The horse’s five senses

The horse is a prey animal: its senses are tuned to spot danger before it arrives. Know them and you will understand why it startles, snorts or stops dead — and how to approach it without taking it by surprise.

In the exam programme

Describe the main features of the horse’s or pony’s five senses.Common module B

The horse uses its five senses all the time — sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste — to keep watch on its surroundings and adapt to them. In the wild, its safety lies in flight: it must spot a predator from far off, then decide very quickly whether to run. Much of its behaviour in the yard comes down to this.

Sight: a wide angle and two blind spots

Its large eyes sit on the sides of its head. Its vision is therefore panoramic: without moving its head, it sees more than 300° around itself. To the sides, each eye sees on its own: this is monocular vision, very quick to catch the slightest movement but poor at judging distance. In front, the fields of the two eyes overlap by only 60 to 70°, half as much as ours: this is binocular vision, the only zone where it sees depth well. To look at something near or far, it raises, lowers or turns its head.

Binocular vision in front: both eyes together, judging distance
Blind spot under the nose and forehead
Right monocular vision
Blind spot behind
Left monocular vision: very wide, alert to the slightest movement

Fig. 2.1The horse’s field of vision, seen from above

Two blind spots: one behind it, in line with its body; the other just in front of and below its nose.
Colours: it sees fewer than we do, but it is better at picking up movement, contrast or a glint.
At night: it sees fairly well in the half-light, but it needs far longer than we do to adjust from light to shade. Walking into a dark building, or into a trailer in bright sunshine, can worry it.

Safety

Never approach a horse from behind without warning it. Speak to it, and wait until it turns its head and sees you. This matters even more in a stall, where it stands with its back to you.

Hearing, smell, touch and taste

Hearing: Very keen. Its ears, very mobile and independent of each other, turn towards each sound to find where it comes from. It picks up high-pitched sounds that we cannot hear. A calm voice reassures it; a sudden noise makes it jump.
Smell: Highly developed. The horse sniffs anything new, recognises other horses by their smell — they greet each other nostril to nostril — and chooses its food by smelling it. Let it smell your hand or an unfamiliar object before you touch it.
Touch: Its whole skin is sensitive: it feels a fly land and shakes it off with a twitch of the skin or a swish of the tail. The whiskers, long stiff hairs around the eyes, nose and lips, let it feel what lies under its nose, where it cannot see: they must not be clipped. Its feet tell it things too: it paws the ground to test unfamiliar footing, and before lying down or rolling.
Taste: Its taste buds let it enjoy or reject a food once it has tried it. Every horse has its likes and dislikes; most love anything sweet and crunchy, such as a carrot.

A word from the instructor

A horse that jumps when you touch its quarters without warning is not a coward: it simply had not seen you. You would jump too if someone tapped you on the shoulder in the dark.

Remember

Panoramic sight with two blind spots, ears that point at the noise, a nose for recognising, whiskers for exploring under the muzzle, and taste for sorting: those are the five senses to describe.

Ekidemy

The Galops^®, from the first step to Galop 7