Posts Tagged ‘keen sense’

A horse is another one of those plant eating animals with his stomach able to hold up to eighteen quarts of food. The unusually long intestines of a horse enables’ him to store much food in its body. The horse chews its food very slowly and very thoroughly. Unlike the cow, it does not chew a cud.

The eyes of the horse are located on the sides of his head. This permit’s the horse to see forward, sideways and even a little bit backward. The pupil of the horse’s eye is not round but oval shaped. The longest part runs crosswise or horizontally.

The shape of the pupil cuts down the amount a horse can see when it’s looking straight ahead…The horse cannot see above the level of its eyes. The pupil of the eye can be opened up very wide and therefore the horse can see better at night…and in a dim light. Far better than us human beings can see!

The horse’s ears are very flexible and can be wiggled about in order to caught sounds. The horse has a keen sense of sound and a keen sense of smell. It can hear sounds or detect strange objects by its sense of smell before it can see them. A horse may often be frightened by the appearance of a strange object if he doesn’t know what it is. If the horse is allowed to sniff at the object and examine it, then its fear may quickly disappear.

A wild horse is naturally very timid and afraid of man. If it’s grazing or resting and hears an unusual sound, it immediately throws its head up in alarm. It looks in the direction from which the sound came and may quickly turn and run. The urge to run may come from something the horse sees, hears or smells.

A horse has long legs which makes it a swift runner and the horses feet are called hoofs which are hard and don’t wear down too easily. The hoofs also lesson some of the shock when the horse moves around. The hoofs allow the horse better footing.

The legs of a newborn horse are very long in proportion to its height. They grow little as the horse develops, but not nearly as fast as the rest of his body. Though a young horse has long legs it can still run very fast if need be. He may need this speed if he’s one that’s allowed to run in the wild! Much like the…wild mustang horses and burros, that’s left to run free in the Western States of The United States.

Though horses are used less in the United States as far as work horses, if you research into third world countries you’ll see many horses are still being used as work horses. There’s another entire breed of horses on the racing seen while others are more for riding and many are simply pets! As a result many horses are thought of as just another family member. When that happens, it makes me feel the life of a horse is not much different than you or me!

Gary was raised in a family that loved and worked horses. He was a race horse jockey and his father was a horse shoer and a horse trader. The whole family each had their own horse and at times more than one. Nowadays’ there are issues with the mustangs and burrows in our Western States. They’re part of our American Heritage just as well as the bald eagle, buffalo, black bear and grizzly bear, just to name a few. Let your voice be heard since the mustangs can’t speak for themselves! See for yourself here: http://madeleinepickens.com
http://savingamericasmustangs.org/

Author: G Wayne Cooper
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Canada duty

Horse, like people have many different personalities. Many like to think that a horse is reminiscent of its owner. I must say I find this to be very true from my own personal experience. I think that it is very important for a horse owner or future horse owner to know how to handle your horse or potential horse, and understand how a horse’s senses work.

Healthy horses have a very keen sense of smell. Your horse more than likely will have a craving for grain or apples for example. An apple doesn’t have much smell, but if you have one in your pocket your horse will definitely smell it and know exactly what pocket its in. He will probably be sniffing at your pocket and nudging you for it. If you’re out on a trail with your horse your horse can smell many things before you even notice them, such as hikers, deer, mountain bikers etc… sometimes I find that horse will snort at certain smells, to me this is kind of an alert.

Along with smell horses also have a keen sense of hearing which they use in conjunction with the sense of smell. You will notice that your horse flicks its ears often sometimes pricking them forward and turning them to the side. This is an indication that your horse is paying attention to the sounds in the environment around him. This is a natural prey instinct. I also find that when horses prick their ears back towards you, they are paying attention to you and your cues as well. Horses use their ears to not only listen but to also talk to you. When a horse pricks his ears forward look at the direction they are pointing and you’ll find out what your horse is investigating. It could be another horse, coyote, hay truck etc… When you horse pens his ears, it’s usually an indication he’s angry, disgruntled, or upset.

A horse’s tail is another form of communication. A horse’s tailbone is actually and extension of its spine, but a horse can express himself through his tail. You can actually tell what a horse is thinking by the positioning of his tail. A relaxed horse usually lays his tail against his body in a natural manner. Sometimes a horse will hold its slightly out away from his body as a balancing mechanism while trotting or cantering. A scared horse tucks or clamps his tail to his body. A happy or excited horse lifts its tail high like a flag. And unhappy or irritated horse swishes his tail at you or another horse. Horses also use the tail to swat flies.

A horse has keen sight. The horse sees differently than people do. The horse’s eye has a different physical structure than the human eye. A horse will raise his head to focus on close objects and lower its head to see distant objects. In addition horses are also color blind. Due to the placement of the horse’s eye being on the sides of the head, he has lateral vision. Meaning he can see two separate images at the same time. It is a good idea when working with your horse, to work on both sides of your horse.

Horses also communicate by voice with other horses and by body language. If you watch horses in a pasture you will see this often. Horse will swish their tails at eat other when the want space. They will also kick at each other if another horse or human is too close. You will see horses push each other with their bodies when they want another horse to move or want to show dominance. Horses will also do this with humans and to my amazement many horse owners allow this. This is a definite no no, and needs correction.

By carefully observing your horses you will learn a lot about how to think like a horse.

Author: Gary Houston
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera News