 |
[RC] Governed by Instinct - k s swigartLP said: So a horse that's NOT in a 'group' - considers itself 'easy pickings' to predators. Thus, is under stress since it doesn't have buddies helping to keep watch. Regardless of how 'domesticated' we think our horse is - it's still governed by instincts. Actually, wild horses were not very successful "prey" animals, which is probably one of the reasons that they are now extinct. Most of the instincts that prey animals have (including both the flight instinct and the herd instinct) are actually not very well developed in domesticated horses...which was probably one of the reasons that man was able to domesticate them in the first place. Domesticated horses are pretty easy to disuade from being obsessed by their instincts because those intincts are not very strong, and probably never were (which is why they are domesticated at all); combine this with selecting against these instincts for thousands of years, and you may find that the instincts observed in wild prey animals may not apply to domesticated horses all that much after all. kat Orange County, Calif. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|