Summary

The present research has been conducted to make a first step towards bringing the wildlife research on free roaming horses and the research on domesticated horses closer together. Housing systems for horses should be arranged in a way, so that the animals are least constrained in their natural development and behaviour. Nevertheless least housing systems in Germany reflect the findings of wildlife research how the horses interact with their environment and which environmental aspects are used by horses. Therefore this research aimed to figure out if and how horses do use a forest, when it is offered to them on their pasture.