Last week I spent some time at my neighbor's arena to take advantage of her good footing. I rode several horses, including Billy the quarter horse. He had been to this arena before, but he always likes to take some time to visit with the horse in the mirror on the wall.
Billy doesn't recognize that the horse he is seeing is himself. All he sees is another horse that looks friendly, who mimics his own movements. Other horses, upon seeing themselves in a mirror, will get cranky, because they see the horse in the mirror being grumpy. I've even seen horses attack the mirror image because the horse in the mirror wouldn't back down. Billy is kind of a jovial fellow, and so he just thinks it's a curious phenomenon to see another friendly soul in the mirror.
The first time Samson saw himself in the mirror we were there with another horse that he knew from my stable. He didn't think too much about the reflection until he realized that he could see his friend, Missy, both behind him and in front of him in the mirror. He also was a little confused when he noticed there was two of me. He spent a lot of time staring first at Missy, then at the "Mirror Missy", as well as Kim, and "Mirror Kim".
Though it is a little confusing to Billy why the horse disappears when he checks it out lower down....
No comments:
Post a Comment