The following is a translated piece from the Horse Bonding Forum by a horse-loving translator, which I really enjoyed. I haven’t read the original text, but if I find it, I will. As for the translation, it’s delicate, emotional, and touching.
A deeper understanding of horse behavior can lead to more effective training methods.
If everyone were convinced that horses can learn through communication, they would no longer be beaten; if every rider understood the instincts of horses, they would gain more time and patience.
Fortunately, research in equine psychology is constantly advancing, and in this article, you will discover 10 very important aspects of horse behavior.
FACT 1: The horse is a 'flight' animal.
Behavior 1: Horses are 'flight' animals
In the wild, horses are prey animals. They do not hunt but are hunted. Nature has endowed them with a strong sense awareness to better protect themselves. When faced with potential danger, a horse will not bravely resist but will instead turn and flee in the opposite direction. This instinct proves the theory that horses are 'flight' animals rather than 'fight' animals.
Usually, horses don’t wait until danger is near to flee. If one horse in a herd senses even the slightest possibility of a predator nearby, you’ll see the whole herd run in the opposite direction until they are far away from the threat. Due to this instinct, some horses may suddenly bolt, jump, or even try to throw off their riders in open fields. Although this behavior is dangerous and hard for riders to tolerate, trying to control a horse that thinks it’s escaping is quite difficult.
When training a horse, it’s obviously unreasonable to expect it not to fear unfamiliar things. Even if a horse becomes familiar with an object, it may not realize that the object poses no real danger to it. When you try to get a horse to walk past something it fears, give it ample space and allow it to be afraid.
FACT 2: Horses learn by association.
Common Sense 2: Horses Learn Through Association
As mentioned above, if you force a horse to approach something it fears using a whip, you’re essentially telling the horse that its fear is justified. In the horse’s mind, the logic goes like this: it sees an object and feels afraid, then it gets hit. The idea that “approaching that object is the source of pain” stays in the horse’s mind. The horse associates the object with pain and will do everything it can to avoid approaching it.
On the other hand, if the object is associated with something pleasant, the horse will think that approaching it is indeed enjoyable. For example, if a horse is afraid of a flag and tries to avoid it, but at the same time feels reassurance from the rider—perhaps just a calming sound—then it will form the association “approach the flag, get reassurance.” The next day, when you approach the flag again, calm the horse’s fear, and offer encouragement, this process will be imprinted in its mind as a pleasant experience.
Humans also learn many things through association. If you smell the perfume your old friend used to wear, an image of your friend might immediately come to mind. If you were in a car accident while listening to a certain song, hearing that song again in a car might remind you of the accident. You’ve learned to associate a feeling (hearing the song) with a situation (the accident). Horses think the same way.
Keep this principle in mind, and you’ll teach your horse good ways to behave, and both you and your horse will gain peace and satisfaction.
FACT 3: Horses have excellent memories.
Common Sense 3: Horses Have Excellent Memory
Human phobias or mental disorders often trace back to problems experienced in childhood. Similarly, behavioral issues in horses often reveal problems from their early years. A horse can retain an unpleasant event in its memory for life. Just like in human psychological therapy, retraining a horse’s behavior is a complex and time-consuming process.
Fortunately, horses also have a great memory for happy and pleasurable experiences. If a horse was ridden by a highly skilled and communicative rider, and many years later, a rider of the same caliber mounts it again, it will evoke those pleasant memories, showing eagerness to cooperate and smooth movement.
Never underestimate a horse’s ability to remember and recall past events. Horses are intelligent and sensitive animals, and they use their memory to protect themselves and avoid the repetition of unfortunate events.
FACT 4: Horses' emotions are highly developed.
Common Sense 4: Horses Have Rich Emotions
Contrary to traditional beliefs, horses have a wide range of emotions. Horses can feel happiness, sadness, fear, love, trust, distrust, excitement, boredom, stress, frustration, curiosity, and even jealousy. Anyone who observes horses carefully can understand the emotions they convey through their body language.
