Horse Senses PDF

PREFACE

For thousands of years people have associated with horses, initially for solely practical purposes such as food and the use of their body parts and products (e.g. blood and milk), and later for transport and also as companions and friends. This is quite strange for two main reasons: firstly because horses are prey animals and humans are historically predators, and secondly because the horse does not perceive the world as we do. In fact, in several ways horses perceive it quite differently, and yet we have had the closest of relationships over the generations.

I imagine that many of the veterinary students who will read this book will never actually ride or drive a horse. I have always thought that not being able to ride and acquire that extra level of experience of such a large, working animal must create a disadvantage when it comes to treating his disorders, but on the other hand, perhaps non-riders have more sense than those of us who do ride! Others who read this book, such as equine science students and those who are planning a professional career with horses, will also be riders. In either case, I hope this survey and introduction to equine senses will help everyone to understand horses more and, in particular, understand why they behave in the ways they do, ways that very often confuse even the most experienced of horsemen and women.

We are very prone to dismissing horses' behaviour and our lack of comprehension of it with such phrases as ‘It's just the way they are. We'll never really understand them.' This may be true, but surely we must try to do so as best we can, not only for our own enjoyment, knowledge and safety, but also for the horses' sakes. More and more, as scientific research goes on in the fields of equine behaviour, anatomy and physiology, we are coming to realise more clearly how horses work, and that is often very different from how we have traditionally believed them to function and to think. Many people still treat and train horses like human children, which is often not only highly inappropriate, but also potentially dangerous and abusive.

Maybe I should not say it in a book of this nature, but I do not think science has all the answers, although lay horse people do not, either. The best way forward is surely for us all to work together, for none of us to think that we know it all, and for our joint cooperation to result in greatly improved methods of working, caring for and managing horses from their point of view. Over the years, horses seem to have learned far better how to work with us than we have learned how to work with them. This is quite an indictment against humankind when one considers how long we have used and associated with horses and how many opportunities we have missed along the way.

By better appreciating life from the horse's viewpoint through understanding how his senses work and how he experiences our mutual world, I really hope we will realise what an exceptionally giving and, in his own way, smart animal we are associating with.