Horse Ownership is such a privilege, but more importantly it’s a bond that few people ever have the chance to experience, and yet each equine is so very dependent on we humans to care for them and see to all their needs.

Can horses smell fear?  According to some experts, horses can’t smell fear, but they can sense it.  Because they are prey animals living in herds, they are tuned in to the emotions of those around them.  If a herdmate is fearful, the horse will pick up on this by seeing the body language of the other horse.  If someone in the herd is scared, danger may be lurking.  So it’s imperative that horses know how to read fear.  

Horses who live with humans sometimes get good at sensing human fear as well.  A horse lacking in confidence mounted by a fearful rider is a recipe for trouble.  The horse will sense the rider’s fearfulness through body language and by sensing the  rider’s tension and think there must be something to be afraid of.  The horse gets scared, which makes the rider more scared, and it becomes a vicious cycle.  

If you are standing next to your horse, you’re in a herd of two.  If you’re not confident and “In Charge”, your equine is scared to death.  Stay confident in your leadership of your equine friend, thus eliminating his/her fear of the unknown as he/she knows then that you will fend off any problems that come their way and all is well.

Water is vital to the equine digestive system. Without adequate amounts of water, horses can’t digest and pass the roughage they eat. They also suffer dramatically from dehydration when working hard in the heat. Without water, horses die quickly.

Horses drink from ten to thirty gallons of water a day, depending on how hard they work, what they are eating and the temperature of the air and the water.

In the wild, when startled or alarmed, animals survive through the flight-or-fight response.  This is the same response that kicks in when someone jumps out from the dark and scares you:  do you throw up your hands to fight, or do you engage your feet and take flight?  Humans, who have been called the ultimate predators, often fight.  Horses, who are in almost all situations prey (except for fights between horses), take flight.

By natural selection, horses who could sleep standing up, wake up, and run away from predators faster were the ones more likely to survive and pass on their genes.  Put another way:  when you’re a large herbivore and a carnivore with a rumbling stomach looks your way, you’re better off if you can move at a moment’s notice.

So that’s why horses sleep standing up, but how do they do it?  The answer is called a “stay apparatus”, which is a unique adaptation of the musculoskeletal system of the horse that allows the animal to lock limbs in position so that very little muscle function is required to remain standing.

Everyone who wants justly to call himself, or herself, a rider would ponder the following statement very seriously:  99 percent of all horses have quite a number of bad habits which are commonly put down to disobedience.  And 99 percent of all riders do not understand how to break their horses of such habits.

Wilhelm Musler, Riding Logic