Case study A: StereotypiesAbsentee Acres is a $40-$horse boarding facility located just outside of Miami. The majority of the clientele are professionals who have very little free time to spend with their horses, sometimes going several weeks without making an appearance at the barn. The stable provides full care for these horses, including high quality feeds and nutritional supplements fed twice a day. All of the horses have a beautiful oak$-$paneled $12$X$14$ ft$.$ stall all to themselves. There are no outside windows in the stalls, but the top half of the stall door has a metal grill so the horse can see others across the aisle. The barn is climate$-$controlled at $40\%$ humidity and $72\backslash$deg F and configured to provide $12$ hours of daylight and $12$ hours of darkness. Every morning horses take turns being turned out into $1$ of $8$ small $(50$X$75$ ft$)$ exercise paddocks for $30$ minutes while their stall is being cleaned. To prevent horses from hurting each other, they are turned out individually and $10$ foot lanes separate each of the $8$ paddocks. The paddocks have no grass to eat, but the special footing promotes good drainage so horses dont get muddy or slip and hurt themselves. When they show up$,$ owners have the choice of riding their horse in $2$ indoor arenas, $3$ outdoor arenas, $3$ round$-$pens, or riding them through $20$ miles of trails at the neighboring park that borders the farm. Despite all this luxury, the stable manager says the horses act stressed out. Several horses have taken up the habit of cribbing or wood chewing, even though they had no previous history of this behavior. Others have begun weaving or pawing at the stall door, particularly at feeding time. Every week, at least one or two horses show signs of colic, even though the manager says her crew feeds at regular intervals and makes any diet adjustments slowly over $1-2$ weeks. She has asked for your help to figure out what is making these horses so unhappy. In addition to changing the management of the horses, she is willing to make modifications to her facilities, within reason.Questions to Address:$1)$ What factors under the current management might cause a horse to develop behavioral stereotypies or health issues?$2)$ Describe the changes you would recommend making to the facilities and$/$or management to alleviate or reduce the problems noted with these horses$\mathrm{.}3)$ What are some of the theories on WHY horses develop stereotypies? Is there some type of physiological or psychological reward they get from such behavior? Can they learn these behaviors from each other?$4)$ Are stereotypies such as cribbing, wood chewing, mane$/$tail chewing, and weaving harmful to the horse or just annoying to humans? Explain$\mathrm{.}5)$ BONUS $($up to $+2$pts$.)$: The manager recently read that installing mirrors in the stall is a scientifically proven way to cure weaving. What is the evidence for using mirrors to stop weaving and how might they work? Would installing a mirror be effective over the long$-$term for curing weaving?