How To Catch Your Horse

When Roux first came to me, he couldn't be caught. Now there's a funny phrase right there, 'can't catch my horse', as though we are fishing for them with bait or chasing after them with a net. I don't know about you, but I think of my horses as my children (and now I am thinking of the child catcher from 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'!... goodness, what if our horses saw us like that?!), but if I had two actual children, I wouldn't run around after them trying to 'catch' them. 'Catching your horse' can mean several different things, and ideally I would rather not have to go to the inconvenience of chasing, sneaking up on or coaxing him, I'd rather he willingly came to me or at least allowed me to simply walk up to him and put on his headcollar, but for the sake of convenience I will stick to the term 'catch'.

I came to the realisation some time ago that if I can't catch my horse, it is because he neither trusts nor respects me (and when I say respect I don't mean fear, because hmm, if he feared me then he probably wouldn't trust me!). Personally, I believe being able to catch your horse in from the field is one of the most basic/important foundational steps in working with that horse. To the extent that I see no point continuing the training of a horse who I cannot catch in from the field safely and calmly until we have overcome that first step. Your journey with a horse is a bit like a staircase made up of many small, individual steps... if you skip building the important steps, you are likely to have a pretty wobbly staircase later on. Isn't it worth taking more time earlier to save a lot of time later?

I keep both my boys at pasture 24/7 and one of the first things I naively did with Roux the day he first arrived was attempt to remove his headcollar. Being as touchy as he is, he panicked as soon as he felt pressure on his poll and he bolted away from me. From that moment on, he associated me with that one instance and wouldn't come near me (unless I had a feed-bucket and even then, tentatively). Roux was a conundrum to me for a little while. I was working every day with Alfie, who is a happy-go-lucky sort of chap (irresistible bit of anthropomorphism there), and while we were making great progress together, I always felt a frustration in the back of my mind about Roux. I had tried coaxing him with food and had managed to clip a long line to his headcollar on a couple of occasions. I'd been very excited that I'd finally caught him and had done some work with him, but after the second time I realised that he was only responding out of fear and it broke my heart a little because that wasn't how I wanted him to see me. I decided that if he was to work willingly with me, it would have to be on both our terms; he would have to choose to accept being caught. I disposed of all ropes and resolved to use only myself and what knowledge I had.

I know I'm making this sound like a huge deal but it really was for me (and here's a shout out to all those who have the same problem, I know how frustrating it can be!)... And it wasn't just me; anyone who tried to approach him, he wouldn't let within 5 feet of him most of the time. I decided to use one consistent method and stick to it daily in the hope that he would come around.

So I began by looking at him. And then walking slowly and non-threateningly toward him. Non-threatening in this case meant head down, hands in pockets, shoulders slumped and walking sideways or backwards toward him with no equipment in hand, and pausing for a minute every two steps I took. Even this apparently posed too much of a threat for Roux however, which he confirmed by walking away in the opposite direction as soon as I entered his comfort zone. I had no round pen or arena and was working with Roux in an open acre of pasture. When he walked away, I immediately changed my body language and actively asked him to walk away from me. The reasoning behind this is that it would allow me to clearly incorporate negative reinforcement (see my last post) when he eventually turned in my direction because then I could reward and encourage that exact action by lowering my energy at the same moment. This was NOT chasing my horse around a field until he was so exhausted that he submitted. Neither was it a punishment for walking away. It was just a simple training principle being put to use in a big, spacious field. In simple terms, I was giving Roux a choice between two options: 1) allowing me to approach (slowly - it is only fair to make it as manageable an option as possible for him) or 2) moving away from me (not stopping to eat or relax).

