What do you think?
Rate this book
Horse Brain, Human Brain: The Neuroscience of Horsemanship
An eye-opening game-changer of a book that sheds new light on how horses learn, think, perceive, and perform, and explains how to work with the horse’s brain instead of against it.
In this illuminating book, brain scientist and horsewoman Janet Jones describes human and equine brains working together. Using plain language, she explores the differences and similarities between equine and human ways of negotiating the world. Mental abilities-like seeing, learning, fearing, trusting, and focusing-are discussed from both human and horse perspectives. Throughout, true stories of horses and handlers attempting to understand each other-sometimes successfully, sometimes not-help to illustrate the principles.
Horsemanship of every kind depends on mutual interaction between equine and human brains. When we understand the function of both, we can learn to communicate with horses on their terms instead of ours. By meeting horses halfway, we achieve many goals.
We improve performance.We save valuable training time.We develop much deeper bonds with our horses.We handle them with insight and kindness instead of force or command.We comprehend their misbehavior in ways that allow solutions.We reduce the human mistakes we often make while working with them. Instead of working against the horse’s brain, expecting him to function in unnatural and counterproductive ways, this book provides the information needed to ride with the horse’s brain. Each principle is applied to real everyday issues in the arena or on the trail, often illustrated with true stories from the author’s horse training experience. Horse Brain, Human Brain offers revolutionary ideas that should be considered by anyone who works with horses.
In this illuminating book, brain scientist and horsewoman Janet Jones describes human and equine brains working together. Using plain language, she explores the differences and similarities between equine and human ways of negotiating the world. Mental abilities-like seeing, learning, fearing, trusting, and focusing-are discussed from both human and horse perspectives. Throughout, true stories of horses and handlers attempting to understand each other-sometimes successfully, sometimes not-help to illustrate the principles.
Horsemanship of every kind depends on mutual interaction between equine and human brains. When we understand the function of both, we can learn to communicate with horses on their terms instead of ours. By meeting horses halfway, we achieve many goals.
We improve performance.We save valuable training time.We develop much deeper bonds with our horses.We handle them with insight and kindness instead of force or command.We comprehend their misbehavior in ways that allow solutions.We reduce the human mistakes we often make while working with them. Instead of working against the horse’s brain, expecting him to function in unnatural and counterproductive ways, this book provides the information needed to ride with the horse’s brain. Each principle is applied to real everyday issues in the arena or on the trail, often illustrated with true stories from the author’s horse training experience. Horse Brain, Human Brain offers revolutionary ideas that should be considered by anyone who works with horses.
394 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 1, 2020
562 people are currently reading
860 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
December 11, 2022
The sections talking about the senses are useful. The parts on learning are… not good. Although the author expressed at the beginning that her intent was to make a layman-friendly, evidence-based book, the sections on learning are out-of-step with current understanding in the field. These sections are still hamstrung by being inexplicably mired in tradition which, given all the research that has been done on animal learning, cannot be said to be truly evidence-based or related all that much to the science that has been done. This is my particular area of interest, so it bothered me a great deal.
Her “types of learning” section is split into categories that aren’t totally necessary. She has “learning by consequence” but then also has “learning by emotion”, “learning by problem-solving”, and “learning by testing.” All three of the latter would fall under “learning by consequence”.
The negative reinforcement section isn’t terrible, but Equitation Science by Paul McGreevy and Andrew McLean (though more technical and not layman-friendly) has a much better discussion in it of the use of negative reinforcement in training. What McGreevy and McLean suggest is using the lowest amount of pressure a horse will respond to and then maintaining that pressure until you get something approximating the response that you want, then releasing. The release is the reward, the crucial part of the exercise. Horse people generally have a pretty good understanding of negative reinforcement, but Jones doesn’t really address common misconceptions. For example, release when you are getting anything close to what you want. Maintain pressure if the horse is performing other behaviors that you don’t want (moving sideways, backing up, throwing their head, etc). If you still haven’t gotten the exact response, then add the same amount of pressure again and again release for closer approximations to the precise behavior. So, if you are teaching a horse to stop from pressure on the bit and the horse is either totally naïve or hard-mouthed, you want to release when the horse slows or shortens their stride at all. Then reapply that same amount of pressure. That’s how you communicate to a horse who does not yet understand what the pressure means what you want. Jones mentions leg pressure and moving away from that pressure being a natural inclination for the horse, but does not mention that things like pressure to the mouth or head caused by a bridle is really arbitrary. There is nothing inherent about putting pressure on the horse’s mouth to make the horse think “oh, they want me to slow down/stop.” IMO, that limits the usefulness of the section.
