So, I spent a good chunk of time down by the pasture last week, just watching the horses do their thing. It’s something I find myself doing a lot, just observing.
Watching the Mare
There’s this one mare, a bit skittish but curious. Anyway, I was leaning on the fence, pretty quiet, and she was grazing. Then, she just stops. Lifts her head straight up, ears pricked, looking right up at the sky. Not just a quick glance, she held it there for a bit.
It got me thinking. What’s up there? I looked up too. Just blue sky, couple of fluffy clouds, maybe a high-flying bird, but nothing that seemed worth staring at. But she was locked onto something, or maybe just… listening? Sensing?
I know horses have that wild field of vision. Heard they can see almost all the way around themselves because their eyes are on the sides of their heads. Helps them spot predators out in the open, makes sense. So maybe looking up is part of that huge picture they see all the time?
I tried to imagine seeing like that. Like having screens on the side of your head showing you everything from the grass right below your nose to way up high, almost behind you. It’s completely different from how we see, focused straight ahead.
Trying to Understand
So, I kept watching her. Tried to see if there was a pattern. Did she do it when a certain sound happened? Nope, seemed random. Did she do it when another horse approached? Not really. It just seemed like part of her routine of checking things out.
My best guess? She’s just taking it all in. That big view they have includes the sky, maybe more importantly than it does for us. Perhaps checking for threats from above is hardwired in, even if there aren’t many flying predators for horses these days. Or maybe she just saw something interesting we wouldn’t notice, a change in the light, a distant plane.
It’s fascinating, really. You see an animal do something simple, like looking up, and it reminds you how different their world is. You can’t just assume they see or react like we do. You gotta watch, and think, and try to piece together their perspective. Still haven’t figured it out completely, but watching her look up was a good reminder of that.
