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How do horses act and respond
Horses are by nature herd animals with a definite pecking order. Naturally the stallion is the protector. He protects his herd from danger, guiding them were to graze and keep other stallions (or intruders) away from his herd. Then there is the matriarch mare. She enforces discipline in the herd. The other horses sort themselves out in the pecking order. The pecking order is very obvious when hay is fed on the ground in one pile.
The horses higher in the pecking order will eat first (if not all) before the others may eat. Normally the foals will start from the bottom of this order and gradually proof themselves to be more dominant and move upwards in the order. Due to their natural curiosity, foals will often go to an older horse, with a chewing action. This is the foal’s way to say that he is no threat to the older horse.
At our farm we have noticed that the 2 different herds, although they graze together in the same paddock, do not mix. If one horse comes into a herd he/she does not belong, he will be chased out. This horse is not always chased out by the stallion or matriarch mare herself, but is sometimes chased out by another horse that feels it is high in the pecking order.
Horses spend approximately 22 hours a day grazing over a wide terrain. Since they are herbivores, their natural instinct when frightened is to flight, but they will fight if they cannot flight. The remaining 2 hours a day they spend sleeping – standing and catnapping. Foals up to 4 years will lie down to sleep and sleep longer than 2 hours daily.
The older horses catnap in order to be ready to warn the younger once and to be ready to flight when danger arrives.
Horses are known to have:
Acute hearing – they will hear noises before you do
Good eyesight both forward and to the side
A nose sensitive to any strange smell
Excellent memories, with no reasoning power
A sixth sense – they can feel when a human around them is nervous
Horses are also creatures of habit and constant eaters.
Why do we need to know this?
Some horses do not like to be ridden away from their herd. This is only because they are by nature herd animals. This also explains why a single horse seldom breaks out on his own and walk around. If he does he will soon return to his herd and safe surroundings, unless he is trapped in one way or the other.
Due to horses forming a pecking order, when feeding hay, there should be one heap for each horse plus one extra. This will ensure that all the horses have access to the hay.
Horses are much stronger than us humans, and the only way we can have success with them, is to build a relationship of trust and confidence. Communicating to them in their language called equus does this. We have to be on the top of the pecking order, enforcing discipline. Please note we use discipline and not cruelty!
Since horses are flight animals, their first reaction when frightened is to run away – with or without a rider. Some horses gallop off and buck as far as they go. The bucking is an instinct to try to dislodge the predator leaping on his back. Should the horse be cornered and not run, he will try and fight his way out. He may kick, rear or stamp and strike out with his front feet. Humans thus have to act calm, unafraid, but aware of these possible horse actions around the horses.
Due to their acute hearing and sight, we cannot think a horse is afraid of nothing. He might have sense something unusual long before we do. At the farm, we are always aware of strange voices / people. We watch the horses for they tell us long in advance. When someone is moving or a vehicle approaching, they stop grazing and stare in the direction, with ears up and straight towards the action. They will stand in this alert action until they are comfortable or the intruder is away.
Since horses have the sixth sense about feelings – some horse do react more on their sixth sense as other – we need to be calm and confident when we are around them. When we ride them, we do not stare at an object, because the horse will sense it and wonders why you are staring at the object and also wants to stare or worst he thinks there is danger and go into flight.
Since horses have such good memories, it is important to train them from an early age and establish confidence, trust and good habits. At our farm we have a mare about 16 years old. We do not know anything about her history, but by her reaction towards us, we know that she must have been hit by adults through the face. It took us 26 months to get her to eat out of our hands when we move slowly around her.
Since horses are creatures of habit, they will come certain times a day to the water point. If they do not come that time for water, there is reason for investigation. There might not always be something wrong. We have found that when the grass have enough moisture, the horses will skip their 11 o’clock drinking time and only come up at 2o’clock. If a horse is fed concentrates as an additional feed, it should be fed at the same time every day and changed gradually for health reasons.
Since horses are constant eaters, not eating (especially the concentrates) is a first sign to horse owners that a horse is not well.
Almarie Prinsloo
www.horsenhome.org
 HORSE CLUBS, ORGANISATIONS AND ASSOCIATIONS
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