Horse Behavior: What's Up With THAT?Horse behavior has evolved over time to allow the species to survive and thrive as highly social herd animals. Your horse may live in the lap of luxury, but his wild roots have not been forgotten. Some of his behaviors are just a throwback to this ancestral heritage and understanding them can help you become a more effective rider and trainer. Many horse behaviors are simple variations on a theme: survival. Run! Run Away! Horses are prey animals and depend on flight as its primary means of survival. As humans, we need to understand their natural flightiness in order to fully understand horses. Augh! It's A Tennis Ball! Prey animals are highly suspicious of the unknown. And it doesn't take much to arouse that suspicion. You may not notice what is causing alarm and mistake your horse's behavior for 'spookiness'. Horses can and should be desensitized from frightening stimuli so they do not spend their whole lives running away from funny colored rocks, stray plastic grocery bags and the cushion that blew off your lounge chair. Forgive But Don't Forget. Horses remember unpleasant experiences. This is why it is critical to make the horse’s first training experience a positive one. Ignore, Explore Or Flee. Horses look at things in two ways: not scary and scary. If something is not scary, they may ignore or explore it. If it's scary...see ya. When presenting anything new, your horse needs to be shown that it's a 'not scary' thing. Herd Mentality. The horse is a herd animal where a dominance hierarchy is always established. Dominance is exerted by controlling the movement of their peers. If you cause your horse to move when he doesn't want to or inhibit movement when he wants to flee, you will establish dominance. This is accomplished with a round pen or longe line. Social Butterfly. As a highly social animal, the horse communicates its emotions and intents to its herd mates through both vocalization and body language. Learn to read your horse's body language to be an effective trainer. That Looks Like Trouble. A horse’s vision is its primary danger detector, but they have poor depth perception when using only one eye. Perception is greatly improved when using both eyes. Their ability to detect movement, however, is acute and during windy days, they may be a bit 'flightier' as normally stationary objects are now moving (danger! danger!) In the wild, these survival traits serve horses well. In a fenced paddock, horse behavior needs to be understood and managed. Working with your horse's natural instincts will make your relationship stronger and more enjoyable for both of you. |