HiHK: ID

Horses I have Known II: Design v. Evolution

Since you folks liked the horse pictures so much the last time, I thought I'd post a couple more. I have all these pictures because my wife, who is an equine artist (chiefly a sculptrix, but also a painter) is always trotting out to get photos of the beasties to use as references.

Today's horse is Tobias:



(The truck in the background, for reasons most of you will understand, is named "Serenity.")

Tobias is obviously a draft horse, a heavy, stocky horse of substance. Drafts are cold bloods, horses that we have for hundreds of years bred to be powerful, and easygoing. This is because they are meant to pull carts or plows, or work in teams, and it is harder to control a horse in that context than it is to do so while riding them with proper tack. As a result, you need a brave horse (i.e., it won't spook easily) that is gentle and easygoing.

The problem is that the horse's evolved nature runs totally against both propositions. In spite of their size, horses are prey animals in the wild. They are thus conditioned by a million years' survival to spook easily, and to respond to such spooks by running like the devil in the opposite direction. These are not desirable qualities, but they are deeply embedded. (A side note -- there is a piece in this month's Equus that argues that cold bloods branched off from the rest of horses at a much earlier period in evolution, which explains both their different dietary needs and some tempermental differences. See "Nutrition: Feeding Big Eaters" in the EQ Consultants column, p. 74-5.)

What can you do about that? Well, one thing you can do is breed horses that aren't particularly smart. They will go happily about their business because they are bad at threat recognition. However, genuinely dumb horses create other problems for the working horseman.

What people have done instead is select horses for breeding that have shown a certain tendency to go on "autopilot" when they're in harness. Humans do this too, so you'll understand what I mean. If you regularly make a trip by car, you get to where you can make it without thinking about it. Thus, your brain is free to be otherwise occupied. You may only be pulled back to full consciousness if something unexpected happens on the road. If a semi suddenly pulls out in front of you, you're suddenly "awake" -- but otherwise, the autopilot takes you there.

The best draft horses are bred for a similar quality. Tobias is a good example. He is a smart beast, when he's out of his harness -- but you tack him up, and he sort of sighs and his brain goes away. He does his job, but you can tell he is not all there while you're working him.

For example, he will walk straight into a tree.

You have to be very careful, therefore, about where this horse's ears are pointed. That's where he's going to go. If they're pointed at a tree, you have to turn him. This is the opposite of a horse like the Colonel, who has a good sense for his surroundings. The Colonel has excellent trail sense. Tobias is smart enough to have it, and in alarming situations -- for example, if you are riding him down a steep and rocky hillside -- you can feel his brain come awake. Like with you and the semi, he's suddenly "all there" and careful. Most of the time, he's not, and you'd better be watching where he's going.

He's a good looking beast, though:



Tobias is a former driving horse, and has only recently begun to be trained for trail riding. He hasn't learned to neck-rein yet, which is one of the things I like to teach the horses. He still rides like he thinks he's pulling a cart, and he still steers like a wheelbarrow.

He has the best of his breeding, though. He's gentle and sweet, and he never fails to come over when he sees you to seek some friendly attention. He's afraid of absolutely nothing -- today I thought he was going to run the UPS truck off the road rather than give way. He's a bit lazy, which is common with cold bloods, but he's a good horse all around.