A Look at the Horse’s Mind

Posted at July 16, 2009 // Inspiration

photo by kiekje.be

Here are several great articles in a series about the Horse’s mind and learning abilities. They discuss positive reinforcement (like clicker training) and how beneficial it can be to horses.

Equine Learning Ability

Horse Learning

Equine Attention Span

Equine Long-term Memory

What does Licking/Chewing Mean?

Horse Training

I thought the article on long term memory was interesting – stating that horses that were asked to identify (or touch) an image they had seen years earlier remembered the specific skill and all were able to touch the image. Basically stating that horses have a very good long-term memory. Makes you sad for all the poor/abused horses out there that can never forget their past. (My Minnow is one of those)

I also liked the article on Attention Span, stating that horses have a very short attention span and will learn better if new skills are broken up into short maybe 5 minute sessions. I typically train this way anyway – but it can sometimes be hard if your horse is sooo close to learning a new skill and you don’t want to give up until they get it. Knowing now that its pretty certain they have a short attention span and that any longer than maybe 5 minutes will just set your training back – I will defnitely try to keep my training sessions short.

-KD
www.ponypaintings.com