In the past, horses were considered simple-minded, non-verbal animals. Thankfully, more and more people are beginning to listen seriously to horses and try to understand their thoughts. There are now excellent new books on the market that offer deeper insights into horses.
So how can you tell what a horse is feeling? Anger and rage seem to be the easiest to recognize. An angry horse might express its emotions by resisting the rider, pawing the ground with its front legs, shaking its head, and other actions. These actions can also indicate excitement or anxiety.
My horse ‘Gary’ has a typical mischievous personality. I absolutely love him, and he knows it well. I think he loves me too because every time I appear at his stable door, he always seems very happy to see me. He whinnies, lifts one front leg, and angles his head in a special way toward me, as if to say, ‘I’m cute, so happy to see you!’
When we finish training, he also likes to amuse himself. He pins his ears back, wrinkles his nose, and shows his teeth—actions that usually indicate aggression—but I understand exactly what Gary means by doing these. He only makes these expressions in the few minutes between the end of training and being returned to the stable. He knows the day’s tasks are done and wants to tease me. When I put his blanket on, he deliberately shows his teeth and often uses his lips to play with my clothes, but he has never bitten me. I know this is Gary’s way of expressing humor, and I’ve never been bothered by it. I can see the mischievous glint in his eyes.
When I usually lunge him, especially at the beginning of training, Gary clearly shows signs of reluctance. He walks halfway around the circle, then lowers his head, droops his ears, and turns toward me. When I send him back halfway, he finds an opportunity to turn back toward me. He fully understands he’s a spoiled guy, and this is his way of negotiating not to lunge. He’s definitely not being defiant or rude; he’s simply telling me he’s not in the mood to lunge today.
Always pay attention to the little signs your horse gives you, and you’ll be able to discern how it feels. A sad horse will droop its ears and show no interest in its surroundings, and a bored horse will show similar signs. Horses can grieve over the loss of companions or friends, whether human, horse, or other animals, and it may take months to recover from such grief. Horses are emotionally dependent on each other, and if that bond is broken, they can feel very lonely. If you can give your horse genuine love and let it know you care, it can grow fond of you just as it does its fellow horses.
FACT 5: Horses are creatures of habit.
Common Sense 5: Horses Are Creatures of Habit
We often hear about horses having bad habits. At certain points in a horse’s life, bad habits may be triggered by certain events, and repeated occurrences reinforce these early signs, embedding them in the horse’s memory as fixed habits, eventually becoming hard to overcome.
Understand this point from a practical perspective. Imagine a rider asks a horse to canter, and the horse bucks twice. The horse quickly transitions into a canter, so the rider overlooks the bucking. Soon, when the rider asks the horse to canter again, the horse learns it can express excitement by bucking and develops it into a habit. If the rider stops the horse the first time it bucks, regains control, asks the horse to canter calmly, and praises it when it makes a clean transition, overcoming this bad behavior becomes much easier. Once bad habits become ingrained, they often last a lifetime. It’s best to curb bad habits in their early stages.
FACT 6: Horses will only learn if they are calm.
Common Sense 6: Horses can only learn when they are in a calm emotional state.
Whipping, kicking, or shouting at a horse may make it obey your commands, but the most profound thing the horse learns is to fear you. Harsh treatment makes the horse tense and afraid. It may comply out of fear, but once that fear fades, the horse will become more resolute and show great skepticism and distrust toward anything you ask of it.
Horses can only focus on achieving a specific goal when they are calm and relaxed. Additionally, a relaxed emotional state stays in the horse’s memory, turning the training process into a positive experience and helping them look forward to the next session. Repeating this process leaves a positive impression on the horse and eventually teaches it what you want it to learn. This requires considerable patience on your part, but the results are absolutely worth the effort.
FACT 7: Horses do not consider food reward a trophy.
Common Sense 7: Horses do not see food as a reward.