I give her credit for pointing out the downsides of using positive punishment which is certainly an evidence-based stance and not common in the traditional mindset. But she does note another common misconception that it may be necessary for “severe transgressions in horses who know better.” This is always the excuse for positive punishment. There is another point where Jones mentions a horse nipping when you tighten the girth “for no reason”—the nipping is clearly not for no reason, it’s because the horse finds tightening the girth unpleasant. Any decent trainer of any other species (dog trainers, cat trainers, bird trainers, zoo animal trainers) will tell you that if you’re not getting the behavior you want out of the animal, the animal does NOT in fact know better. There is always a reason for what they are doing. “They know better, they just want to be bad” is a cop-out and does not align with the evidence we have about animal (including equine) behavior and learning. There is always a reason for the behavior and it’s often easier and safer when it comes to fight-or-flight based behaviors (spookiness, aggression) to work on fixing the underlying reason for the behavior rather than just arbitrarily determining that there is no reason or the reason is unimportant to modifying the behavior. What’s particularly weird about that line is that later in the book, there is an entire chapter (actually an excellent chapter) about why that is not in fact the case.
The chapter on positive reinforcement (“training by reward” in Jones’s terms) is where it really goes off the rails of scientific evidence. There is absolutely no reason to be afraid of using food rewards. That is a purely, 100% traditional stance that has nothing at all in common with behavior science. There are a growing number of positive reinforcement/clicker trainers now who work with horses and can demonstrate why all of Jones’s objections to using food as a reward are utterly unfounded and based more on the common superstitions in the horse world than they are on scientific evidence. I also think her claim that “horses don’t know they can hurt you” is rather ridiculous. Like other social animals, horses learn how to inhibit their behaviors from a young age. And if they are lacking in some understanding of how far they can go with a human, it is absolutely something that you can teach and there is no reason to assume otherwise.
Many of her “non-edible rewards” are not really rewards (quiet surroundings, known locations, clear direction, etc.), some are not something you can easily use as a reward in training (equine buddies, familiar people, etc.), and the rest are very low-value rewards (strokes on the neck or shoulders, scratches on the chest or withers, etc.). Her favorite seems to be “conditioned verbal praise.” This is commonly used in clicker training (referred to as a conditioned reinforcer or marker, usually a clicker but can also be a spoken word or cluck). Clicker trainers know very well though that if you condition a word to be rewarding, that word will stop being rewarding if you stop following it up with an actual reward. If you “charge” the clicker by clicking and treating, then never treat after clicking after that, the click is quickly going to become meaningless to the horse again.
The idea that rest or not working is the best reward for a horse is, when you think about it, pretty sad as a reward. It’s a clear indication that horses do not actually enjoy what they are being trained to do, nor are they taught to enjoy it. This idea is utterly foreign to trainers of other species who rely primarily on positive reinforcement and food rewards. For those other species, ending the training session can be seen as a *punishment* rather than a reward because they do genuinely enjoy doing the “job” that they’re being asked to do. This is as true of dogs as it is of zebras in zoos, who are taught using positive reinforcement and food rewards to approach people and tolerate handling for veterinary procedures and hoof trims. If you can do it safely with a zebra, why it is unsafe to do it with a domesticated horse?
Jones makes a big fuss about how to use positive reinforcement with food rewards properly, you need to have excellent understanding of equine behavior and have excellent timing, which she apparently does not think is as important with negative reinforcement. I am TOTALLY baffled by this. Timing is crucial with negative reinforcement and it does require a lot of attention to detail as well, just as much if not more than positive reinforcement. She also makes a big deal about behaviors learned from mis-timed food rewards being so incredibly difficult to get rid of. This also strikes me as a bit of a bad joke. I once worked briefly with a horse who was just a horrible mugger. I couldn’t even get to the girth to tighten it or pull down my stirrups, much less get him to stand at the mounting block, because he would obsessively turn to me to nudge my pockets. I tried negative reinforcement. I tried positive punishment. The light bulb went off. The horse was telling me what the most salient motivation was for him, so why the hell wasn’t I using it? So I started rewarding him for standing still and not turning to me. I spent like 20 minutes using the other methods trying to get him to stand still and failing. It took less than 5 minutes to fix the behavior once I started using food rewards. It was enormously easier. On the other hand, it can take months to fix a horse who has become hard-mouthed due to badly used negative reinforcement, and that can be rather more dangerous than a horse who just wants to nuzzle your pockets.
