Capture your horse’s Attention
Sometimes, it seems, your horse never misses a thing. “Ooh, what’s that?” “Look! A trailer!” “What a pretty mare…” “Hey, the feeed truuuck…”
That’s natural, of course. Horses have survived 55 million years of evolution partly because they attend to their surroundings. The most sensitive herdmates listen, watch and sniff---scouting the environment for any changes. If Big Mama lifts her head and pricks her ears, the others check to see what’s going on. Some pasture buddies follow her gaze and check for themselves; others simply watch her response.
Brain scientists study attention in species from honeybees to humans. We find that similar processes play a role in the attentional functions of most mammalian brains. These parallels let us speculate regarding the horse, whose powers of attention are hard to test. Go ahead, try coaxing a horse into a pounding brain scanner without sedation. See what I mean?
In horses and humans, “attention” refers to many different skills. Equine brains are engineered for vigilance. They notice new sights and sounds, identify changes, switch focus from one item to another, and evaluate for danger—--all at lightning speed. Human brains are much less vigilant, but they’re better at ignoring distractions and concentrating on lengthy tasks.
Because we excel at the types of attention that horses struggle with (and vice versa), the horse-human team has far greater powers of attention than either species has alone. If you understand your mount’s attentional strengths, sharpen your own, and foster mutual communication, the two of you can expand your awareness. And greater awareness toward each other leads to increased learning for both of you.
In this article, we consider how human and equine brains maintain vigilance, alert to warning signals and orient mental capacity