He walked away from me and then he trotted away and he didn't stop for a long while, but there was a moment where he looked toward me. THAT was the moment I stopped. I stopped and transformed my body language back to that of the moody teenager (excuse the analogy), hands in pockets, head down, slumped shoulders. This was my use of negative reinforcement - rewarding his desired behaviour (looking toward me) by removing the unpleasant stimulus (my advance toward him). Of course, then he stopped too. I would like to say it was happily ever after from there, but there is rarely a 'quick fix' with horses and I was going to have to continue this process for a few weeks. I remember Roux high-tailing it away from me as I got too close sometimes, cantering around and around the field, taking Alfie with him, and I would calmly chase him away in accordance until he thought about changing his mind, in which case so would I. Gradually, his escapades became slower and less frequent. He would allow me to come nearer before he moved away and his circles around me became smaller and smaller. He learned that each time he looked toward me I stopped and before long he was looking in at me and we were stopping instantaneously. It became a bit like a dance, both reacting to each other in a predictable way. I believe that is one of the keys to good horsemanship - consistency. Roux learned that I was consistent and began to trust that if he was looking toward me, I would become non-intrusive, simple as that. The breakthrough came when he allowed me to walk calmly up to him and stroke his neck. For that, I was grateful and I showed this by simply walking away, satisfied. I wanted him to know that just because I went up to him and stroked him didn't mean I expected anything of him. He started showing signs of relaxation while I was near him, such as sighing and the 'licking and chewing' motion, which showed me he was beginning to truly accept my presence, such a difference from the tense and frightened manner he'd had previously. Eventually my walking toward him was no longer an 'unpleasant stimulus' and I began to instead use positive reinforcement to encourage him in his training.

These tiny little steps created the foundation of our journey's 'staircase'. We have never stopped building and now Roux comes over to me when I call his name. I don't know if you'd call that catching ... to me, it feels more like we've captured each other's hearts.

BACK TO BASICS - Conditioning and Reinforcement

Bear with me a while for I must write this post... I just want to revisit the very most basic of basic training principles as it is so easy to become lost in a world of various 'horse training techniques', be they to do  with dressage or happy hacking, desensitising him to this, or training her that... Do we actually understand why and how what we are doing is having an effect on our horses?

In my last post, I mentioned the importance of understanding learning theories when training horses. There are all sorts of different techniques and training methods out there, but to train the horse correctly we must understand how those techniques work and how they all stem back to the basics of classical or operant conditioning. If you don't know what those are, here are diagrams and links to help explain...

{ www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html }

{ www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html } 

So essentially, all learned behaviour (anything that is not instinctive) in horses is learned either through simple association or through this process: stimulus > response > reinforcement. In my experience, punishment as a form of reinforcement is not a constructive way to train a horse anything apart from, perhaps, teaching him not to do something (e.g. tapping his muzzle if he nips), because horses are creatures that are easily scared. When they are pushed too far out of their comfort zone, and further toward their 'fight/flight' zone (natural instinct as a prey animal), their concentration on learning a new concept is overrun by an alarm bell instilled in them literally for the sake of their own survival... so we can hardly blame them when they struggle to listen to us because they are scared by some other external factor. I try to not ever instill any kind of punishment when training a horse to do something as this 1) is pushing him further out of his comfort zone, 2) possibly marring his trust in me as his handler, 3) can easily be misconstrued if the timing is wrong and 4) is making him associate the whole situation with fear. That's a lot of reasons not to use punishment. Training horses in ways that encourage them to remain in a relaxed state (positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement) I have found to be the most constructive. Of course, it is not always possible for the horse to remain entirely relaxed and there is a place for the method of 'flooding', but generally I try to use a combination of positive and negative reinforcement, as do many people.  If I were asking a horse to move his hind quarters over, I might apply a slight pressure to them with my fingertips. As soon as he moves them, the 'uncomfortable pressure' from my fingertips is released (negative reinforcement) and I feed him a treat for performing the correct movement (positive reinforcement). The correct timing of reinforcement is key to successful training. 

When Roux first came to me, he wouldn't allow me to catch him in the field. I keep him and Alfie at grass 24/7, so this was far from ideal. Sure, I could slip the rope onto his head collar when he approached me for his feed bucket, but this was also, in my mind, far from ideal. Instead, I used negative reinforcement through a technique where I would increase pressure when he gave an undesired response (when he walked away, I walked toward him) so that I could decrease/release that pressure when he gave the desired response (when he looked/walked in my direction, I would look/walk away). Of course, there are all sorts of methods out there to catch horses, but they all boil down to conditioning and reinforcement and how you are going about using these principles. And the better you understand these principles (along with the horse's natural instincts), the better you can understand, choose and justify the training techniques you come across to use. 

