Monday, May 19, 2008

Things That Go Bump in the Night...or Day

One of the funniest quotes about horses I've seen is this:  "Horses are only scared of two things: things that move, and things that don't."  If you've dealt with horses much you understand the wisdom of this.  If not, think of it this way:  these huge creatures evolved as prey animals.  Their species has survived with its fight-or-flight instinct strongly intact and more often than not, the message any individual horse's brain sends is "RUN!"

I'm not sure which category this falls into but another thing horses are scared of is things that you make weird noises, only you can't see them...the goats!  The kids are in one of the spare horse stalls with the bottom half of an outside door open so that they can go out into a fenced-in run.  When the horses are in the barn, they can hear the kids without being able to see them. Let me tell you, these kids are vocal ;D  This makes for some spooky times in horse minds.  Ears prick up, they leap to attention; there was even some snorting!  It didn't help matters that the wind was blowing a gale this weekend which adds to the category of things that are moving. At the end of the day everyone survived the spookiness...I did have to walk Solana up to the stall door and let her stick her nose in and check out these funny new neighbors.  What a hoot!

4 comments:

Lythrum said...

It does make sense when you put it in that perspective, the ancestors of the horses of today were those that didn't mind looking silly by overreacting and running first and asking questions later. It is funny though to think of such a large and powerful animal being afraid of little goat kids. :)

Anonymous said...

They are SUCH beautiful animals but one stepped on my foot when I was a little girl. It hurt like hell, plus he wouldn't remove his foot from mine and as GOD as my witness, I swear he laughed at me. It was a gorgeous creature...an Arabian I believe but in spite of all that beauty, I swear he was mocking me.

I never read "Black Beauty" again after that.

LK

Kat said...

My foot hurts in sympathy! Been there, done that!! Some do have wicked senses of humor...he probably did laugh at you. Mine thinks it's funny to grab loose pockets, etc and tug on them, a trait that I'm still trying to convince her is not found amusing by everyone.

onetruth said...

I love that description of what scares horses...things that move...and things that don't move! Hee!

Would I get in trouble if I spirited one of those goat kids away? I could take him/her to work and let him/her deal with those wacky gummint folks...