This message is from: Marsha Jo Hannah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Reading "Natural Horsemanship Explained" by Dr. Robert Miller, and thought > this really applied in many ways to our Fjords - at least to mine. This > section was talking about why donkeys are less flighty than the average > horse. > > "It evolved in steep, arid terrain. Blind flight, so effective for the > plains dwelling horse, could be fatal here. Donkeys, therefore, make > decisions > rather than blindly fleeing.
Another component is the relative availability of food and water in the various habitats. Most horses evolved on rich plains; if they ran away from every suspected predator, it was no big deal---the calories and sweat that they expended could be easily replaced. Donkeys were on more barren lands, with fewer sources of water, so a strategy that conserved calories and sweat had survival value. Likewise, it takes energy to paw thru snow for buried grass, or eat (hence melt) snow for water; the Fjords that ran at the drop of a snowflake probably had trouble finding enough replacement calories to make it thru the winter. This also favored their tendency to store every spare calorie for later use.... Marsha Jo Hannah Murphy must have been a horseman-- [EMAIL PROTECTED] anything that can go wrong, will! 15 mi SW of Roseburg, Oregon The FjordHorse List archives can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw
