How long do horses remember things?

Question

if you smack a horse with a crop kinda hard while you are riding, but just like twice if the are misbehaving will they remember that kind of thing? what kinds of things are horses able to remember?

Answer 1

They have very good memories for example they will remember ways you used to go and years later ( when that track no longer exists) will still try to turn down them as you go past. If you always turn around at a certain point on the trail they will anticipate and try to turn without being told to.

They do remember a crop being used - hopefully they remember so you don't have to do it again but sometimes they still need to be reminded.

Answer 2

horses see things with pictures. they can remember a lot of different things in a lot of different times by comparing the pictures. Ex. Some one repeatibly smacks a horse on the nose and laughs. Now when ever a hand is raised in front of a horse it will shy/fight back/run/ect. ( not that you do that but just an example ) so when you smacked the horse it was disaplain. this needs to be repeated over and over. because even if the horse does remember "okay my rider will smack me if i do this so i should obey and do it correct" they still have times they feel the need to be the "alfa" or "leader" so sometimes you'll need to "remind" them that hey im the boss you do as your told. once the horse has learned this it should pretty well stick with them. although say you don't ride for like a year.. then yes its very possible the horse pushed the "smack because thats wrong" to the back of the head. But once you remind him/her the horse usually gets back on track. ( this is only what i hvae learned from my horse though.. every horse and rider is different)

ADD ON***

this is a quote from Clinton Anderson ( a professional horse trainer ) "It doesn't mtter how hard you hit the horse as longas you rub it away" ( Something like that ) meaning if you do smack the horse go back and rub the spot you smacked to make all good and wel again

Answer 3

depending how bad they misbehave, a small slap on the rear could be ok, with the crop, but not repeadedly for one thing. plus within 15 seconds of doing their bad thing.

but to answer your question: horses have been tested with buckets of grain, and then opening the correct bucket(or something) and tested again a year later, and they remembered.

Answer 4

Some things standout more than others, and painful experiences are remembered forever.  I believe this because even a retrained horse with years of gentle handling can suddenly have a flashback moment and overreact to something that could only be spurred by memory.

Answer 5

Bonjour!

Okay, first off... horses have EXCELLENT memories. Their memories are better than humans. They need this in the wild to remember where water is, where the predators are, how many horses are in their herds, etc.

Secondly, I would avoid using crops unless absolutely necessary. Horses have strange minds, and I will use one example known as 'The Cowboy Hat' example. (I read this somewhere). There was a horse who had been beaten by a man, and the man would always wear a black cowboy hat whenever he came down to beat him. The horse mistakenly believed that the cowboy hat was the source of the abuse, so he would randomly freak whenever he saw a cowboy hat.

To answer your question... yes, your horse will remember the feeling of being smacked by a crop.

Answer 6

of course the horse will remember but if u only do it once and its not to an extreme than he will prob forget it in a bit. its things like repeated abuse that scar the mind of the horse 4 ever. they have great memories thats y u can teach them tricks and fun activites. if its not a horrid smack and u work with the horse it could take about 3 months tops. its not compeltely the stick that they become afraid of  its ur anger. they truely want to please us.if u use the crop properly and   try to show our horse that it is okay to be around the crop he should b fine. if he is scared of it u should definatly show him that he is okay .he should not be scared of a crop he should just no that if he gets a smack that means that he has become to unsure or overly sure that he is rite. u should be fine i would make sure that he nos that the crop is not bad and that he is not  either.

Answer 7

Hello,

For me, I like to say good boy and pat them when they are being good...  If they are being naughty, depending on the naughtiness, I either circle them, correct them, or tell them NO....

I think they remember things really pretty well, especially negative things.  It can take a long time to undo a bad experience a horse has.