ABSTRACT
It is not at all unusual for adult mares to switch bands. Observations by Berger (1986) and Stevens (1990) in semi-wild horses in the great basin and North Carolina showed that up to 50% of mares 4 years and older switched to a different family within 3 years. Researchers presume that the availability of feed, which differs according to the living area, is a possible reason for this behavior. It was observed that with unfavorable resources, mares increasingly tended to wander. Age, rank, and pregnancy, on the other hand, do not seem to influence the frequency of wandering off. It was, however, observed that mares which were frequently threatened, left the band union more often than others.
