2026.08.15
I finished this a while ago, but never wrote anything about it.
It's exactly what it says on the tin, and it delivers a useful and interesting message that should help anyone who interacts with horses. It's not just academic insight; there's a lot of useful and practical knowledge on how to understand and work with horses. Essential reading for every equestrian, and probably worth a revisit from time to time.
That's my review. But what did I learn?
Our brains are physically different, which has more profound implications than I even thought. Horses can't learn the way we do. You need to break things down, you need to approach things different ways, you need lots of repetition - you need to be more patient than you ever thought you needed to be. And even then, when you are finally working well together, it's still a horse brain and you need to act accordingly.
I had no idea how little they see, compare to us. You see the giant eyes, set on each side, that must take in so much. But their vision feeds the possible need to flee, where our vision is more focused for hunting. Our stereo vision gives us much better depth perception, which is important for jumping. Stay centered on the obstacle to maximize the horse's vision. They also can't see in the dark as well as I thought, and can take up to 45 minutes to adapt to something like going from outside into a not well lit arena.
It's amazing that we can work together as well as we can, despite our differences. Not that it's entirely a wild animal anymore since we domesticated them, but there is a still a lot to work around.
The Source Notes in the back are
