Horse Behavior - Horses and Humans

Horses and Humans

Horses are creatures of habit and have excellent long-term memory, which makes consistent training extremely important to the horse. Untrained young horses, even with top bloodlines, can be bought for relatively little money compared to those with training. Once a horse is started under saddle and demonstrates that it is trainable, ridable and has some athletic talent for its work, the price easily triples.

Humans are usually viewed by wild horses as potential predators. However, horses are also innately curious and may investigate any creature that is interesting but not threatening.

Any domesticated horse with some experience of humans usually views people as generally harmless objects of curiosity worth at least minor notice, especially if they know that humans may bring food or treats. Rarely will any domestic horse become truly vicious unless it has been spoiled or abused by humans, though many stallions have a great deal of naturally aggressive, dominant behavior that requires that they be managed only by knowledgeable handlers. However, any horse is a large animal that retains some wild instincts, so can react unpredictably by running, biting, striking, or kicking. Thus humans must always be alert around horses because they can accidentally harm people.

The ability of humans to work in cooperation with the horse is based on both the natural curiosity of the horse and the strong social bonds that horses have with each other. Horses do not like to be separated from their herd, because to be alone is to be exposed to predators on all sides. Also, in a herd, less dominant horses tend to gravitate toward the most mature and confident members. Therefore, many horse training principles are based upon having the horse accept a human as the dominant herd member. Ideally this is not done by force, but by the horse developing trust in the ability of the human and confidence that the human will be a responsible "herd leader."

Horses are also adapted to covering large amounts of territory and must have a certain boldness to do so. A horse that is afraid more than necessary will expend energy needlessly and then may not be able to escape when a threat is real. Thus, horses have an ability to check out the unusual and not immediately flee from something that is merely different.

This willingness to consider new things can also be used by a human trainer to adapt the horse's behavior to an extraordinary range of activities that are well outside the range of instinctive horse behavior, including acts considered naturally dangerous by the average horse such as bullfighting, jumping off cliffs, diving into water, jumping through a ring of fire, or walking into a modern television studio, complete with enclosed space, bright lights, and tremendous noise.

People who train horses first have to educate them that some normal herd behavior is inappropriate around humans. For example, biting and "shadow boxing" (rearing, striking) that is common play among young horses, colts in particular, could be injurious or fatal to people. Other instinctive traits, such as running away when frightened, bucking off anything that lands on a horse's back (like a mountain lion or other predator), or never entering a small enclosed area, also have to be overcome before the horse is useful to humans.

Even when trained, most horses will still test boundaries, at least mildly, and some horses with dominant personalities will openly challenge a weak or inexperienced handler. For example, if handled with incompetence or abuse, a horse may ignore its training and attempt to nip, bite, kick, refuse to be led, or try other ways to challenge human dominance. Without consistent handling, some horses, especially young ones, will revert to their untrained ways. However, due to their good memory, horses with solid training from trustworthy handlers often retain what they have learned, even after a gap of many years.