Opportunities arise every now and then to observe similarities between human and animal behavior. While human brains are thought to be more complex, more cognitive in nature than animal brains, the basic instincts that manifest themselves in how we react to given situations are surprisingly alike. That was never more evident than when my eleven-year old daughter picked out her first mustang.
The Bureau of Land Management rounds up mustangs on a regular basis in the deserts of the Western United States. These mustangs are the ancestors of horses that escaped from or were abandoned by Spanish explorers (or exploiters, as some would say) and the United States Cavalry. Left to roam the deserts, their numbers increased and their genes changed (yes, this is an example of genetic drift). Unfortunately, human populations also increased, and mustangs and human ranchers often clashed over the availability and access of grazing lands. Left to otherwise starve in a sparsely vegetated environment, the BLM captured whole herds, branded, and adopted them out to potential horse owners. While this strategy has come under attack by certain animal activists, it has saved thousands of mustangs from slow starvation.
Seventeen years ago, my daughter dragged my wife and I to one of the nearby adoption areas. As we wandered through the pens admiring the confirmations of these beautiful horses, a skin and bones male mustang approached my daughter, put his head through the bars and into her hands. This four-year old male, beaten up by the other stallions in the herd, would, by all odds, soon be dead. He was the lowest of the lows in the herd hierarchy and was last in line for any available food. And that is how Goldust, or Dusty, became a part of our family. We went through the adoption procedures and Dusty was soon on his way to his new home.
What sounded like a happy ending rescue story was only the beginning of the Dusty saga. Wild mustangs, like older humans, are fairly set in their ways, and find it difficult to change. That’s one of the reasons why young colts and fillies are easily adopted out by the BLM, but older horses are less likely to find a home. Loading him into a trailer and unloading him into a stall proved difficult, but not impossible. What proved to be more difficult was getting him to accept us as herd members. In stressful/threatening situations, humans and animals tend to go their fight or flight mode. If they perceive something as threatening, chemicals, such as cortisol, are pumped into the animals’ systems to help them flee or fight the immediate threat. It is a survival instinct that has kept animals and humans alive and kicking since the dawn of man. Cortisol increases the heart rate, and as a result, the blood supply to muscles, which is very good for fleeing or fighting. What it doesn’t allow for is much cognitive processing (thinking). So the question was how to get Dusty to accept us in order for him to use his frontal cortex and beginning the process of learning about his new environment?
The solution was to reduce the threat or at least the perception of the threat. In order to do that, one of us had to become a member of his new herd. For hours at a time, my daughter, my wife or I sat on the railing and did nothing. At first Dusty moved as far away from us as his stall would allow. If one of us moved, he skittered, turned, and tried to escape. After awhile, however, Dusty saw that we were not a menace. We were not there to attack and eat him. After weeks of rail sitting, he gradually approached my daughter, not close, but close enough that she could scratch his rear. And with that the ice was broken. Dusty was an itchy horse and loved to be scratched. On a daily basis, my daughter sat on the rail until he came close enough to be scratched. Once the threat was eliminated, she could feed him carrots or apples. Soon, my wife and I fed him by hand as well. The fight or flight response was no longer necessary as Dusty now saw us as part of his herd.
Today, Dusty is alive and well thanks to someone who had the patience to understand the possible psychological responses of horses to threats and apply that knowledge in helping him overcome his fears. It is the same threat my college students see in a major test or a difficult paper. The cognitive or thinking part of the brain shuts down and the emotional response is to flee or fight. This may result in “brain freeze” in a testing situation, or avoidance in starting a research paper. So how are humans and mustangs alike with brain functions? Remarkably similar.