7 Character Traits Found in the Horse

The horse is a fascinating animal with a multitude of character traits inherited from its wild history. It is important to understand them to best understand your horse and his reactions. Here are 7 character traits that you will encounter in horses 🐴

The escape

The horse, an animal considered prey in the animal kingdom, depends on its speed as its main means of survival. Its natural predators are robust animals such as cougars, wolves and even bears, and its ability to outrun them is therefore essential. As humans, we need to understand their natural ability to escape in order to fully understand horses. Indeed, for a long time the horse lived in the wild and this is something inherited from the past. 🚀

Clairvoyance

The horse is one of the most perceptive domestic animals. As seen previously, the horse is a prey animal, so they must be able to detect predators. An inappropriate gesture that is harmless to humans can become a trigger and alarm for the horse! As riders and trainers, we often mistake this reaction for “fear” or bad behavior. 🧐

Reactivity

The horse has a very fast reaction time because it must react instantly to a perceived predator in order to survive. You must therefore be careful because it can become uncontrollable in a fraction of a second.

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Memory

Horses forgive, but do not forget. They especially remember bad situations! This is why it is essential to make the horse's first training experience a positive one.

Horses categorize most experiences in one of two ways:

• Something not to fear and therefore ignore or explore
• Something to fear and therefore flee from.

Therefore, when introducing something new to the horse, you need to show it what is harmful to it and what is harmless (birds, etc.) so that it does not spend its entire life running away. Once again, it is important to make all dressage experiences positive. 🙂

Submission

Horses are easily dominated. The horse is a herd animal where a dominance hierarchy is always established. If done correctly, human dominance can easily be established during training without the horse becoming excessively fearful. Furthermore, it must always be done with respect for the animal.

Communication

A horse's body language is unique to the equine species. As a highly social animal, the horse communicates its emotions and intentions to its herd mates through vocalization and body language. To be an effective trainer or rider, a person must be able to read the horse's body language. 💬

Precocity

The horse is a precocious species, meaning that newborn foals are neurologically mature at birth. This is also when they are most vulnerable so they must be able to identify danger and flee if necessary.

We hope this list can help you interpret the character of your horse. And you, what trait will you add to the list?