I went on to train Roux to accept being caught through negative reinforcement (his reward was essentially me giving him time and space). His next issue was picking his feet up and having them picked out and for that, I used both negative and positive reinforcement, depending on the stage we were at (and it was a long process!). I've learned so much through all of this, but I just think it's so important to understand how these simple principles of conditioning and reinforcement form the backbone of all horse training and to remember them throughout. 

Meet Me...

Name: Aviva Stafford

Where I'm based: Cheshire, UK

Horsemanship/method of training practised and a brief description of application or principles: I certainly try to use a non-aggressive approach, but also a non-domineering one as much as I can help it. In horse herds there is often a ‘boss’ horse who will bully the other horses and some trainers try to emulate this behaviour so that they can be the ‘boss horse’. But I prefer to be like the horse whom the others follow because he has their trust and not because they are intimidated by him.

Whether I’m training a horse to actively DO something or desensitising him to an object/situation he finds scary, I try to break it all down into steps that he finds more manageable. Some need a process broken down into tiny steps while others will progress in leaps and bounds, but they are all different!

I think it’s quite important to understand some of the theories behind behaviour. A proper understanding of the theories behind ‘classical conditioning’ (Pavlov’s dogs, 1889) and ‘operant conditioning’ (Skinner’s rats, 1938) have had a huge impact on the way I understand horse training. I also think it’s important to understand the horse’s nature because then we can transfer all these theories in a way that will be constructive for him. Understanding how he thinks and his perception of the world generally, helps me understand why he behaves the way he does and so, needless to say, helps me figure out training solutions.

Summary of Previous Experience: I started riding when I was 11 and it wasn’t long before I was helping at local yards so I could spend more time with the horses. When I was 15 I met Pat and Linda Parelli at their 2010 summit and started getting interested in natural horsemanship. When I was 16 I went to study equine management at Reaseheath College. In those same two years I also listened to Andrew McLean at one his demos, took my Stage 1 and 2 BHS exams, attended a 5-day training course with Kelly Marks, undertook work experience on a polo yard (near Cowdray) and an equine-assisted learning facility (Hampshire) and I took on my first ‘loan pony’ as a project. After college I became a full-time volunteer for a charity and spent a lot of time on their equestrian side which they used to help vulnerable and disabled adults. By that time, I had discovered the healing power of horses and decided my goal was to become an equine-assisted learning facilitator as well as a horse trainer. I then went to Spain for 3 weeks, met Clare at Time and Space Horse Riding and experienced horses in a wonderful way there. And then I went for a year without horses and without riding (which was very difficult). BUT August of this year was worth the wait because all at once I attended an intensive 9-day facilitator training course with Tricia Day of EAQ and then took on Alfie and Roux, my two 6-year-old New Forest Ponies.

What I'm doing now: Backing and training my two young ponies (we love learning tricks!) and steadily building my portfolio toward becoming a qualified equine-assisted learning facilitator.

Idols and influences: Emma Massingale, Mark Rashid, Alexander Nevzorov

             

 Top left: Alfie making me laugh out loud Top right: Roux ready to ride (I currently use a bitless bridle and a bareback pad) Bottom: Alfie practising his bow 

Meet the Boys...

...Alfie and Roux. My lifelong dream came true when they arrived on 8th August this year. We've already come a long way in three months and I'm going to start writing about them regularly on here, partly because it makes a nice record for me and hopefully so others can benefit from what I've learned through them.

They are both 6-year-old New Forest Pony geldings who used to roam free on the New Forest, before being taken off by their owner. They were treated quite roughly and Roux is still affected to this day, a particularly sensitive horse by nature. They were rescued from being sold for meat by a lady who then passed them on to me a year a bit later so that I could eventually use them for equine assisted learning, as I am currently training to become a facilitator.