Her box on “incentives are not rewards” is also poorly explained or understood. The technical term for what she’s talking about is luring. You lure an animal into doing what you want. This is absolutely a valid means of using positive reinforcement! It makes no sense for her to say that learning doesn’t take place here—it absolutely does. The trick though, if you ultimately want to be able to phase out the lure, is to… phase out the lure. The irony here is that Jones later recommends using a lure but doesn’t seem to recognize that she’s doing it—she recommends getting a slow, plodding horse to speed up by following a faster horse, then gradually removing the other horse from the equation. That’s using the other horse as a lure (incentive) and then gradually phasing out that lure. You can find so many books on positive reinforcement training that explain how to do this and it’s bizarre to me that Jones would go out of her way to say that it can’t be done and is not a valid way to teach an animal a new behavior (even while at one point recommending its use when the incentive isn’t a food reward). Again, this is just a common superstition.
This is really my biggest problem I have with the book. When discussing applications, she seems to have a very specific (traditional) point of view. The learning section shows just how willing she is to cherry pick evidence to suite that point of view and to avoid questioning her assumptions. There is then a bit on “over-handling” that raises questions as well, but Jones doesn’t ask them. I don’t know enough about this particular subject to know for sure, but her claim is that horses can be "over-handled" and being around people for too long is mentally fatiguing and stressful for horses. This can certainly be true. And there have been studies showing that occasional, brief handling is just fine to produce temperamentally sound foals who accept human contact without fear. The process of imprinting (which was stamped with scientific evidence in the 1990s but has since been debunked, not that debunking has stopped Dr. Robert Miller from making a career out of it) can create animals that are more nervous. But the thing about imprinting is that it often involves flooding--just constantly overwhelming the animal with stimuli in an attempt to get them to habituate to it. So of course, between an animal that has been traumatized with flooding more often than another animal, the former is more likely to grow up to have an anxious temperament than the latter. We know flooding has this effect in any species.
Jonesmakes the argument that it is because of the difference in horses' brains that makes them this way. She quotes Temple Grandin that "animals with a flighty, excitable temperament must be trained and habituated slowly, in small steps over many days" which is good enough advice for initial training. BUT Jones extends this to all forms of handling and being around people, and quotes Marine Hausberger saying that "'Excessive' handling may well bring aversive responses." Jones accepts this without question as just a fundamental part of equine nature as a prey animal.
Now. I have birds. I have had birds for a long ass time. They are also social prey animals. And if you want peak "flighty, excitable animal", you could not do better than choosing parrots. My conures (particularly Flip) would spend all their time with me if they could. They did not find it aversive--quite the opposite. To me, the natural question is, "Well, what does the handling entail? How are these horses being handled? Why would horses find it inherently aversive to be around people for extended periods of time?" Because this is, I have to be honest with you, kind of bizarre given the behavior of other social, domesticated animals (and even the naturally less social domesticated cat) and even the behavior of social, tamed wild animals that we keep as pets (such as parrots).
The difference between the imprinting process of foals and brief, occasional handling of foals is very different in more ways than just the amount of time the foals spent being handled. There is a qualitative difference. As I mentioned, imprinting often involves forcing foals when they are small to subject a wide variety of different stimuli. What would be the result of spending the same amount of time with foals in the presence of humans without humans forcing anything on them? Why would the mere presence of humans, or less intense handling, be expected to cause the same aversion and fearfulness in horses? It seems to me there is not any inherent reason for the presence of humans in themselves to be aversive unless the humans are doing something to make themselves aversive to the animal. But Jones doesn't ask that question.
I will say though, the penultimate chapter, “Pointing Fingers”, is really excellent. Jones elucidates a lot of common misconceptions and does lay out the evidence in a way that makes sense and doesn’t dodge crucial questions.
