Horses are, first and foremost, herd animals. Domestication and careful and correct training has produced an animal that will work happily as an individual for us, but he will never completely lose his herd instincts.
Herd Behaviour
In their natural state, horses live in herds made up of mares, young stock, and one dominant stallion. They graze in a relatively tight bunch, with the older mares on the outside of the herd acting as lookouts. There is usually a lead mare who tops the pecking order - she will lead the herd to fresh grazing and water whilst the stallion brings up the rear. The dominant mares keep younger horses in order, telling them with a swift nip or kick what is unacceptable behaviour. As the young males mature, they are driven out of the herd by the stallion. They can choose to leave quietly or fight for the right to remain and 'own' the herd. Stallions occasionally fight to the death but more often one backs down and leaves before any serious damage is inflicted.
Horses naturally group together to find safety in numbers. In the wild, the herd is mainly preoccupied with finding sufficient food and water to keep themselves alive.
In the wild, grooming is an important process that helps individual horses to bond. Similarly, grooming helps handlers to bond with their horses as well as keeping the coat in good condition.
The domesticated horse is brought up in a very different environment to his wild ancestral, but the good handler will consider the horse's ancestral needs. Once a horse has learned to accept a rider, he must be taught to curb his natural flight instinct. By a slow introduction to new sights and situations, a horse can be taught to turn to his rider for instruction rather than run away from situations that scare him. In a herd the young horses take a lead from the older horses, and a good trainer will use an experienced horse to give a lead to a youngster in new situations.
Horses use body language to communicate with each other, and we can learn to understand their body language too. The horse's ears tell us a great deal about his state of mind. When relaxed, the ears will point forwards and outward as the muscles controlling them relax. If the horse is angry, aggressive, or in pain, he will flatten his ears back against his skull. When a sound attracts his head and neck - and sometimes his whole body - towards the sounds. This positionallows his ears and eyes to focus directly on the source of interest. Rapid flicking of the ears backwards and forwards indicates that the horse is unsettled and nervous about surroundings. But a relaxed movement of the ears forwards and backwards is a good sign. When ridden, the horse will often point one ear back to listen to his rider.
The horse produces various sounds to communicate with others. Snorting, by expelling air forcefully through his nostrils, makes enough noise to alert his herd mates to some distant danger, without giving away his position. Horses squeal to show excitement or to warn another horse to keep its distance. When two horses meet, they will often sniff noses and then one or both of them will squeal. The nicker is a soft, low gutteral sound, which is a sign of welcome to other horses and also to humans. A whinny or neigh is a long, loud gutteral sound, which is the horse's way of calling out to his friends to let them know he's around. An angry of fearful horse may emit a roar to intimidate and scare the object of his fear or anger. When a horse is surprised by something, or just showing his well being, he will emit a loud blowing noise.
The horse can also use his limbs and neck to communicate his mood or intentions. The neck can be used aggressively in a snake-like, lunging manner to position the horse to deliver a bite. Lifting a hind leg, or turning the hindquarters towards someone is a prelude to a kick. Pawing the ground with the front feet is the horse's way of investigating something or showing that he is anxious to be on the move. Horses will also strike out with their front feet is the horse's way of investigating something or showing that he is anxious to be on the move. Horses will also strike out with their front legs in a defensive or attacking move; when seriously threatened, the horse may rear up and strike out with his front feet.
Horses are not naturally aggressive - their first instinct is to put as much space as possible between themselves and the thing they fear. Acute hearing and sense of smell, and virtually all round vision, help them detect danger. Their speed helps them to escape it. If cornered, they will turn and fight - with teeth and hooves. And the reason horses buck is to dislodge an attacker from their backs. Predators such as wolves would leap onto the horse's back and the horse's last defense was to buck and writhe to throw the beast off, For this reason, it is essential that young horses are introduced to a rider slowly and sympathetically. A horse rarely bears his rider any malice but if he feels a weight on his back, his primeval instincts tell him to get rid of it.
The horse's eyes should be bight and alert in normal circumstances, if the horse is in pain or exhausted, the eyes will be almost closed. If the he is alarmed by something, the eyes will widen. To show anger or resentment, the horse will roll his eyes back to show the whites of the eyes.
The position of the eyes at the side of the horses heads allows them almost 360 degrees of vision. Monocular vision allows them to see on either side (light shaded area), while they havea comparatively narrow binocular field (dark shaded area). Horses have two 'blind spots' - one directly in front of the face and one directly behind the body - a very good reason for never approaching a horse from either of these two positions.
The horse's sight does not pick up as much detail as the human eye, but they are far quicker to spot movement. Horses can also see better in the dark than we can. horses do see degrees of colour - yellow, greens and blues are more obvious to them than reds, for example.
Horses rely on their highly developed senses to explore and deal with their environment. The horse's large nostrils and nasal cavities enhance his sense of smell. In the wild, horses used their sense of smell to detect predators, to water. Smell is important to the stallion in particular to detect mares that are in season. Horses use touch to communicate with each other and will nudge or nuzzle a companion with their nose or head. Their whiskers help them to sense and explore objects that interest them. We use touch to communicate our own wishes to the horse - the touch of our legs on his sides allows us to direct and control him when ridden, as does the hand on the rein via the bit. Like us, horses can distinguish between bitter, sweet, salt and sour tastes, but they can tolerate far more bitter-tasting substances than we can. We often assume that horses have a sweet tooth, hence the habit of feeding them sugar lumps and mints as treats. But it could simply be that the horse associates kindness and a particularly close degree of attention from humans with the action of feeding him a treat, rather that the taste itself having a particular appeal.
