What does a horse see when he/she looks in the mirror?

Question

Cats don't acknowledge themselves at all, for example. Do horses? (And I am completely aware that this question is open to a lot of fun and humor. Have at it.) I'd love some serious answers too, as I have spent way too much time procrastinating to, u-hm, ponder this *life-altering* question. Bwhahahaha...

Thanks all

Answer 1

im pretty sure they dont actually recognize its them.. just like cats.

Answer 2

They dont acknowledge themselves, unless they are unnacustomed to the mirriors.

My barn has mirriors in the arena so we can see how we look, and none of the horses even pay attention to them.

In fact its weird when you go to shows and theres nothing to look in.

(: haha.

Answer 3

well, most get spooky, mine sniffed his reflections nose, like horses do when they greet eachother,only it steemed up the mirror and he bumped his nose, and shied.

Answer 4

their reflection

Answer 5

My horse sees scary monsters that are going to jump out and kill him. Others see another horse. I don't think they realize it's themselves.

Answer 6

I have a very vain paint mare and I swear she does indeed look at herself in the mirror. Lol Back when I showed her all the time she refused to get dirty and if i was adjusting hat or helmet in the mirror atatched to my trailer.... she was looking over my shoulder each and everytime! LOL She'll snuff at it and even on ocassion bump at it with her nose...

Answer 7

I think they ask;

Dude, why the long face?

Ha Ha.

Answer 8

I don't think horses acknowledge themselves, I think they simply think of it as being another horse.

My horse gets very curious and usually is fixated when he sees a reflection.

However, I think horses mostly are confused and flustered when they see the mirror's reflection, because they can't smell or make contact with the horse that they are seeing.

Answer 9

Actually..Oliver acknowledges himself, sometimes.  Or at least he seems like he does.  But generally he has better things to do than look into mirrors.  He's got birds to chirp at through the window...

When primatologists want to see whether or not primates can recognize themselves, they put a dab of paint on the chimp (or whatever primate) 's face while the primate is asleep, knocked out, etc.  Then they wake them up and give them a hand mirror.   If the chimp looks into the mirror and puts their hand up to their face to see what the paint is all about, then voila, they have self-awareness.  So far as I'm aware, several primates have been proven to have self-awareness after having been tested with this method.

So...I am thinking that some horses are going to get painted today after their owners read this, bwaha.

Answer 10

I read on another forum that this woman had a horse that would go nuts pawing, pacing in the stall everytime the horse next to him was taken out for whatever reason.  So, they decided to put a mirror in his stall so that he would think there was a horse right there next to him.  So, a horse sees a horse when they look in the mirror and I guess they don't recognize themselves cause he obviously thought it was someone else!!  But it stopped his neurosis!!

That is my mirror story!!

BTW-it was a plexiglass mirror..not glass.

Answer 11

well some horse's spook, so they do see something, but i knew this one horse, we had a HUGE mirror at one end of the ring(used so we could see ourselves ride/position) anyway, this one horse we'd let run in the arena, and he'd RUN down to the mirror and look at himselve in the mirror, play with the horse in the mirror and things like that, it was so funny, but i guess that some horse's see themselves and think it's another horse to play with.

Answer 12

Lol, My cat paces backand forth in front of a mirror if he sees himself in it!

I wonder what my horse would do if he saw himself in a mirror... xP

Answer 13

the arena i ride in has mirrors and i honestly think its just another horse mimicking their every move.

they just sniff the mirror and gawk at themselves....

Answer 14

They acknowledge that there is another horse there but they they dont seem to grasp that it is them. They horse acts funny infront of them. He doesnt spook but I think he gets confused as to why he sees another horse but doesnt smell them. He also didnt want to get very close to it (again not trying to spook) but it was like he was giving the unfamilar horse room to work and move. After an hour or so he ignored it.