If you want to learn more about animal learning and how behavior science can be applied to training, this is not the book. As I mentioned, Equitation Science by Paul McGreevy & Andrew McLean takes a deep dive into all the nuances of equine learning and how it applies to training. It is not very layman-friendly, however. Alexandra Kurland as well as Shawna Karrasch are trainers who were at the forefront of adapting clicker training to horses and have excellent books available (I particularly recommend You Can Train Your Horse to Do Anything! by Karrasch as I think it is the most accessible for people coming from traditional training while also not sacrificing the clarity that behavior science brings to the table). Humane, Science-Based Horse Training by Alize Veillard-Muckensturm excellently explains the concepts of applied behavior science when applied to horses. She also challenges some things that people brought up in traditional training take for granted (for example, the end of work being the best reward). If you’re still very attached to traditional training though, you may find her abrasive as she is a “purely positive” trainer—she does not recommend the use of any negative reinforcement at all, considering it abusive. Don’t Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor is THE classic on applying behavior science to both animals and people. The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson is a dog training book, and Donaldson can also be abrasive, but she challenges and debunks a lot of traditional superstitions that are as common in traditional dog training as they are in traditional horse training.
Her “types of learning” section is split into categories that aren’t totally necessary. She has “learning by consequence” but then also has “learning by emotion”, “learning by problem-solving”, and “learning by testing.” All three of the latter would fall under “learning by consequence”.
The negative reinforcement section isn’t terrible, but Equitation Science by Paul McGreevy and Andrew McLean (though more technical and not layman-friendly) has a much better discussion in it of the use of negative reinforcement in training. What McGreevy and McLean suggest is using the lowest amount of pressure a horse will respond to and then maintaining that pressure until you get something approximating the response that you want, then releasing. The release is the reward, the crucial part of the exercise. Horse people generally have a pretty good understanding of negative reinforcement, but Jones doesn’t really address common misconceptions. For example, release when you are getting anything close to what you want. Maintain pressure if the horse is performing other behaviors that you don’t want (moving sideways, backing up, throwing their head, etc). If you still haven’t gotten the exact response, then add the same amount of pressure again and again release for closer approximations to the precise behavior. So, if you are teaching a horse to stop from pressure on the bit and the horse is either totally naïve or hard-mouthed, you want to release when the horse slows or shortens their stride at all. Then reapply that same amount of pressure. That’s how you communicate to a horse who does not yet understand what the pressure means what you want. Jones mentions leg pressure and moving away from that pressure being a natural inclination for the horse, but does not mention that things like pressure to the mouth or head caused by a bridle is really arbitrary. There is nothing inherent about putting pressure on the horse’s mouth to make the horse think “oh, they want me to slow down/stop.” IMO, that limits the usefulness of the section.
I give her credit for pointing out the downsides of using positive punishment which is certainly an evidence-based stance and not common in the traditional mindset. But she does note another common misconception that it may be necessary for “severe transgressions in horses who know better.” This is always the excuse for positive punishment. There is another point where Jones mentions a horse nipping when you tighten the girth “for no reason”—the nipping is clearly not for no reason, it’s because the horse finds tightening the girth unpleasant. Any decent trainer of any other species (dog trainers, cat trainers, bird trainers, zoo animal trainers) will tell you that if you’re not getting the behavior you want out of the animal, the animal does NOT in fact know better. There is always a reason for what they are doing. “They know better, they just want to be bad” is a cop-out and does not align with the evidence we have about animal (including equine) behavior and learning. There is always a reason for the behavior and it’s often easier and safer when it comes to fight-or-flight based behaviors (spookiness, aggression) to work on fixing the underlying reason for the behavior rather than just arbitrarily determining that there is no reason or the reason is unimportant to modifying the behavior. What’s particularly weird about that line is that later in the book, there is an entire chapter (actually an excellent chapter) about why that is not in fact the case.
The chapter on positive reinforcement (“training by reward” in Jones’s terms) is where it really goes off the rails of scientific evidence. There is absolutely no reason to be afraid of using food rewards. That is a purely, 100% traditional stance that has nothing at all in common with behavior science. There are a growing number of positive reinforcement/clicker trainers now who work with horses and can demonstrate why all of Jones’s objections to using food as a reward are utterly unfounded and based more on the common superstitions in the horse world than they are on scientific evidence. I also think her claim that “horses don’t know they can hurt you” is rather ridiculous. Like other social animals, horses learn how to inhibit their behaviors from a young age. And if they are lacking in some understanding of how far they can go with a human, it is absolutely something that you can teach and there is no reason to assume otherwise.
