Understanding Horse Behaviour
A normal healthy horse would never live alone by choice. In a herd, horses have a rich and varied social life that includes activities such as play behaviour and mutual grooming behaviour. Horses that live in herds and graze naturally get to exercise their senses frequently.
For example, they smell each other when greeting, they smell each other’s dung, and they use their senses of taste and smell when selecting which plants to graze. They use their visual and hearing senses to look out for and listen for danger.
Horses that live in a herd communicate with one another mainly by using body language. Horses living in herds can share the responsibility and take turns watching out for predators. A horse that is kept alone will be stressed due to not receiving the benefits of companionship.
Most horses will instinctively run at the first sign of danger, and for this reason horses are generally highly reactive. Good training can overcome this behaviour so that a horse and handler are safer.
However, remember that if a horse feels trapped and cannot escape he/she may kick out, strike, or even bite. When handling a horse aim to read the body language of the horse and try to not push the horse to the point where he/she feels the need to escape or defend his/herself.
In the wild horses travel many kilometres a day. Horses walk steadily while grazing and also have to travel between where the water is and where feed is.
This steady movement helps to keep blood and lymphatic fluid moving around the body. It also helps to wear the hooves down as the horse moves across a variety of terrain ranging from soft and wet to abrasive and dry.
Movement is an integral part of the life of a natural living horse so it is very important that domestic horses are kept in a way that encourages movement as much as possible.