Guest Author - Susan Hopf Flight or fight – these are the
choices all animals, including us, must make when faced with
danger. Human instinct has become overshadowed by logic and we
more often think our way out of dangerous circumstances with
greater success than if we acted by impulse alone. Horses do not
have that luxury yet for thousands of years humans have brought
these creatures of flight into an equine unfriendly environment
and expected them to behave completely out of character. These
thousands of years of domestication have yet to erase their
drive to flee when faced with danger and fight only when running
is not an option. So how do we, humans, build a successful
relationship with our four-legged half-ton partners so that both
sides of the equation remain safe and confident in any
surroundings? The short answer is that we must understand how
horses function both physically and mentally. Anatomically
horses are designed for grazing, mating, giving birth and
wandering far and wide in as big a herd as