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Behavior

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  • Two horses communicating using vocal, facial, and body language.

    Equine Language: Facial, Vocal and Body

    Learn how your horse's facial, vocal, and body language can tune you in to its reactions to people, places and things.

  • Horse on alert with ears straight up and forward and eyes focused.

    Equine Senses and How They Relate to Behavior

    Learn how your horse's behavior is determined by what he see, hears, smells, and feels, and the part you play in affecting your horses responses to its world.

  • Palomino horse showing awareness of someone or something in the distance by neighing.

    The Equine Psyche

    The fears and needs of your horse are stuck there in the back of its psyche based on millions of years of experience. Learn how 4 essential needs form and dictate your horse's behavior.

  • Man as alpha leader petting horse's muzzle,

    Domestic Equine Behavior - A Brief History

    Learn about the horse's development from a small quadruped to the large fleet-footed mammal that is on his best behavior with an alpha leader.

  • A close-up of a Paint horse's eye.

    Ears, Eyes, Mouth and Tail - Observe Carefully!

    Learn about the ways a horse's senses allow them to stay safe and monitor their world for anything that might indicate danger is near and how they communicate loudly and clearly.

  • Horse cribbing on a wood fence.

    Stereotypies: Bad Habits or Vices?

    Learn about the 3 different types of stereotypies and the 8 contributing factors research shows to be causative factors in the development of stereotypies in horses.

  • Foal walking with mare as if she is a grownup horse.

    How Horses Learn

    With positive reinforcement, a horse learns to perform an action to receive something he desires, such as food, stroking, or praise.

  • Rider hanging onto spooked, bucking horse.

    Desensitize Your Horse to Common Encounters

    Because of the horse's exceptionally perceptive and sensitive nature, he has the ability to detect sensory stimuli on the trail or in unfamiliar places that doesn't register with humans.

  • Pinto foals engaging in mutual grooming and horseplay.

    Mutual Grooming in Horses - You Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours!

    Horses often begin a mutual grooming session by scratching each others withers but then move up and down each others body using their teeth to scratch and gently nip their grooming partner.

  • Trainer lunging horse in snow-covered pasture for benefit of resistance training.

    Exercise: An Hour a Day Can Make a Big Difference in Horse Behavior

    Your horse will gain additional benefit from moving in snow since it requires him to pick up his feet, offers excellent resistance training, and the cold decreases inflammation in his joints and tendons.

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