:: By Donald L. Kleckner

As riders, we seldom stop to consider or don’t understand that this wonderful, willing, giving horse experiences the world around it in a much different way than we do. Like us, however, the horse experiences the world through its “senses”. Like humans, the horse has the same five senses. As horsemen, we must remember that the horse’s senses are different from human senses in many ways. The five senses are sight, smell, taste, hearing; and feeling.

SIGHT
Sight is probably the most important yet misunderstood of the horses five senses. Since the horse is a “prey” animal and not a “predator” and depends on “flight” for its safety, nature has given the horse the ability to see things in the distance. We refer to this as far sighted, so that if threatened or frightened, the horse can flee from the danger. Because horses are far sighted, objects that are close often appear fuzzy and difficult to clearly distinguish.

Horses have both monocular and binocular vision. Monocular vision means seeing different objects with each eye. Binocular means focusing on an object with both eyes at the same time. To better understand monocular vision, try this simple test. Keep in mind that a person’s eyes are a couple of inches apart, while the horse’s eyes are 8 to 10 inches apart. Hold one arm out directly in front of you and raise one finger. Close one eye and look at the finger with the other eye. Quickly open the eye that was closed and close the eye that was open. Do this rapidly a few times and you notice that your finger seems to jump from side to side. Consider what the horse, through monocular vision, sees because his eyes are located so much farther apart. With the left eye the horse sees a piece of paper lying on the ground. As he approaches the paper he suddenly gets a glimpse of it with his right eye. The paper, which appeared as a dead or innate object, suddenly appears to jump sideways. Not just an inch or so like your finger test, but up to a foot. No wonder the horse, whose ancestors have learned through the flight intuition to run, shies suddenly, to what the rider sees as merely a simple scrap of paper.

To better understand binocular vision, look at an object two feet away then look at an object in the distance. You can see both objects instantly. Not so for the horse. It takes horses a slightly longer time to focus with binocular vision to identify and process what they see. The time varies from horse to horse—from one second to four or more seconds. Check out the binocular vision time on the next horse you ride and count the seconds from when the horse sees an object until he finishes processing it. The horse will be a more willing partner if he knows you will give him time to use his binocular vision to really see where and what you are asking of him.

SMELL
The horse’s sense of smell can be best understood by sharing what happened as I watched a horse named Clint. After a snow that had occurred through the night, I decided to turn Clint out in the big arena to relax and warm up. As I was leading him to the arena, I saw a coyote cross the newly fallen snow then disappear up over the side of the hill. As Clint was frolicking along the rail, he stopped suddenly, put his nose to the tracks of the coyote and followed those tracks across the arena to the far fence and then looked up to the hill where the coyote had disappeared. I was convinced of the horse’s keen sense of smell. Try not to wear strong cologne or perfume while riding. Not only can it draw bugs to you, but it can also repel your horse!

TASTE
The third sense, taste, is self explanatory. Some horses prefer certain tasty treats, and others prefer different sensations through taste. Sometimes a horse will lick you to get the salt off your body. Do not let a horse lick you as that is putting the horse above you in the head hierarchy.

HEARING
We can use the sensitive ears of the horse as an instrument panel. The ears not only hear very well, but they can tell us about the horse’s interest, its disposition and its alertness. Because the ears are able to be used in a directional manner the horse hears things that we do not. For example; I was riding in Griffith Park, a hilly park in the middle of the greater Los Angeles area. My horse started pointing his ears sharply at a huge bush then sharply back at me. I neither heard nor saw anything, but the horse kept up the ear movement prompting me to take a look. Behind the bush was a doe with a newly born fawn. If the ear signs had been ignored, a memorable experience would have been missed.

I use the horse’s sense of hearing to establish ”GROUND DISIPLINE”. Ground discipline is defined as having the horse comfortable with me telling it what to do, at any time the horse is handled from the ground. I speak to the horse every time I approach, this helps the horse to be aware that I am near and he stays comfortable while being approached.

To walk, use the voice command “WALK”. To stop, the voice command of “HO” is used. To back, use the voice command “BACK”. And to trot, use the command “TROT”. Using ground discipline every time the horse is handled, the horse learns to be obedient, becomes more comfortable in following your directions, and does not have to guess what is coming up next.

FEELING
Last, but far from least, is the horse’s sense of feel. A horse has a very wide range of feelings. A horse can tolerate a high level of feeling pain. This can be observed watching horses romping and playing because they kick and bite each other with a great deal of force. While playing, the pain seems to be well tolerated, but on the other end of the spectrum, a horse is very sensitive to the slightest touch like a fly landing on it and to the weight shift on its back from a rider.

While riding horses, sensitive feeling can be used to great advantage. The definition of an aid is ”THE WAY TO TALK TO THE HORSE”— telling the horse what you want it to do through the horse’s sense of feeling. This could be considered a brand new language for a rider to learn. The difficulty in using aids correctly can be compared to patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time, then reversing the movement without changing your hands. Meaning that the rider must learn to be well coordinated with not only the hands, but with all parts of the body. The horse is sensitive to everything it feels, so it is important that any touch or weight shift (use of balance) on the part of the rider, mean something to the horse or the horse could become confused or ignore the feel of an aid used improperly.

It’s true that if you thump your horse hard enough he will walk or do what he thinks you want him to do. A better way is to whisper - asking your horse to respond to your wishes by using gentle, light, invisible touches. The opposite of whispering is screaming, this is thumping your horse to demand his movements. Don’t “mumble” when you ride your horse, this means you do not clearly use the touch system to communicate with the horse. Continual or accidental touching can be very confusing to the horse. Being aware and in tune with your horse’s five senses will make your partnership better than ever. Enjoy! 

About the Author: Don is a life member of CHA and a Western ACI and a Level 2 English instructor. He is active as the area coordinator for REARS {Riverside Emergency Animal Rescue System) and is presently the secretary of GVPOA (Garner Valley Property Owners Association). Don developed the Flying J School of Horsemanship lesson program in the 50's that has levels 1 through 5 in education. Don presently owns the D bar H Ranch in Mountain Center, California.

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©2007 All rights reserved. Reproduction of any material from this issue expressly forbidden without written permission of the publisher/editor: Certified Horsemanship Association, 4037 Iron Works Parkway Suite 180, Lexington, KY 40511, 859-259-3399.

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