Many of her “non-edible rewards” are not really rewards (quiet surroundings, known locations, clear direction, etc.), some are not something you can easily use as a reward in training (equine buddies, familiar people, etc.), and the rest are very low-value rewards (strokes on the neck or shoulders, scratches on the chest or withers, etc.). Her favorite seems to be “conditioned verbal praise.” This is commonly used in clicker training (referred to as a conditioned reinforcer or marker, usually a clicker but can also be a spoken word or cluck). Clicker trainers know very well though that if you condition a word to be rewarding, that word will stop being rewarding if you stop following it up with an actual reward. If you “charge” the clicker by clicking and treating, then never treat after clicking after that, the click is quickly going to become meaningless to the horse again.
The idea that rest or not working is the best reward for a horse is, when you think about it, pretty sad as a reward. It’s a clear indication that horses do not actually enjoy what they are being trained to do, nor are they taught to enjoy it. This idea is utterly foreign to trainers of other species who rely primarily on positive reinforcement and food rewards. For those other species, ending the training session can be seen as a *punishment* rather than a reward because they do genuinely enjoy doing the “job” that they’re being asked to do. This is as true of dogs as it is of zebras in zoos, who are taught using positive reinforcement and food rewards to approach people and tolerate handling for veterinary procedures and hoof trims. If you can do it safely with a zebra, why it is unsafe to do it with a domesticated horse?
Jones makes a big fuss about how to use positive reinforcement with food rewards properly, you need to have excellent understanding of equine behavior and have excellent timing, which she apparently does not think is as important with negative reinforcement. I am TOTALLY baffled by this. Timing is crucial with negative reinforcement and it does require a lot of attention to detail as well, just as much if not more than positive reinforcement. She also makes a big deal about behaviors learned from mis-timed food rewards being so incredibly difficult to get rid of. This also strikes me as a bit of a bad joke. I once worked briefly with a horse who was just a horrible mugger. I couldn’t even get to the girth to tighten it or pull down my stirrups, much less get him to stand at the mounting block, because he would obsessively turn to me to nudge my pockets. I tried negative reinforcement. I tried positive punishment. The light bulb went off. The horse was telling me what the most salient motivation was for him, so why the hell wasn’t I using it? So I started rewarding him for standing still and not turning to me. I spent like 20 minutes using the other methods trying to get him to stand still and failing. It took less than 5 minutes to fix the behavior once I started using food rewards. It was enormously easier. On the other hand, it can take months to fix a horse who has become hard-mouthed due to badly used negative reinforcement, and that can be rather more dangerous than a horse who just wants to nuzzle your pockets.
Her box on “incentives are not rewards” is also poorly explained or understood. The technical term for what she’s talking about is luring. You lure an animal into doing what you want. This is absolutely a valid means of using positive reinforcement! It makes no sense for her to say that learning doesn’t take place here—it absolutely does. The trick though, if you ultimately want to be able to phase out the lure, is to… phase out the lure. The irony here is that Jones later recommends using a lure but doesn’t seem to recognize that she’s doing it—she recommends getting a slow, plodding horse to speed up by following a faster horse, then gradually removing the other horse from the equation. That’s using the other horse as a lure (incentive) and then gradually phasing out that lure. You can find so many books on positive reinforcement training that explain how to do this and it’s bizarre to me that Jones would go out of her way to say that it can’t be done and is not a valid way to teach an animal a new behavior (even while at one point recommending its use when the incentive isn’t a food reward). Again, this is just a common superstition.
This is really my biggest problem I have with the book. When discussing applications, she seems to have a very specific (traditional) point of view. The learning section shows just how willing she is to cherry pick evidence to suite that point of view and to avoid questioning her assumptions. There is then a bit on “over-handling” that raises questions as well, but Jones doesn’t ask them. I don’t know enough about this particular subject to know for sure, but her claim is that horses can be "over-handled" and being around people for too long is mentally fatiguing and stressful for horses. This can certainly be true. And there have been studies showing that occasional, brief handling is just fine to produce temperamentally sound foals who accept human contact without fear. The process of imprinting (which was stamped with scientific evidence in the 1990s but has since been debunked, not that debunking has stopped Dr. Robert Miller from making a career out of it) can create animals that are more nervous. But the thing about imprinting is that it often involves flooding--just constantly overwhelming the animal with stimuli in an attempt to get them to habituate to it. So of course, between an animal that has been traumatized with flooding more often than another animal, the former is more likely to grow up to have an anxious temperament than the latter. We know flooding has this effect in any species.
