My mom is an adamant horse person, and today she asked me to accompany her to the farm where she takes riding lessons. Obliging her request, I got to meet her steed (”Pilgrim”), and notice some interesting things about the horse.
My first observation resulted from the comment of the teacher/coach/trainer/friend when she mentioned that horses have excellent depth perception. I noticed that, like most animals that were once not dominant on the food chain (aka prey), the horse’s eyes were positioned on the sides of his head, which (beyond providing better peripheral vision) spreads the eyes out farther apart than, for example, those of a human. Thus providing better depth perception (better triangulation).
The aforementioned exceptional peripheral vision was also of note. I noticed, when looking into his eyes, that his pupils are oval shaped (quite dramatically, actually), thereby allowing a purportedly full 180 degree horizontal visual range per eye. I find this fascinating. This means, though, that the horse has a lower vertical visual range, which could be the reason that horses are so touchy about things beneath them.
The 180 degrees per eye do not, of course, cover the whole area around the horse, overlapping and concentrating in a section directly in front of the horse. This makes sense, so they can see in front of them without any blind spot (which would be caused by the separation of the eyes; this way there is only a small triangular blind spot very close to the head). One casualty of this, however, is the blind spot in the back, which I noticed Pilgrim monitoring with back-turned ears quite often. Horses are very alert.
My last and quite a bit less scientific observation was of the slightly magical feeling one gets when in the presence of a horse. It must have something to do with the sheer size of the animal (1/2 ton!), or perhaps its immense physical intelligence. Anyway, it is slightly calming, and thoroughly enjoyable. I can see why horses reside as my mothers primary passion.