I will keep this post short and sweet, but do expect many more insightful ones to follow. ~

Equine Assisted Learning and Therapy

Equine-assisted learning (EAL) is an experience-based learning process, the purpose of which is to improve cognitive function (including social and emotional development) via interaction with horses with the aim that principles learned in the session will carry-over and be applied in everyday living. Equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP) is often similar to EAL but with a focus on an ultimately therapeutic value instead of a learning one, although often these values emerge hand-in-hand. EAL/EAP often involves setting up ground activities involving horses which will require the individual or group to apply certain skills. Non-verbal communication, assertiveness, creative thinking and problem-solving, leadership, empathy, taking responsibility, teamwork, relationships and confidence are several examples of traits that are developed through these sessions. EAL/EAP is becoming an increasingly popular choice for children or adolescent youth with additional needs  due to its capacity for restorative social-emotional practice and development of healthier, more mature psycho-social skills. Over time, this restorative practice literally allows the brain to remodel neural pathways of arousal, emotion and meaning, broadening the learner's perception of the world around them and their window of tolerance for emotion and capacity to form healthy relationships. 

Acceptance ~ Attention ~ Empathy ~ Emotional Bonding ~ Mutual Trust ~ Nonverbal Communication Skills ~ Patience ~ Respect ~ Self-awareness ~ Self-control ~ Self-esteem ~ Speech-language Skills ~ Well-being 

http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/07/02/what-is-equine-therapy-exploring-benefits-of-human-horse-relationships/

Horses can help a huge variety of people. EAL/EAP has been known to help people with conditions such as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), a variety of learning disabilities including ASD (autism spectrum disorder), sufferers of anxiety, depression, eating disorders and substance misuse. EAL is also becoming a popular method of corporate team development because of its effectiveness at improving self- and social-awareness and communication skills. 

Role of the Facilitator / Therapist 
The equine assisted learning facilitator/therapist is there to do just that: facilitate learning and/or provide therapy. They will tailor sessions for each individual and set up safe scenarios from which they believe the learner will benefit from the most. They will give the learner as much support and input as they need to work alongside the horses without taking away from what the horses themselves give the learner through non-biased, authentic feedback. The facilitator/therapist will help the learner reflect on various scenarios from the session and turn it into constructive feedback that they can apply to aspects of day to day life. They are there to enable the learner. 

What Happens in the Brain? 
To understand how horses help change us from the inside out, it's helpful to know a little about what goes on in the brain. The brain is an incredible organism which has the ability to change its own structure in order to enhance its function – a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity. The restructuring of emotional response is most affected by experiences because neurons are designed to change in response to activity. These experiences engage the limbic (emotional) region of the brain. The neurons in the limbic region develop new connections with each other and the more the person undergoes the same experience, the stronger those connections become. 

Take trauma for example; how does it cause a disorder in the first place? 'Our brain and nervous system were designed to ensure survival by functioning as a 'RESPONSE/MEMORY/PREDICTION' system, but trauma can set this complex and adaptive system on a semi-permanent false alarm... a brain that exists in a perpetual state of fear. In a child victim of abuse, for instance, these trauma-induced alterations have made their stress response oversensitive, overreactive and dysfunctional due to over-utilisation of primitive reactions such as dissociation and hypervigilance. These primitive reactions become entrenched over time and maladaptive preconscious memories function as a general template for that child's feelings, thoughts and actions.' (Bruce Perry, 2008) Chaotic experiences during the sensitive stage of child development create in turn chaotic, dysfunctional neural organisation that persists into adulthood. The good news is that, thanks to neuroplasticity, therapeutic activities such as EAL/EAP can put a positive spin on neural pathways meaning this need not be a permanent condition. 

So Why Horses? 

EAL/EAP is mostly based on experiential learning involving working with a highly emotionally-receptive creature, which is why it is such an effective method of personal development. 

