I spend a lot of time thinking about why Dude and Bestie behave the way they do. Horse behavior--both with other horses and with humans--is really interesting to me. Take yesterday, for instance. It was a nice day, and by the time Katie and I got to the barn, Bestie had already done her shift outdoors and Dude was nearing the end of his shift.
Katie started mucking his stall and gathering up brushes to groom him, when all of a sudden in came barn manager Lisa leading her horse Dakota and Dude. "We've got the goofiest Quarter Horses around," she laughed. Seems she had been going down the grassy walk between the pastures with the mowing tractor and Dude and Dakota started tearing around in a panic. The tractor, which they have seen a MILLION times, both operating as well as parked, was all of a sudden very scary. Why?
Another perplexing thing... One day while I was handgrazing Dude, Paul, the Arabian trainer at the barn, came out in his new training cart hitched to his filly. The training cart is very open, and Paul stands upright in it. The whole effect is sort of Roman charioteer in the 'burbs of Vermont. I saw it before Dude did and my first thought was "Here we go!" I was convinced that Dude would have a huge freak-out fit with me frantically maintaining a death grip on the end of the lead rope.
He looked up from grazing as the cart approached, checked it out for a moment, heaved a sigh, and went back to grazing. Why?
On the other hand, Bestie, who is pretty ho-hum about most new and interesting sights, saw the same cart yesterday and promptly went into total panic mode. Big up-and-down prancing, tail straight up, lots of snorting. I had the distinct feeling that I would not win any attempt to hold her in place to look at the cart in a reasonable way, so I led her back to the barn. She absolutely was having nothing to do with the contraption. Why?
Like I said, I think a lot about why they act the way they do. But I sure don't come up with too many conclusive answers!
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