Robert J. Chassell wrote:
In a herd, stallions protect the others and breed, but the individual horse who finds good grass is often a mare.
I certainly observed this in a small herd of wild mustangs near Virginia City, NV a few weeks ago. The stallion stayed higher than the rest, keeping an eye on everything. And as we approached them, we kept a close eye on him! I've almost been kicked and never want to experience it.
Unlike dogs in packs, in a herd, every horse breeds.
The wild horses seem to have harems -- the herds are mostly mares, I think.
Horses have magnifying lenses in eyes. People and things look bigger than they are.
That doesn't make sense to me -- they wouldn't have a frame of reference. Bigger that what, in other words?
"Where horses' ears are, their eyes are." Horses move their ears in a manner that indicates where they are focusing their attention. A horse's ear may come back so horse can see his or her rider.
Absolutely. Much like cats, you can tell a lot about a horse by watching its ears and tail.
To jump, a horse and its rider need to team together: the horse needs to look for ahead to see the jump; when it actually jumps, it is showing faith in the rider.
And when it heads for a low branch, it is showing disdain for the rider. We had a pony who generally trotted straight toward such a branch as soon as anybody got on her. But ponies are small, grumpy versions of horses.
Horses are very sensitive to body language and smell, and if they have adopted a human, are very protective of him or her.
Even ponies can be that way.
Here's another one -- you can make a horse yawn. Just stand where it can see you and start yawning. Pretty soon it will, too. I used to work for a guy who had race horses (harness) and he used to tease his horses that way. They knew exactly what he was doing and would show irritation. It was pretty funny except that this guy took too much pleasure in it.
Cutting steel with an acetylene torch fascinates and confuses horses, in my experience. They'll stare at the sparks, looking sort of hypnotized, then gallop away, stop, stare, and walk back to have another look.
Nick
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