Such sophisticated emotional work requires a trusting relationship in which the learner can sense their partner's feelings too, but in the case of people who have a deep-rooted distrust of other people, this can present a barrier. That's where horses come in. 

Horses are social animals for whom attuning to each other's emotional states is key to survival. They can attune to a human's emotional state almost immediately and far more accurately than humans can. 

Working with these incredibly emotionally-intelligent creatures, who make no presuppositions, gives the learner authentic and unbiased feedback about themselves. By learning to understand and acknowledge the horse's sensitive reactions to their own signals, the learner allows changes take place in their limbic (emotional) region, increasing their self-awareness and setting patterns for healthier emotional regulation in the future. 

Horses come with different personalities like people. One aspect of social awareness is attuning to different personalities. Working with different horses sharpens this awareness. For example, horse #1 is shy and you must be particularly gentle in the way you communicate with him, but horse #2 is confident and you have to set clear boundaries and exert more pressure in what you're asking for... even though you might be asking both horses to do the exact same thing. Overly confident people might struggle with horse #1 and nervous people may struggle with horse #2, but that's all part of the learning process. The learner can discover how to 'read the horse' and relate to him accordingly and then take those principles and apply them to relating to people. 

There have also been many cases of people with depression or anxiety benefiting hugely from working with horses, experiencing emotional regulation (just being around horses can raise levels of oxytocin - the 'bonding' hormone - in the bloodstream) within a real, working partnership. The process of developing this bond with the horse and the feeling of acceptance which accompanies it not only boost confidence and self-esteem, but also helps the learner to develop the tools for self-regulation that they can then apply to normal day-to-day life. 

The concepts of EAL/EAP are becoming more and more widely accepted although there are still some mixed views. One down-side is that it is inevitably expensive, and another is that many people struggle to see the science behind why it is so effective and so, understandably, are not prepared to invest precious time, money and energy into it. But the good news is, its extremely positive results are now beginning to become more widely-recognised and it is growing in popularity. 

I personally love the concept of equine-assisted learning as a form of therapy because I adore horses, but it's so much more than that too... stepping outdoors, breathing in the fresh air, enjoying the natural surroundings, living in every single moment, taking responsibility for a half-tonne animal, connecting emotionally with that animal and working with it to achieve goals you never thought you could achieve, realising that you can do so much more than you thought and having fun in the process. It's being accepted for who you are and coming away feeling empowered, inspired and enabled. 

References: 

• Born for Love: Why Empathy is Essential - and Endangered, Bruce Perry and Maia Szalavitz 
• The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment, Babette Rothschild 
• Perry, Bruce and Hambrick, Erin (2008) The Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics, Reclaiming Children and Youth, Volume 17, No 3. http://www.childtrauma.org/index.php/articles/cta-neurosequential-model 
• The Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics, Bruce Perry and Erin Hambrick 
• The Listening Heart, Leigh Shambo 
• www.eagala.org/Information/What_Is_EAP_EAL
• http://mentalhealthdaily.com/2015/07/02/what-is-equine-therapy-exploring-benefits-of-human-horse-relationships/
• http://www.robinrisso.org/ (image) 

Licking and Chewing; What Does It Really Mean?

I was on a horse forum recently and somebody had asked about the licking-and-chewing motion that horses often display after they learn something or when they are relaxed.  There were lots of opinions, some thinking it was a sign that the was horse 'reassuring himself' while others called it the sign of information processing. I love looking at the science behind a thing, so I did some research. Some of the following is still theoretical, but here is a summary of the most logical scientific explanation I could find. 

