A Horse’s Nature and Basic Needs
Understanding the nature of horses and their basic needs at a basic level is a place where every horse owner, rider, or handler can start.
#1 Horses are a prey animal.
- Prey animals are those that are ‘preyed,’ upon by predators. Prey animals have eyes on the side of their head so they can have excellent vision all around. Predators have eyes on the front of the head.
#2 Safety is a huge priority.
- Prey animals make many of their decisions based on their instinct to be safe from predators. A horse’s common first choice to remain safe is flight. They will flee from danger. Fleeing isn’t always running away, it can also be very small through evasions (dragging to the gate) and/or looking away when someone approaches.
- They often respond in this order- Flight, Fight, Freeze.
#3 Horses are a very sensory animal.
- Horses make decisions based on how the environment and the people or horses in it feel. For example- a horse begins pinning their ears when cinched. This is a horse trying to communicate that the feeling of the cinch is uncomfortable and they are preparing to ‘fight,’ to avoid the feeling of it.
#4 Forage, Friends, and Freedom
- Horses are grazers. Their guts are designed to have constant forage moving through it.
- They are herd animals. The herd helps keep each other safe and allows for healthy sleeping habits, socializing, and more.
- Since they are grazers and herd animals, they are also designed to MOVE. Movement is medicine and motion is lotion. Horses milling around with their friends and forage are often much happier, easier to train, and better partners to humans.
Each owner-horse relationship will be a little different. Consider your horses routine and determine what is working, what isn’t, and how could you make adjustments? Understand that a routine that is “working,” should be measured off of the horse’s behavior, diet, and whether or not their needs are met.