CHAPTER III 

 PSYCHOLOGY OF THE HORSE 



The Horse's Mind 



37. Realising fully that the horse's mind is the 

 first part of the horse to which our attention 

 must be directed if we wish to train him to any 

 degree, let us consider a few points on this 

 subject. 



Anatomically, the horse's brain is propor- 

 tionately very much smaller than ours, whilst 

 his spinal cord is proportionately much larger. 

 This fact is made quite clear when we see what 

 little effect an overdose of alcohol has on the 

 horse's brain (especially a horse of less than 

 normal intelligence), and what a strong effect 

 it has on the spinal cord, stimulating all the 

 motor nerve centres of the animal. The most 

 developed portion of the nervous system is 

 always acted upon by alcohol. 



38. The horse is born, as we are, ignorant, 

 and therefore has to be educated ; but he has a 

 natural gift of instinct of which we have very 

 little. In wild horses (i.e. horses born and 

 brought up away from civilisation) this natural 

 instinct is very well developed, whilst in the 

 highest-bred horse it is comparatively slightly 

 developed. The horse possesses similar senses 

 of hearing, smell and taste to those of men, 

 those of hearing, smelling and tasting being 

 particularly well developed. Unfortunately, the 

 sense of seeing is often far from good in the 

 horse, but this is usually due to his being 

 kept in a dark stable. I think that the infant 

 foal probably has, in most cases, good sight. 

 The sense of feeling is, of course, well developed, 

 but not as well as ours ; particularly is this not 

 the case on the surface of the body, as our skin 

 is far more fully supplied per unit area with 

 sensory nerves. It must be remembered, how- 

 ever, that the horse varies a great deal in the 

 manner in which he shows evidence of pain, as 

 well as in the extent to which he actually feels 

 it ; some horses will bear an enormous amount 

 of excruciating pain. Intense fear is probably 

 responsible for the absence of motion or reaction. 



39. The sense of hearing is very acute in 

 almost every horse— in fact, so acute in some 

 horses that shouting or other loud noises are 

 responsible for strange actions, which actions 

 are usually put down to the horse's stupidity or 

 high spirits, and the poor animal is punished 

 for that which he cannot help. The firing of 



guns and rifles has a most disturbing effect on 

 some horses, which is supposed to produce a 

 painful feeling in the ear or brain. The remedy 

 for this is to place cotton wool in the ears. The 

 same effect, in a milder degree, is responsible for 

 many horses becoming what is commonly known 

 as "gun shy." 



The senses of smelling and tasting are very 

 acute (particularly in wild horses), as it is these 

 senses that guide the horse in choosing food 

 and water and also in determining whether he 

 knows an object and whether certain objects 

 cause him fear or not. I might remark here 

 that the horse's muzzle is to him what our fingers 

 are to us, the soft pad at the end of the muzzle 

 being fully supplied with tactile hairs and 

 nerves. For this reason the horse apparently 

 smells all new objects ; although he smells most 

 of them as well, the chief reason for placing his 

 muzzle so near to them is generally to feel them. 



40. The mind of the horse varies in quality 

 very considerably, and while I fully realise that 

 the poorer-bred, badly educated horse more 

 resembles the ass, I refer in this chapter, in con- 

 sidering his character, to the better-bred horse 

 — the horse whose mental power is considerably 

 developed. 



The horse has an extraordinary memory, a 

 great imagination, and a limited amount of 

 intelligence. This last, of course, does not in 

 any horse reach the high development that it 

 has reached in the more intelligent dog. James 

 Fillis, who was looked upon as the greatest 

 horse-trainer of the last decade, stated that he 

 believed the horse was not intelligent, and in 

 his writings gives a few examples to prove his 

 theory. I do not agree with Fillis, and I do not 

 think his examples are clear enough to convince 

 one of his theory. I think that before man can 

 really understand the horse's intelligence he has 

 to possess an exceptional sympathy with the 

 horse, which sympathy I do not think Fillis 

 possessed, judging from the manner in which 

 he lays down his views in more than one place. 



41. It is quite clear to me that the horse 

 possesses intelligence. It is by his intelligence 

 that he studies the means of opposing what he 

 is asked to do ; that he awaits his opportunity 

 to attack the person whom he dislikes the 

 moment this person's eye is directed elsewhere ; 



II 



