Dr Andrea Brodie is a friend and colleague of mine who has an amazing Icelandic Horse, breeding, raising and boarding facility in Colorado. Check out her page for more details and stunning photos. Her set up provides an excellent example of how horses should be kept!!! https://facebook/pages/Lough-Arrow-Icelandics/119804254736950 Today she shared some interesting observations with me about the reaction of her horses compared to that of neighbouring American Quarter Horses to potential predators, yup, coyotes and bears! When the Icelandic Horses see a coyote, the herd bunches together and advances very, very slowly towards the coyote (that is, if the coyote dares to enter their pasture at all). If it is on the other side of the fence, her Icelandic horses watch it intently. As her horses advance towards the coyote they do it while grazing...then when they are close to it a few will sort or encircle it and then the closest one will bring down a hoof on the head of the coyote. All the dead coyotes she has found had smashed sculls!!! When she saw a bear run along her fence, her horses all stood at the fence staring at it and following it along the fence. The bear was on the other side of the fence and was galloping along. It then entered the pasture of the American Quarter Horses next door which immediately panicked and scattered (a highly adaptive (useful if you want to survive) behaviour for a prey animal when faced with a potential predator). Her Icelandic horses were curious, but the neighbours American Quarter Horses were afraid. She has seen a bear graze with her horses before, so she knows that they are not afraid of bears (black bears). They react the same when elk (wapitis) are in the pasture...they will graze with them....but when the elk are on the other side of the fence they will get excited and watch them from the fence. According to Dr Brodie, the Icelandics seem to be curious rather than show a flight reaction. They tend to investigate first and then decide whether it is necessary to take off or not. I find this very interesting as horses (in general) have evolved to run first, ask questions later. Its the way their brains are wired. They have the largest Amygdala of the domestic animals. The Amygdala is the fear power house of the brain and we humans also have an Amgdala! Dr Brodie speculates that the Icelandics are like this as there are no predators where they come from originally. I wonder how their Amygdala compares to that of other horses. Fascinating creatures!!! Thanks to Dr Brodie for sharing her observations and insights ...
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 20:59:40 +0000