The licking-and-chewing response in horses is closely linked to the parasympathetic nervous system, controlled by the hypothalamus. This is the part of the autonomic nervous system which deals with automatic body functions during a relaxed state, as opposed to the sympathetic nervous system which triggers functions seen in the 'fight or flight' state (as seen below). For example: You shouldn't exercise your horse just after he has eaten because the body cannot efficiently supply nutrients to the muscles for exercising at the same time as fuelling the digestive system, HOWEVER, when the horse's SNS kicks in, it inhibits digestive activity so that his body WILL be able to fuel the muscles (enabling him to flee from danger if necessary). 

http://medicalterms.info/anatomy/Autonomic-Nervous-System/

So both the SNS and the PNS inhibit and stimulate different organ processes to either relax or excite them respectively. When the horse is in sympathetic state, salivation is inhibited, but during the transition back to parasympathetic state, salivation is re-stimulated, resulting in the licking and chewing response. This is not to say that the horse constantly licks and chews when he is relaxed, but when he is coming 'down off adrenaline' or out of sympathetic state, the stimulation of salivation is more acute. 

The reason that licking and chewing is often thought to be a response of thought processing during learning (which is not entirely untrue) may be that the learning process has a particular relationship to licking and chewing. Here is an example of a learning process in which the pressure-and-release technique is used: 

1. Pressure is applied to the horse until he responds correctly 
2. The horse undergoes 'concentration tension' 
3. Horse responds to pressure in a certain way 
4. The pressure is released; he has found the solution! 
5. What he has just learned is processed in the hippocampus 
6. 'Stimulation of the hippocampus promotes the release of endorphins' - (www.community.equisearch.com/blogs/floridahorseman/default.aspx)
7. The endorphins stimulate parasympathetic state; he can relax! 
8. PNS then induces salivation 
9. Salivation stimulates licking and chewing response 

So does it mean a horse has learned something new when he displays the licking and chewing response? Not necessarily. He may have learned something new, that being the reason for his relaxing, which is then the reason for his licking and chewing, but ultimately it is a sign of relaxation. 

Horses don't just relax when they have learned something, they also learn faster when they are in parasympathetic state. So as a horse trainer it is important to make sure your horse is as relaxed as possible when trying to teach him something new. This should also discourage the use of force when training horses, as forceful methods are likely to cause stress and so inhibit the learning process rather than promote it. 

The following excerpt explains more about the connection between brain and mouth and how stimulating salivation can work conversely, helping in turn to create the parasympathetic state: 

The mouth is linked to the limbic system (including the hippocampus), the area of the brain that is considered to be the control centre for the emotions and the gateway to learning (Daniel Goleman, 1997). This apparent connection is consistent with observations made by Linda Tellington-Jones in her training system. Many horses improved in their behaviour and the ability to operate in a calm and focused mode once tension in the mouth was reduced. Working around the mouth, both inside and out, stimulates the salivary glands, which, in turn, triggers the PNS and quietens the SNS. (Dental imbalances can cause horses to be more dry mouthed and therefore less relaxed and less able to learn.) 

                                                                                                                  - www.lindatellingtonjones.com 

FAQ: Equine Vision

This post is called 'FAQ...' not because these are frequently asked questions, but because they should be. If you are someone who works with or around horses, I have written this for you because I believe understanding a horse's sight also helps us to understand why horses behave the way they do.

How wide is the horse's visual field? 
- The shape and location of the eyes means the horse can see almost 360 degrees around him although some places are barred from the horse's vision, including the area directly in front and behind him and anything above eye level. As a general rule, predators (including us humans) have binocular vision, or eyes situated on the front of our head. Prey animals have monocular vision, or eyes located on either side of their head. This monocular vision is essentially a safety mechanism enabling them to watch out for danger while they eat. The horse cannot use binocular and monocular vision at the same time. While he makes the switch between the two, objects may appear to 'jump' into view and distort until he focuses once again. 

Think: What might a horse think when an object suddenly appears from his blind spot? How does the horse's visual range affect your horse's vision when you ride and what incidents might it explain? 

