If I’d had a dollar for each complaint I have heard in my life about a pony doing something it shouldn’t have, I would own the world’s largest stud farm by this time. I have heard folks fuss about horses shying at butterflies and about horses refusing to board a trailer. Judged from the human viewpoint, naturally, these may be inexplicable actions on the part of the horse. The human point of view is that butterflies aren’t dangerous, as are horse trailers, so what’s the horse’s beef all about?
Well, horses don’t have the same viewpoint on things that humans do, because they are a completely different species. Their viewpoints and reactions are definitely at variance from those of the human being. Homo sapiens are predators in more than one sense of the word and that’s why they have their eyes at the front. This means humans have a more confined line of sight. Horses are prey animals and have eyes on the sides of the head. This means they have got a wider range of vision, they have better lateral and rear vision. This is because that sort of vision gives them better chances of spotting predators early and escaping.
The natural reaction for a pony that feels threatened by something is flight. Fight is the response when flight is not practical. A pony fights with its legs and teeth. It is a moot point that horses in today’s world live in relatively safe environments. Their inherent instincts have been ingrained over centuries of wild life, and these instincts continue to lead their reactions.
The most extraordinary stimuli can trigger a horse’s flight or fight instincts. Even in a ranch setting, a particularly standard object that’s out of kilter can set off a reaction. I’ve had lots of experience with this, like when horses shied at a careless set down water bucket when led around corners. The built-in instinct dominated immediately until a closer look told the pony it was taking a look at nothing more than a bucket!
I recall a point when I was practising with a lasso near my pony. I planned to inure him to the rope in motion. My instructor taught me a new trick concerning a counter-clockwise whisk of the rope rather than a clockwise one. My pony reacted badly, and I had to go thru the entire process of getting him desensitized again. His survival instincts were kicked off by nothing less than a change in the direction of swing of the rope.
For most horse owners, getting a horse to load on a trailer could be a exasperating experience. To homo sapiens, a trailer is merely a convenient means of transport. To a pony, the trailer is something dark and confined, and probably full of threats. Since the horse’s inherent instinct is to run, he isn’t going to be comfortable when he’s restricted to a tiny space between four walls that give him no chance of getting away.
It is thus necessary that as a horse owner you take pains to work on your pony so that he accepts the trailer as harmless, however grudgingly he may do so. You have to work on getting him to shed his claustrophobia. Here is how it’s possible for you to try out your horse. If he is uncomfortable when right next to a wall, when walking over a platform or when ducking under an overhead object, he’s probably not going to be ok with a trailer. You need to work on getting your horse comfortable with the wall, the platform and the overhead object first. You build his confidence up gradually and soon enough he’ll be getting into that trailer when you need him to.
You can’t resolve a horse’s problems unless you take the trouble of putting yourself in his place and looking at the world from his viewpoint. That’s the sole way his behavior patterns will begin to seem sensible to you. You aren’t going to get anywhere if you expect the horse to change his viewpoint from an equine to a human one.
Horses are Heather Toms passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100s of articles with other horse lovers, like all things about country supply
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