True North Equus

01/04/2025

New Research Proves Horses Have Super Intelligence:

Horses are far more intelligent than most people realize, with cognitive abilities that place them among the smartest animals.

They have demonstrated skills in problem-solving, emotional intelligence, memory, and learning that rival those of many other species. For example, horses are known for their cleverness in opening stable doors or untying knots, showcasing their capacity for strategic thinking.

Emotionally, they form deep, empathetic bonds with humans and can sense feelings like pride or shame, often mirroring their human companions' emotions.

Their impressive cognitive skills also allow them to recognize symbols, communicate preferences, and adapt to complex situations, such as responding to commands in therapeutic environments.

One study even revealed that horses can adjust their communication based on whether humans are aware of hidden food, increasing visual and tactile signals like looking or nudging when their caretakers were unaware.

This ability to understand and respond to the knowledge state of others—previously thought to be unique to primates—illustrates the sophistication of horse cognition. Horses actively attempt to communicate with humans in much the same way they would with their herd members, making horse-human communication a true two-way street.

While horses may not match the intellectual capabilities of elephants, they are often considered more intelligent than dogs or cats in some areas, excelling in equine-assisted therapies where their sensitivity to human emotions makes them invaluable in psychological treatments

12/23/2023

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a wonderful New Year

04/29/2022

Every once in a while we go off the Route 66 theme of our page. This is a photo of the Beatles in 1964 crossing the Eleven Point River, Missouri with their manager Brian Epstein in the rear. This is historically the time the Beatles hung out to rest in the Missouri Ozarks.
They had made an unplanned trip for the exhausted band after a 25-stop U.S. tour met by hysterical fans and screaming crowds in every city, the suddenly famous rock band took a day’s stopover at their Fort Worth-based charter pilot, Reed Pigman's Ozark Mountains ranch in Alton, Missouri.
Only a handful of boys in Walnut Ridge, Ark., were on hand to see George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr get off an American Flyers Airline Lockheed Electra and transfer for the trip to the ranch near Alton, Mo.
But word got out, and fans from as far away as St. Louis gathered both at the ranch gate and at the airport for their departure.

11/03/2021

Horses do wonders for us

Ariel Piper gave no thought to something as routine as retrieving her horse Tango from her pasture. But one day in November 2015, Tango and her other horse got grumpy with each other at the gate, and when a nip was returned with a swift kick, Piper w...

09/16/2020

One more example of why horses are such good team members in the EAGALA model of mental health therapy

Horses can eavesdrop on human-horse interactions and make emotional judgments.

04/25/2020

We have seen the amazing results that equine assisted learning and psychotherapy often provide.

Horses are extremely sensitive to human emotions and are able to pick up on our subtlest feelings to help us uncover emotional blind spots.

02/18/2020

The show bill is out! Who is ready for a great show season? We can't wait to see you there!

11/06/2019

And horses help us help ourselves

A thought-provoking read.
By Jane Smiley
Most horses pass from one human to another - some horsemen and women are patient and forgiving, others are rigorous and demanding, others are cruel, others are ignorant.
Horses have to learn how to, at the minimum, walk, trot, canter, gallop, go on trails and maybe jump, to be treated by the vet, all with sense and good manners.
Talented Thoroughbreds must learn how to win races, and if they can't do that, they must learn how to negotiate courses and jump over strange obstacles without touching them, or do complicated dance
like movements or control cattle or accommodate severely handicapped children and adults in therapy work.
Many horses learn all of these things in the course of a single lifetime. Besides this, they learn to understand and fit into the successive social systems of other horses they meet along the way.
A horse's life is rather like twenty years in foster care, or in and out of prison, while at the same time changing schools over and over and discovering that not only do the other students already have their own social groups, but that what you learned at the old school hasn't much application at the new one.
We do not require as much of any other species, including humans.
That horses frequently excel, that they exceed the expectations of their owners and trainers in such circumstances, is as much a testament to their intelligence and adaptability as to their relationship skills or their natural generosity or their inborn nature. That they sometimes manifest the same symptoms as abandoned orphans - distress, strange behaviors, anger, fear - is less surprising than that they usually don't.
No one expects a child, or even a dog to develop its intellectual capacities living in a box 23 hours a day and then doing controlled exercises the remaining one.
Mammal minds develop through social interaction and stimulation.
A horse that seems "stupid", "slow", "stubborn", etc. might just have not gotten the chance to learn!
Take care of your horses and treasure them

10/12/2019

If you have ever owned or spent a lot of time riding with one particular horse, chances are good that you've felt some sort of special connection with them — and wondered if horses even like humans. Maybe you've felt like they were actually your…