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Help me with a title for my dissertation! (on topic)

Dogrose April 21, 2009 February 22, 2011

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I have to hand it in in a week and haven't even got a proper title for it, everything I come up with sounds clumsy or confusing. My study was a questionnaire studdy to determine if there is a difference in behaviour between horses that are genetically E- and those that are ee, results were from members of the public with their own horses, not an industry study. Cheers folks!

Dogrose Tue, 04/21/2009 - 10:02

Oh dear I can't even spell :D
No hope.
Also I'm very bad at maths and my tutor seems to be confused as me as to how to process my results even though she has a doctorate! Still I'll go by the way she advised so hopefully the results will mean something.
But I will let people know the results- a lot of people are interested and I might write an article (or at least a long 'letter to the editor') for the BHS magazine.

Dogrose Wed, 04/22/2009 - 07:57

LOL! I think I might need to have chestnut and not just coat colour in the title, my tutor said 'don't make it too scientific' but thats probably becuse she doesn't understand genetics as well as me, if I put something quirky she will say 'its not scientific'! It has to be like the title of a journal article.
Thanks for all the ideas :D

vneerland Wed, 04/22/2009 - 09:41

On the old board, we had a brief discussion about chestnuts and behavior. I hear cowboys here make repeated claims about fiery chestnuts, but especially combined with four whites and a blaze. :shock: ("I should have known better than to buy that mare with her 4 socks and a blaze")

As to your question about redheads: the Maureen o'Hara syndrome is alive on this side of the pond too, yes. ;)
Maybe that could be your title? "Mareen 'o'Hara syndrome in equines?" :rofl

Last but not least. I have not said welcome yet, so welcome dogrose. If you like, you can update your profile and add good ole England as your location. ;)

Sara Wed, 04/22/2009 - 10:23

I think there is prejudice against red-headed humans, yes. I kind of forget about it because I really like red hair (I even spent many years dying my blond hair red) but I do hear it occasionally. Just recently my coworker saw someone with really red hair and was horrified, saying "omg what would you DO if your hair was that color?! how awful!" I was kind of shocked!

having worked with hundreds of horses I have to say that there is a correlation between temperament and body color. Not always, of course, but usually the red based ones are hotter, and more likely to be dominant in the herd. also they tend to be more sensitive about mane pulling. I've had to twitch more chestnuts for it than any other color.

Daylene Alford Wed, 04/22/2009 - 16:23

I wonder if it tends to be breed specific? The second horse I started riding after I graduated from my pony (I was like 7 or 8 probably) was a bright chestnut with 4 high whites and a large blaze. He was only a 3 yr old when my dad started letting me ride him. He was super calm.

Daylene

Dogrose Sun, 04/26/2009 - 01:12

I've finally processed my results (the ones I could, some of my questions were poorly constructed and didn't work out) and the only significant difference in behaviour between black genotype horses and chestnut genotype horses was with clipping- chestnuts are more likely to act up when they are being clipped, and the difference is significant. There were other differences but they weren't significant. Chestnuts were more likely to walk away when you try to catch them, less likely to be calm while being transported, more likely to tolerate approach while they are feeding, more likely to be tolerant of having their back feet trimmed and more likely to be difficult bridling. But like I said, none of those differences were significant. There was no difference at all in herd status between chestnut genotype and black genotype (by that I mean ee horses and E- horses). This study didn't take into conderation any colour dilutions, effects or white markings, so it included red duns, palominos etc in the ee and perlino, blue roan etc in the E-. Generally I found very little difference in behaviours between E- and ee horses.

Sara Sun, 04/26/2009 - 10:06

How big was your sample size? I know mine is pitifully small but my herd agrees with you on the clipping results. My very worst one about clipping is actually a chestnut gone grey.

Interesting about the herd dominance one. I swear every herd I've ever seen has been led by a chestnut mare. :lol:

Dogrose Sun, 04/26/2009 - 15:21

Sample size for each question was slightly different as all the questions were voluntary, roughly between 220 and 330 for each. Thats just black genotype and chestnut genotype horses. I can't vouch for the validity of the results- I followed all the correct ways of doing things and that the results. I'm just a mere student! Only reason I can think of for the results is either blind meaningless chance or chestnut horses have more sensitive skin so can't tolerate clipping as well? Humans with the MC1R mutation (red heads) have been tested as having more sensitive skin than non red heads. It the same type of mutation. Can't really say more than that!

Dogrose Sun, 04/26/2009 - 16:55

I had to simplify them a lot as I'm seriously incompetant with maths, I can barely understand long division let alone chi square tests. If I did the questionnaire again I would make the questions simple yes/no or either/or answers. Which results? There are too many to write them all down, I could do one or two.

nerd Sun, 04/26/2009 - 18:41

I don't know what format you have it in... maybe you could list the questions you asked and for each one summarize how many of each type of response there for each color (red vs black-based)? Whatever makes your life easiest; don't waste too much time on my selfish demands ;) You can pm me if you'd like.