure now embedded in neural circuits. Prevention through appropriate management from the outset of stable training is far more achievable than treatment. The high prevalence of stereotypies in competitive horse populations reflects the welfare cost of standard management practices.