Is the horse long-sighted or short-sighted? 
- Due to the nature by which horses must bring objects into focus, they cannot easily focus on anything closer than 1 metre, making the horse a long-sighted animal. In the wild, horses would not to see things up close as the main function of their eyes was to look out for approaching predators. 
How do horses bring objects into focus?  
- When looking at an image, light passes through the pupil and lands on the lens. The lens then focuses the image onto the retina. The human lens can be altered by powerful ciliary muscles, through the process of 'accommodation', to help bring objects at varying distances into focus. This also takes place in the horse's eye, just not as accurately. (It was originally thought that the horse's lens could not alter in shape because of a 'ramped retina', which would have given reason for the horse's moving his head to bring objects into focus, but the reason has now been found to be the 'visual streak'.) 
Horses have a 'visual streak' or linear-shaped area within the retina which has a high concentration of ganglion cells (up to 6,100 cells/mm² in the visual streak compared to 150 and 200 cells/mm² in the peripheral area). Horses have much better acuity when the image of the object they are looking at falls into this region and they often raise, lower or tilt their head or move closer or farther away, until it does.

How accurate is the horse's vision? 
- It is generally thought that horses have a visual acuity of about 20/33 as opposed to the ideal human 20/20 vision. This means that while a horse may see something clearly from twenty feet away a person would see it as clearly from thirty-five feet away. 
How well can horses sense motion? 
- It is also thought that horses can generally sense motion more acutely than humans. In the wild, motion is a common predator alert. Such motion is detected in their periphery, where there is little visual accuracy, and they must raise or lower their head to bring the respective object into clear focus (into the 'visual streak'). 

Think: How does the horse's instinct to run from danger tie in with his visual acuity? Could this explain why horses raise their heads in alarm or sometimes just run before bringing anything into focus? Could a trusting relationship help to override instinctive, fearful reactions? 

Can horses see colour? - The retina contains light-sensitive cells called cones and rods which produce various nervous impulses stimulated by rays of light. They both recognize light and dark images and the cones interpret colour. Horse have two types of cones (aka dichromatic vision): one that is optimal at 428 nm (nanometres) - pastel bluish-grey - and one that is optimal at 539 nm - yellowish. This is why horses can distinguish blues well and greens and yellows somewhat, but that they are not very responsive to reds. (This even makes sense when put into perspective of a horse's natural lifestyle, being most active at dawn and dusk.) 
What is eyesight's part in having to train horses the same thing from both sides?  
- All good horse people know that when you teach the horse anything, you must teach him 'from both sides'. For instance, you may train him to lead perfectly from the left, but when you then try to lead him from the right, act confused and walk wonky like you hadn't taught him a thing. What a horse sees in his right eye is processed in the left hemisphere of the brain and vice versa. The information gathered through one eye is not processed efficiently by both sides of the brain. This is because, unlike humans, the horse does not have an efficient corpus callosum, which is the connective tissue that transfers information between the two hemispheres of the brain. 
Can horses see in the dark? 
- While horses don't see colour as well as humans, they have more rod cells than we do. Rod cells are light sensitive and the more the eye has, the higher the accuracy in distinguishinging light and dark differences. Horses also have a tapetum lucidum which reflects visible light back onto the retina, allowing for greater light absorption in dark conditions. These factors result in much better night vision in horses than people. 
How well do horses adjust to changes in the light? 
The amount of light the eye allows in is affected by the pupil which contracts and dilates appropriately and the corpora nigra, or black, cloud-like protrusions located near the pupil. Because of the extent to which horse's eyes can adjust to darkness and pick up images due to their light sensitivity, they can also take a longer period of time to adjust back to a different light, especially a sudden or acute change. It is important to understand that horses' eyes take longer than ours to adjust to light changes and also that something that looks somewhat shaded to us (e.g. inside of a trailer) may look pitch-black to horses (who also happen to be claustrophobic by nature). 

Think: How long do you give you horse to adjust his eyesight? How might illuminating the inside of a trailer help when loading? 


DID YOU KNOW? 
Horses have a third eyelid (nictating membrane) situated in the corner of the eye. It is often unseen because it is usually the same colour as the iris, but in some horses it is white and much more obvious. In fact, some people do not buy horses that have white nictating membrane because they believe the horse to be temperamental. Similarly, some horses' eyes are 'too small for their sockets', making the surrounding white sclera visible and this can also look like the horse is frightened because he is showing 'the whites of his eyes'.