Psychology of Horses
(insights from a New York City Cowboy)
I had to walk around the mare to close the gate behind her. If I walked straight to her to get to the gate, she would turn and go thru the gate ahead of me. I’ve learned a lot about how they think over the years.
Some people think they are just a dumb animal.
This attorney was driving on a back road in Wyoming when suddenly, his car stopped. He got out, opened the hood and stared at the engine (knowing nothing about engines). He heard this voice call out: “it’s the carburetor”. He looked around not seeing anyone then turned back to look at his car engine. Again, he heard, “it’s the carburetor”. He noticed 2 horses standing by the fence and saw the lips moving on one stated, “just tap the carburetor then start it up”. He did that and it started right up. He drove into a small town and told a mechanic at the filling station about it. The mechanic asked, “was it the white horse or the black horse?” The attorney said it was the white horse. With that, the mechanic turned to look at the engine and stated, “it’s a good thing because that black horse doesn’t know a damned thing about cars!”
HORSE SENSE
Horse sense is what keeps horses from betting on people.
I’ve never met a horse that could diagnose carburetor problems but I haven’t know them all either. Horses have distinct behaviors and you have to keep on your toes. Some of their behavior stem from their prehistoric brains that dictated their survival. (fight or flight responses) If you’ve been on the receiving end of a hoof a time or two, you would understand.
What about people? What can we take from the experiences of horses? Have you ever heard someone stated: “that kid doesn’t have a lick of horse sense” Why would we be concerned about people having horse sense?
Maybe we are connected. I have learned an incredible piece of information from Bryan Post of the Post Institute, about our human prehistoric brains (often referred to as: lizard brains) that sit at the base of our brain and directs our survival instincts.
We see a lot of these reactive instincts when we see “crowd behaviors” as crowds of people would riot and do things they would not ordinarily do.
I could write a book on similar behaviors between horses and people. One of my favorites stories of my relationships with horses is when my horse told me he was in trouble. Of course, I had just dropped him down the side of a Mountain!
Until next time,
Stephen S
ps: we will talk business instead of horse sense, but you will see how it all fits together!