Horse Brain, Human Brain: The Neuroscience of Horsemanship

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Since the clinic, I recognize when my horses are feeling stressed,” says Zancanella. “I use the techniques Peters shared that help me be the calm in the storm, like not clamping down on the lead rope and trying to restrain my horse when he’s worried.” This concept has nothing to do with the two ‘hemispheres’, the left part of the brain and the right part of the brain. A horse’s hearing is much keener than ours. They use their hearing for three primary functions: to detect sounds, to determine the location of the sound, and to provide sensory information that allows the horse to recognize the identity of these sources. Horses can hear low to very high frequency sound, in the range of 14 Hz to 25 kHz (human range = 20 Hz to 20 kHz). Horses’ ears can move 180 degrees using 10 different muscles (vs. 3 for the human ear) and are able to single out a specific area to listen to. This allows the horse to orient itself toward the sounds to be able to determine what is making the noise. Showing white around the eyes: usually means they are angry or scared. (White around the eyes is also a normal characteristic of the Appaloosa breed.)

Consider sensory compensation when you’re training outdoors as well. Wind excites the horse’s powerful motion-detector cells, creating unusual sights. Some of them are not even visible to you. At the same time, the noise of wind reduces information from hearing, and its sweep carries scents away. With a triple whammy like this, your horse will appreciate some reassurance. But My Horse Isn’t Nervous!

Abstract Thought

The horse has a very fast response time. A prey animal must react instantly to a perceived predator to be able to survive. Note: The images in this article were generated by AI and are for illustrative purposes only. Asked by You: Your Equine Brain Curiosities Answered! Stamping: indicates a mild threat or protest (or they may be getting rid of insects or flies biting their legs).

Because many horses continue their work with partial blindness, we tend to guess it’s not a big deal. But cover up your left eye then run as fast as you can on an angle to the left, amidst 20 of the fastest galloping stallions in the world. It’s not as easy as it looks! How to age a horse or tell a horse's age or to age a horse as it is called, we look at its teeth. Because a horses lifestyle means it is almost continually grazing its teeth naturally grow continually and are worn down. Because of this their teeth gradually change throughout his life which allows us to tell its age. Redrup G. 25 fascinating facts about horses (that you will struggle to believe are true). https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/features/horse-facts-653825 Accessed 27 June 2019 Ans: ansate sulcus, ansl: ansa lenticularis, cc: corpus callosum, cfo: corpus of fornix, cho: optic chiasm, chp: choroid plexus, cig: cingulate gyrus, cin: cingulum, cla: claustrum, cn: caudate nucleus, cso: centrum semiovale, ec: external capsule, Ecs: ectosylvian sulcus, ecs: esctosylvian gyrus, ex: extreme capsule, fo: fornix, fsc: subcallosal fasciculus, gp: globus pallidus, ic: internal capsule, log: lateral olfactory gyrus, lot: lateral olfactory tract, lv: lateral ventricle, Mar: Marginal sulcus, mar: marginal gyrus, max: maxillary nerve, mca: medial cerebral artery, prpc: prepiriform cortex, put: putamen, rc: rostral commissure, rcc: radiation of corpus callosum, Rfi: rhinal fissure, smt: stria medullaris thalami, Spl: splenial sulcus, Sss: suprasylvian sulcus, stra: striate artery, stt: terminal stria, Syl: sylvian fissure, syl: sylvian sulcus, III: oculomotor nerve. Over the years, I started to explore neurologically based horsemanship from my work in human memory and brain health,” says Peters.

Horse Brain in Action: Learning and Memory

In humans and horses, when one sense is deprived of information, the brain pays more attention to input from other senses. So a deaf horse pays more attention to sights, and a blind horse pays more attention to sounds. The same compensation accounts for blind riders like Karen Law, who listens for directional cues while jumping mid-level cross-country and stadium courses, or Kristen Knouse who navigates flat classes by hearing hoofbeats echo off the rail. The sense organs have not changed, but the brain is now zeroing in on stimulation we usually ignore. Neurons in the auditory cortex strengthen in response to blindness, so that poorer vision creates better hearing. Training Indoors Horses typically have around 205 bones in total, which is only one less than we do. However, Arabian horses tend to have 201 bones on average, although not all individuals share this trait. This is just a brief overview of the parts of the horse’s brain, and in truth scientists still do not fully understand how brain tissue functions and interacts! It is thought that the body of the animal is ‘printed’ on a map of the cerebral cortex, the outer layer of the brain. This shows signals being received via the nervous system from various parts of the body. In most cases, the stronger and more dominant shoulder is on the left side, which is why horses tend to prefer the left rein.

A herd of wild horses consists of one or two stallions, a group of mares, and their foals. The leader of the herd is usually an older mare (the “ alpha mare”), even though one stallion owns the herd. She maintains her dominant role even though she may be physically weaker than the others. The older mare has had more experiences, more close encounters, and survived more threats then any other horse in the herd. The requirement of the lead horse is not strength or size; if this were so, then humans could never dominate a horse. Dominance is established not only through aggression but also through attitudes that let the other horses know she expects to be obeyed. A key difference in the human brain versus the equine brain is the size of the frontal lobe, which is what allows abstract thinking, planning, strategy and forecasting of future events in humans. In the horse, the frontal lobe is very small compared to humans. In horses, this area is used for voluntary movement, like when a horse chooses to walk next to us, and not abstract thinking. Fig 5. Transverse magnetic resonance image of the equine brain on the level of the diagonal band of Broca.ab: amygdaloid body, aci: internal carotid artery, Ans: ansate sulcus, cc: corpus callosum, cig: cingulate gyrus, cin: cingulum, cf: column of fornix, cfo: corpus of fornix, cn: caudate nucleus (tail), crc: cerebral crus, ec: external capsule, Ecs: ectosylvian sulcus, ex: extreme capsule, fmt: mammilo-thalamic fasciculus, fsc: subcallosal fasciculus, hs: hypothalamic sulcus, ic: internal capsule, inf: infundibular stalk, ita: interthalamic adhesion, lme: external medullary lamina, lv: lateral ventricle, Mar: marginal sulcus, max: maxillary nerve, nad: nucleus anterior dorsalis thalami, nrt: reticular nucleus of the thalamus, obl: oblique gyrus, ot: optic tract, pg: pituitary gland, put: putamen, rcc: radition of corpus callosum, Rfi: rhinal fissure, slu: gyrus semilunaris, smt: stria medullaris thalami, ssg: suprasylvian gyrus, Sss: suprasylvian sulcus, Syl: sylvian fissure, syl: sylvian gyrus, III: oculomotor nerve, 3: third ventricle.