Horses and Emotions

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Apr 7, 1999

Do horse have emotions like humans? That question has plagued mankind for millennium! Scientist often scold people for placing human emotions and feelings on animals. It is hard to imagine what a animal feels, if anything at all. It is easier to feel close to another being if you can make it more familiar to you. So making up your mind that a horse has feelings of love, joy, adoration, friendship, etc makes it easier to understand them.

Can a horse love you? I guess it is an individual thing. Scientists will tell you that horses have no "higher emotions"; they exist on "instinct alone." So what, I ask, are higher emotions? Is it love? Hate? Fear? How do the scientists, who scoff at individuals who assign emotions to creatures, know that horses don't feel? They have all kinds of articles and experiments, but as far as I know, they have never been a horse, so how do they know?

Those of us who live day in and day out with horses often have a different opinion. I have seen a horse go through things that terrify them in order to help another horse. Or a human. So is a horse capable of love? I think so. I have no experiments, or articles or "proof," except for what I have observed while living with these animals. Can a horse feel emotions? I say YES! They can love and hate and fear and desire and need and hope. I have witnessed it, I have no proof that scientists would accept, but I know in my heart that they do.

Horses are too intelligent not to feel emotions. And as to "higher emotions," what is that? The ability to kill each other for a patch of grass? Because another horse is a different color? Is it a higher emotion to kill for the pleasure of killing? To hate for no other reason than being told to? To destroy the world for the selfish rewards? If these are the higher emotion, I think I would rather be like the horse.

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