A wild and wet and icy storm blasted through the area the other day... the gods tossed lightening bolts and clashed thunder... and beset a heavy and unrelenting peppering of stinging, pea-sized hail upon the landscape..... and through it all, there the ponies stood out in the open, backs to the wind and a 1/2 inch of hail covering their backs.... some shivering with wet and cold and others standing with heads low, and half closed eyes mumbling to themselves "this too shall pass".
Okay, so why is it that horses choose to stand out in the worst storms when they have a warm dry well-bedded stall 6 ft away!? All of us horse owners are familiar with this behavior....
It has baffled me for 35 yrs... I have guesses as to the reason for this instinctual behavior. The most commonly held opinion among horse folk is that the animal wants to remove his or her self from the danger of potential falling limbs and / or lightening strikes that would perhaps be involved with a more natural shelter like a tree! That is what I have believed for quite a while. And so I am inviting my friend and animal behaviorist Susan McCarthy to please put her two cents in on the subject!
Okay Susan...
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