ridecamp@endurance.net: Equine IQ & Anthropomorphism

Equine IQ & Anthropomorphism

Barbara Madill (WFMADILL.FMF@worldnet.att.net)
Sun, 9 Feb 1997 14:21:23 +0000

Many years ago our local Arabian club had a speaker who expounded on equine
I.Q. and behavior in general. He was obviously NOT a horseperson (BUT he
DID have a Federal grant to study the horses). He seemed genuinely
surprised that horses seemed to show many of the "emotions" of humans,
showing mares affection for offspring, jealousy of stallions, etc.
However, he was emphatic that horses learned only be observation and could
not accomplish anything that was not either instinctive or learned.
At the time I had a mare who had learned to "help" me slide open her stall
door (requiring a RIGHT to LEFT HEAD MOTION) as I grained the three horses
each evening. I theorized that, if all equine behavior was "rote", she
would not be able to reverse the procedure to let herself INTO her stall
(requiring a LEFT to RIGHT HEAD MOTION).
So, one evening I led her into the barn aisle, and poured her grain into
her feed bucket, closing the stall door to the position it was each evening
as she "helped" me. I said, "Go into your stall," just as I had frequently
when the door was open. There was not a moment's hesitation as she used the
necessary head motion.

A friend kept her weanlings in a paddock between her house and the main barn
for several reasons. She could keep an eye on them, and they had to
socialize with humans on the way to and from the barn.
There was a corn crib at the end of the paddock and a favorite "game" the
weanlings (many foal crops, not just one) devised was to "grab the corn
cob". The object was to gain possession, and some of the chases were
hilarious to watch. One day one of the colts stopped, watching the play. He
then went to the corn crib, picked up a fresh cob and ran to the group,
trying to entice the others to chase him. They started, but then, as a
unit, seemed to decide that the newcomer was not THE object of the game and
resumed the chase of the original corn cob and its possessor!

It is my observation that horses have a sense of humor, but not if the joke
is on them. One of my young horses was romping in his paddock after an ice
storm and skidded harmlessly on a patch of ice. It and I laughed. The colt
looked in my direction, apparently not having noticed me earlier. He then
returned (STOMPED would have been an accurate description) to the ice patch
and demolished it!

It is also my observation that, while we should not attribute HUMAN behavior
to animals, perhaps we are ALSO ANIMALS and share many of their emotions and
general behaviors. We HOPE that we are different, but there aren't many
animals that set out to destroy others of their kind en masse!

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