Horses are such amazing and beautiful creatures!
But do we truly understand them and what their needs are?
One of the most important requirements that is often misunderstood is that horses are complex social herd animals. They would never choose to live alone, they need company! In a herd, they enjoy a rich social life, such as playing, grooming each other and even interacting with horses they may not like. This enables them to develop social skills such as reading body language, learning to be a horse and getting along with other horses.
Herd living provides lots of enriching opportunities. Smelling other horses, their manure, tasting and mouthing each other in play and mutual grooming provides lots of opportunities for enrichment and also for exercise, which is often lacking in domestic situations with lone horses.
Herd living is also important not only for direct body contact, but in order for horses to feel safe grazing or sleeping and getting their REM sleep while others keep watch. A lone horse in the wild would be easy prey and would not last long, so stress levels can be high for horses living alone – they can never fully relax.
I realise that we can only do the best we can, I have horses who don’t necessarily get along all the time or given a choice, would not choose to be together. BUT Positive Reinforcement training can achieve a lot towards helping animals live in harmony.
Classical and Operant Conditioning can be utilised to change emotional responses to other animals and help them get along and enjoy each other’s company. If we can train voluntary blood draws and other unpleasant experiences, I’m sure with a little imagination and lots of planning, we could arrange the environment to teach animals to get along with each other. I taught my horses to like my donkeys and they were terrified of them at first sight!
It’s truly wonderful to watch horses and even more wonderful to see them enjoy each other’s company and just be horses!