The horse in the wild
Did you know that the horse is an animal of wild origin? Although the majority of horses that we see today were born to a breeder, their great-grandparents lived in the wild before being domesticated by man. Moreover, there are still several horses that live in the wild today. What is the behavior of the horse when it lives in the wild? We talk about it in this article.
The horse, a hyperemotional animal
In the wild, the horse is a prey animal that has two options to ensure its survival against predators. The most common is flight: its first reaction to the unknown is often to swerve and move away in order to observe the object of its fear to assess the real danger.
If it seems too high, the horse will flee straight ahead as quickly as possible. Second possibility, if the danger is not really impressive, if the animal is cornered or if it is a mare that must defend her foal, it will face the danger and use its teeth and hooves to defend itself. In order to quickly detect predators, the horse has very developed senses.
Constantly on the alert to watch for the presence of the slightest danger, the horse is a very fearful and hyper-emotional animal. Fear is extremely contagious in a group.
In the wild, horses do not necessarily benefit from protection. Neither from an owner nor in terms of accessories such as those marketed by La Sellerie Française . This justifies, among other things, the fact that the latter remains so on guard.
An animal that lives in groups in the wild
The horse, a gregarious animal, lives in herds generally composed of 3 to 6 mares with foals and a stallion. The herd is well organized and is led by a dominant mare, the stallion is placed a little apart from the hierarchical structure. He ensures the protection of the group against predators or another male in order to ensure his offspring.
When young horses reach sexual maturity, they spontaneously leave the herd or are chased away by the stallion. Fillies join other herds. Males gather together to practice fighting through power games until they feel ready to create their own harem.
Group living offers several advantages to the horse: better protection against predators, but also the possibility of having interesting social exchanges such as mutual scratching, chasing insects from each other, etc.
In the wild, the horse's main activity is to search for food and eat. This activity could take up to 16 hours a day, but on average, horses spend 60% of their time on this activity. Their stomachs are very small, so they can only ingest small amounts of food at a time, but several times a day.
The horse is a herbivore, its main source of food is fodder. The rest of the day is devoted to rest (25%) and social contact (15%, maintaining the hierarchy and cronyism). The herd is very strictly organized and body language is explicit enough to avoid the emergence of serious and dangerous conflicts.