FALCON CREEK FARM NEWSLETTER

(January 2004)

PREY vs. PREDATOR

One of the biggest frustrations facing many horse owners today is that they just don’t understand why their horse behaves the way it does. It seems sometimes we humans have a hard time getting on “the same page” with our horses. Doesn’t it feel like some days they always give us the opposite of what we wanted? For instance, maybe you want your horse to walk by a slightly spooky object, like a small piece of paper laying on the ground, and all the horse wants to do is take off or prance sideways quickly around it. He may even try to run us over trying to get away from it. Why can’t he just walk by it??!! We may tend to think a horse is stupid because he bolts at a silly little piece of paper laying in the arena, after all, we can just walk up to it, pick it up and not be the least bit concerned about this small paper object that is less than one percent of our horse’s size and not the least bit threatening. And how many times have we wanted our horse to load in a trailer by just walking up into it instead of trying to drag us off, or rear, or back up and generally pitch a huge fit that can frustrate the heck out of us? We can see it’s just a trailer – why can’t the horse!

One of the keys to understanding what causes many “problem behaviors” is deeply rooted in a horse’s genetic code and how he was built for survival. Understanding a horse’s instinctual wiring can help us to understand some of his behaviors and thus, can help us correct or even prevent undesirable responses from our horse. Horses are prey animals. This means that they are fair targets for some other animal’s lunch. Horses know this and are very aware of this fact, and even though most horses have been domesticated and have nothing to worry about as far as a mountain lion eating them, their survival instincts are still very intact and are a huge part of what motivates their behavior. Horses are built as prey animals, which means; they have eyes on the side of their head that allow them to see a wide range peripherally. This helps them keep a look out for danger or predator animals as they graze and roam. They are built for speed – they can out run many other animals in their quest to get away from an attacking predator. They have sharp hooves that can injure or kill a predator if attacked. They are also herbivores, which means they eat only plant material, not other animals. When horses are scared, their instinctual response is to run. They are flight animals. What makes them so dangerous sometimes is that their fear responses can be quite explosive. The reason for that is that when a horse is afraid of something, he is literally afraid of being killed by it, not just necessarily hurt by it. They need to get away from whatever it is they think is after them, and fast. This is what has kept them alive for hundreds and thousands of years. Rational thinking and reasoning are not part of a prey animals’ thought process.

Contrast this to humans. We are predators. We smell like a predator. We hunt and eat other animals. We have eyes on our head that are close together and in the front of our heads, which help us focus to seek out prey. We are not built for speed but we have larger brains (relative to our body size) so we are able to think, stalk and hunt. Horses are very aware that we are predators and thus, this sometimes can create problems between us humans and our horse. They aren’t always going to trust us and aren’t always convinced that we are not going to let anything bad happen to them. We are not, “one of the herd”.

Let’s go back to the examples cited above. Why would a horse be afraid of a piece of paper? From a horses’ point of view (prey), it could be a snake (predator) that might strike and kill him. Since they can’t focus directly in front of them (to a certain distance) since their eyes are set far apart on their heads, they run IN case it really is a snake and will stop when they feel they are sufficiently far enough away from it to cause them no harm. In addition, ever notice that when a horse is scared of something on the ground, they will tilt their heads? This is to focus better on the object, since their forward vision isn’t always in focus enough for them to see exactly what it is.

Why is trailer loading so difficult for horses? Again, let’s think about it from a horses’ (prey) point of view. We are asking him to go into a small dark confined space where his back end is totally exposed to what he cannot see very well behind him. It’s like being trapped in a cave, which is a very precarious position for a prey animal to be in. Horses are afraid of not being able to get away from something they feel trapped in. Again, a horses’ primary “defense”, is to run away. If he is locked up in a trailer, he can’t get away and may panic. There may be nothing that will actually attack or hurt the horse while he is in the trailer but loading a horse is asking him to do something that is totally against his survival instincts.

Having said all this about things that scare horses, the good news is that horses can learn to overcome these fears and can be desensitized to them. Horses learn by release of pressure and repetition, and knowing how to apply these training methods can teach your horse to overcome some of these fears and gain more confidence in both himself and in you.

Happy Riding!!!

Comments and feedback are always welcome!

Leslie @

Falcon Creek Farm

http://www.falconcreekfarm.com/

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