Events around weaning in semi-feral and stable-reared Konik polski foals: Evaluation of short-term physiological and behavioural responses

It seems that forest foals were more disturbed by all events around weaning. They presented higher apathy and more forest horses were among those showing higher FCM concentrations. However, as the FCM did not differed significantly between groups from different rearing conditions, the claim of a higher “stress” response to the weaning scheme in forest foals cannot be unequivocally supported based on behavioural and physiological measures in our study. For both groups, feeding behaviour appears to be a good indicator of post-weaning stress.