Publications internationales Assessment of equine temperament questionnaire by comparing factor structure between two separate surveys

Assessment of equine temperament questionnaire by comparing factor structure between two separate surveys

Yukihide Momozawa (a), Ryo Kusunose(b), Takefumi Kikusui(a), Yukari Takeuchi (b), and Yuji Mori(a)

Revue : Applied Animal Behaviour Science

(a) Laboratory of Veterinary Ethology, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8657, Japan
(b) Equine Research Institute, Japan Racing Association, 321-4 Tokami-cho, Utsunomiya-shi, Tochigi 320-0856, Japan

Accepted 5 November 2004. Available online 28 December 2004.


To establish a method for assessing equine temperament by use of a questionnaire, we carried out two surveys. The subject animals were all thoroughbreds maintained at the same farm. Respondents were the primary caretaker and two colleagues working with each horse. Factor analysis was performed on the responses to each survey. In both surveys, five factors were extracted and four of them were common between the two surveys. The common factors were ?Anxiety?, ?Trainability?, ?Affability?, and ?Gate entrance?. There were sufficient internal consistencies in responses about ?Anxiety?, ?Trainability?, and ?Affability? in the two surveys to indicate the validity of this questionnaire in evaluating these factors in equine temperament.

Keywords: Anxiety; Factor analysis; Horses; Questionnaires; Temperament



Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 3 5841 3099; fax: +81 3 5841 8190.

Applied Animal Behaviour Sciences - july 2005