Behavior

Lives of feral (or wild) horses are often presented as a universal example of “ideal” for their domestic counterparts. But most of us will never be able to witness the lives of a horse free to roam hundreds of thousands of acres in our lifetimes. We can read books and scientific studies, but the nuances of a horse’s individual choices over the course of its lifetime and its effects on a horse’s behavior are often lost in the subtext.

Unfortunately, there is often a mismatch between horse behavior presented in courses by scientists and behaviorists when compared with horse behavior presented in books, online, and by horse trainers. During my time studying geology in Utah, I spent hundreds of hours in the desert cataloguing horses independently on a quest to know why. It led to the formation of the non-profit Onaqui Catalogue Foundation which is dedicated to recording information about the wild horses of the Onaqui herd in Utah, USA, and providing it for easy access by the general public (behaviorists and researchers included).

I have found that the lives of horses are rich and full of variation from the commonly presented structure of “one stallion + mares + offspring of one stallion”. Histories of management, predation, and environmental pressures (like climate) can all have a profound effect on how horses may organize themselves into large social groups. I still visit this (and other) feral and wild horse herds several times a year to continue to learn through observation. And, I have been fortunate to be able to share this knowledge directly with clients and through educational courses and talks. I believe that being able to observe raw horse behavior is invaluable and hope to bring the behavior of wild equids into the public where it can best inform handlers and practitioners of their domestic counterparts.