Carnivores hunt, sometimes catching prey and sometimes not, so for them, food is sporadic. Horses don’t need to hunt for food like carnivores—the grass is plentiful everywhere. When training dogs or other carnivores, food incentives are very effective rewards. But for horses, food is just a pleasant part of everyday life, not a reward. For example, if a horse does something well as asked and you give it a carrot, then the pleasant memory of eating the carrot will stay with it.
You cannot bribe a horse with food to get it to work for you. Such bribery might work once or twice, but likely won’t work the next time—and eventually, the horse will ignore both the food and your requests. It’s like trying to bribe a rich person to do something for you with money—they won’t be interested because they already have enough.
FACT 8: Horses can learn overnight.
Common Sense 8: Horses can learn at night.
Time and again, people are surprised when a horse suddenly masters something it previously struggled with. During training, some may feel extremely frustrated when the horse doesn’t cooperate. Stopping the training at a good point—such as ending with a pat or a relaxed walk on a long rein—leaves the horse with a pleasant final memory. The next day, the horse is likely to willingly do what you’ve been trying to teach. In psychology, we call this learning pattern “latent learning.”
Kelly Marks recalled one of her horses that refused to jump over a water ditch. After two hours of effort without using any harsh methods, she ultimately failed. She dismounted, led the horse back, and thought the horse would definitely never clear the ditch. But the next day, after jumping over a small fence, she pointed the horse toward the ditch again without much hope—and the horse cleared it without hesitation. From then on, the horse had no further issues with crossing ditches.
Giving a horse enough time to think helps it learn faster. Harsh actions, such as kicking or hitting, might achieve results, but they also cause tension and discomfort, and there’s no guarantee the method will work again. Horses are very intelligent, so give them space to learn and never force them.
FACT 9: Not all horses are created equal.
Common Sense 9: Not all horses are the same.
Everyone knows that horses differ physically, but they also differ mentally. Every rider, trainer, and handler must recognize which type of training is better suited for each horse. Bold and brave horses may enjoy the challenges of show jumping or cross-country events, but shy and timid horses may not find these activities enjoyable—or may even find them distressing. Imagine how you’d feel if someone forced you to do a job you dislike and aren’t good at.
Yes, horses can learn—even timid ones can learn to jump and do cross-country. I suggest everyone use their own judgment. When you find a horse reluctant to do something you’re teaching, don’t give up too soon. Keep trying until you’re certain the horse is truly unhappy with it. Remember, a horse may perform poorly in one area but excel in others—it’s very meaningful to try to discover the horse’s strengths.
FACT10: Horses mimic each other.
Common Sense 10: Horses imitate each other.
Nowadays, many horse trainers take advantage of this trait during training. One thing to note is that while horses can learn good habits from others, they can also pick up bad ones. That’s why some people isolate horses with bad habits in the stable to prevent others from learning the same behaviors.
The positive side is that you can let young horses observe well-trained horses to accelerate their learning. If your goal is to train a young horse to jump, let it watch a competition-level horse being trained. It doesn’t mean the young horse will automatically start jumping just by watching—but its attitude will change significantly.
Sylvia Loch, a renowned classical dressage rider and author of many equestrian books, once tried to train a horse to master an advanced dressage movement. Despite her persistent efforts, the horse simply refused to perform the PASSAGE movement. By chance, while the horse was loose in the yard, it kept observing Sylvia riding another horse performing PASSAGE. The next day, to her great surprise, the horse willingly performed the PASSAGE movement with just a slight aid from her.
Horses are gifts from God to humanity. We bring them into the stable, groom them, feed them, talk to them, care for them, and hope to bring them joy. But why do they sometimes seem so stubborn? Why do they excitedly bounce around when we want them to be calm? Why do they stand still when we clearly want them to move? Why do they sometimes obey and other times pretend not to understand anything? Is it just an intelligence issue? Or could there be an instinctual problem?
Or… maybe it’s just us?
This article is compiled from the instructional piece "The Art of Riding," dedicated to all those who wish to understand horses and share joy with them.