if you’re a cowboy on a horse chasing another cowboy on a horse, does your horse know that you’re beefing with the other cowboy, is your horse emotionally invested in the conflict or do they just go with it?
if you’re a cowboy on a horse chasing another cowboy on a horse, does your horse know that you’re beefing with the other cowboy, is your horse emotionally invested in the conflict or do they just go with it?
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Domestic horses have no idea what’s happening as far as a wider goal, they’re just running when told to run and jumping when told to jump
I’ve always wondered if horses understood the concept of war and battlefields.
A horse wouldn’t have the capabilities to understand the deeper meaning behind what it’s being asked to do. For the most part, the horse is doing what it’s told because that’s how it was trained/ made to do.
I will add, horses can be sensitive (to a degree) when it comes to its environment which includes the state of those nearby. Horses with strong and close bonds can pick up on things like their emotional state.
With this in mind, it’s possible that the horse from your scenario could pick up on its rider’s emotional state. This could lead to the horse behaving or even simply feeling different compared with a similar ride that wasn’t as emotionally charged.
Horses are also capable of differentiating people based on experiences. If someone treats them well, they may act more warmly towards them. Similarly, if they consistently have negative experiences then the horse could act more hostile.
From this, it’s also possible for the horse to experience a level of hostility or fear from the person they’re chasing if they’ve had bad experiences with them.
All the same, the horse still wouldn’t understand the intricacies, context or other deeper meanings to what’s going on in general.
I’m pretty sure they’d be able to tell it’s some matter of aggression or competition if the horse was personally bonded with you enough to understand your emotions.
Horses, like any other mammal, have some concept of territory competition and conflict. It’s not as if wild horses have never fought each other for status or whatever. I’ve even seen them bully cows away from farmers while they’re inspecting the calves. Like the horse straight up understood as a matter of routine that it had to kick at the cow or it would come trample the farmer. Did an amazing job too.
Horses are herd animals and they will gallop as fast as possible to catch up to the other horse. Your beef with the other rider will have nothing to do with it.
I doubt it’s beef but I have had several horses who just simply refused to come in last, or be the slower horse. Some horses like to run and run angry.
This is the kind of question I hope to find on reddit, this brightened my day, thank you
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time with horses and most of the time they’re head empty no thoughts and they’re also herd animals which is why we can domesticate them in the first place so i would assume their thought process goes something along the line of. “Herd lead signaled to go this way so here we go…he’s signaling to speed up okay I’m speeding up… oop changing directions….wow loud noises”
“I’M gonna lead this herd! Not those other lame loser horses.”
Depends on the horse and the learned relationship you have with it. Trained race horses know they are trying to win.
Horses beefing is more of an Ikea thing.