researchers found links in the human brain between areas for navigation and smell. People no longer need to smell their way to water, but at one time that ability was so critical for survival that our brain structures changed physically to account for it.
Most psychologists agree that the initial stages of romantic attraction are hard-wired. You don’t turn the process on, and you can’t just flip a switch to turn it off. The feelings are involuntary. But that doesn’t mean we have no recourse. We can work around attraction by learning to notice and identify it, pausing to think carefully about its implications, listening to Mr. or Ms. Perfect’s point of view, and removing ourselves from awkward situations. The feelings are still there, but we don’t have to act on them.
Shying is a good example of hard-wired behavior in horses. Equine brains evolved to whirl and bolt when potential danger occurs. Horses are captive to the naturally selected aspects of their brains, just as we are to ours. In addition, horses have far less ability to manage their hard-wired behavior than humans do. They’re super-smart but do not have the prefrontal cortex to control their instincts fully. We cannot expect a horse to smell a bear a few feet away and simply walk on.
This, by the way, is not a hypothetical example. Aspen, a furry dun pony belonging to a friend, tended to shy out in the back forty. One area near a thicket of willows was especially difficult for her to negotiate. She was convinced of danger there, tightening her muscles, doing the quickstep as if on Dancing with the Stars, and opening her eyes wider every time she approached. In frustration, her owner hired a trainer to get Aspen past this foolishness.
The trainer hopped on one fall day and rode Aspen to the thicket, where she pulled her usual shenanigans. He insisted she move closer to the bushes and, trembling, she eventually agreed. Just about then, a black bear bounded out of his cover, moving on all fours straight toward Aspen—who took off hell bent for election. Everyone learned some lessons: Sometimes it really is best to listen to the horse. And don’t poke the bear!
So do we have to allow every horse to spin out from under us whenever a leaf wiggles? Of course not. We can teach the horse to get to know a frightening area over time, to shy with smaller movements, to slow down and investigate after shying, to trust our leadership. We can teach ourselves to distinguish between equine nerves and true fear. We can overcome our frustration—after all, the horse is behaving in a perfectly natural way. Horses shy just like car passengers slam their useless brake feet into the floorboards and gasp for air when expecting a crash. It’s the brain’s involuntary method of staying alive.
Social Dynamics
Because of their distant past, horses are strongly social animals with herd instincts. They respond to their buddies at all times. We humans fail to notice much of this subtle interaction, and it weakens when we are around. But left on their own, horses rely on group perception, learn by imitation, seek leadership from dominant guides, and soothe themselves through social contact.
As the horse evolved to survive predators on open grasslands, his brain became more dependent on activity within the group. Imagine 10 horses grazing in a field that is familiar to them. By nature, they will adopt slightly different positions with their bodies aimed this way and that for greater surveillance. Although their heads are usually down, each horse pays attention to the others. If the most sensitive horse glances up to check a noise, the others cock an eye or ear toward him. If one horse startles, the group looks in that direction immediately. To stay safe, they need each other.
When removed from the group, horses transfer their need for leadership from a dominant equine to a human. So, in the absence of a higher-ranking horse, your mount is going to look to you for help. He doesn’t need a friend or a follower—he needs you to be his leader.
Social behavior among horses is partly learned but largely innate. Brain scientists in 2018 found that mammalian brains are hard wired to regulate the rank hierarchies, group status, social vocalization, and peer observation that horses use all the time. To train well, we need to understand these evolutionary motives.
Evolution’s Behavioral Tendencies
Because of their need to escape predators, horses are innately afraid of being restricted or confined. Tying, for example, needs to be taught in a gradual gentle way to overcome the horse’s natural fear. Blocking the horse’s side view in narrow passageways causes trouble —and, unknowingly, people do it all the time. At least 35 million years of evolution tells an equine brain that the dark, restricted, metal box of a trailer spells D-E-A-T-H. A horse who balks at these practices is not being ornery. He’s being a horse.
We all know that horses are attuned to unexpected sights and sounds. But many people don’t realize that the least obvious of these are the most likely to startle the horse: short rapid movements and low-volume sounds. Predators did not announce their presence in advance—they tried to hide. If you’ve ever seen a non-horse person try to “hide” from a horse so as not to bother him, you know what I mean. Once while I was giving a lesson, a visitor tried to hide her Labrador Retriever under the bleachers in an indoor arena. Every horse in the ring flipped out. Once the dog was in plain view, they settled. Hiding from a horse is impossible, and the very act of attempting to remain unseen and unheard unnerves the horse much more than a serene open approach.
Some of the most critical brain differences between horses and humans are wrought by the distinctions between predators and their prey. Horses (along with rabbits, deer, cattle, and many other species) are prey animals— food for predators. Their brains evolved to notice tiny movements instantly, hightail it out of there with no analysis, and live in groups for safety. Prey animals are easily identified by sideward-facing eyes that survey a wide horizontal range for potential danger.
Predators have forward-facing eyes. Their brains evolved for visual focus, depth perception, stalking, and killing. These include lions, wolves, cats, dogs, and um (how can I say this gently?)…humans. You and I are predators, and every horse knows it with one glance at our close-set eyes. The fact that horses allow us to work with them at all—let alone straddle their backs—is a testament to their generosity, curiosity, and domestication. But we do well to remember that the horse’s brain is still hard-wired by evolution to fear us.
Fear of isolation is another by-product of equine evolution that we can’t change. Safety lies in the group. Even super-chill horses tend to be more nervous when they are alone. Equine misbehavior caused by fear can often be relieved by introducing another horse. Give the worried animal the comfort of a buddy—a horse who walks quietly into a trailer, a horse who relaxes on trail rides, a horse who has seen scary objects but survived to tell the tale.
Domestication
Today’s species of horse, equus caballus, includes all breeds and represents the domesticated version of its forest and grassland ancestors. Technically, domestication refers to artificial selection, which has occurred for at least 6,000 years. Key breeding characteristics for the purpose of taming a wild animal are calmness, ability to learn, submission to captivity, and willingness to allow human contact. By selecting mares and stallions with these traits, people have produced horses who are much easier to train than their undomesticated counterparts would be.
Many people assume that “wild” horses today are undomesticated. That’s not accurate. Some are feral individuals who have lived without much human contact but are descended from domesticated ancestors. They live in bands on their own, but are not truly “wild.” Until recently, the Przewalski horse of Mongolia was thought to be the only remaining undomesticated horse. But DNA evidence now shows that even this breed descends from domesticated ancestors.
Many allegedly “wild” horses are abandoned. During the 2008 recession in the United States, for example, some impoverished horse owners turned their animals loose in undeveloped areas to fend for themselves. A few lucky survivors formed