Jonesmakes the argument that it is because of the difference in horses' brains that makes them this way. She quotes Temple Grandin that "animals with a flighty, excitable temperament must be trained and habituated slowly, in small steps over many days" which is good enough advice for initial training. BUT Jones extends this to all forms of handling and being around people, and quotes Marine Hausberger saying that "'Excessive' handling may well bring aversive responses." Jones accepts this without question as just a fundamental part of equine nature as a prey animal.
Now. I have birds. I have had birds for a long ass time. They are also social prey animals. And if you want peak "flighty, excitable animal", you could not do better than choosing parrots. My conures (particularly Flip) would spend all their time with me if they could. They did not find it aversive--quite the opposite. To me, the natural question is, "Well, what does the handling entail? How are these horses being handled? Why would horses find it inherently aversive to be around people for extended periods of time?" Because this is, I have to be honest with you, kind of bizarre given the behavior of other social, domesticated animals (and even the naturally less social domesticated cat) and even the behavior of social, tamed wild animals that we keep as pets (such as parrots).
The difference between the imprinting process of foals and brief, occasional handling of foals is very different in more ways than just the amount of time the foals spent being handled. There is a qualitative difference. As I mentioned, imprinting often involves forcing foals when they are small to subject a wide variety of different stimuli. What would be the result of spending the same amount of time with foals in the presence of humans without humans forcing anything on them? Why would the mere presence of humans, or less intense handling, be expected to cause the same aversion and fearfulness in horses? It seems to me there is not any inherent reason for the presence of humans in themselves to be aversive unless the humans are doing something to make themselves aversive to the animal. But Jones doesn't ask that question.
I will say though, the penultimate chapter, “Pointing Fingers”, is really excellent. Jones elucidates a lot of common misconceptions and does lay out the evidence in a way that makes sense and doesn’t dodge crucial questions.
If you want to learn more about animal learning and how behavior science can be applied to training, this is not the book. As I mentioned, Equitation Science by Paul McGreevy & Andrew McLean takes a deep dive into all the nuances of equine learning and how it applies to training. It is not very layman-friendly, however. Alexandra Kurland as well as Shawna Karrasch are trainers who were at the forefront of adapting clicker training to horses and have excellent books available (I particularly recommend You Can Train Your Horse to Do Anything! by Karrasch as I think it is the most accessible for people coming from traditional training while also not sacrificing the clarity that behavior science brings to the table). Humane, Science-Based Horse Training by Alize Veillard-Muckensturm excellently explains the concepts of applied behavior science when applied to horses. She also challenges some things that people brought up in traditional training take for granted (for example, the end of work being the best reward). If you’re still very attached to traditional training though, you may find her abrasive as she is a “purely positive” trainer—she does not recommend the use of any negative reinforcement at all, considering it abusive. Don’t Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor is THE classic on applying behavior science to both animals and people. The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson is a dog training book, and Donaldson can also be abrasive, but she challenges and debunks a lot of traditional superstitions that are as common in traditional dog training as they are in traditional horse training.
January 3, 2023
2022 saw a significant change in my life with the acquisition of a pony for my daughters. As a result I have gone from close to zero interaction with horses in my life to several hours a week of grooming and watching lessons.
One thing that quickly struck me was how equine brains are wired very differently both to human brains but also canine brains – which as my avatar suggests I have gained greater familiarity with in the last 5 years (having before than had close to zero dog interactions either) – and how complex the horse/human interaction is.
Most of this I put down to my own complete unfamiliarity with horses – but a brilliant trip to Burleigh in the late Summer for their world famous Three Day Event – and the chance, in particular in the dressage arena, was eye opening in making me realise how even the best horses in the world being ridden by the best riders in the world could be completely spooked by say a slightly differently placed TV camera.
Hence this book which was a Christmas present.
As I have made it clear I am no expert on this topic – and it seems from other reviews that much of the book is basic and some of the remainder not even the latest knowledge; but for me it was fascinating as a kind of behavioural science introduction to horses.
I particularly found interesting for example: understanding the difference between prey and predator reactions to uncertainty; getting more insight (pun intended) into horses’ vision; why (as a result of both) horses find narrow passageways unnerving; the flehmen response (which hitherto I had marked down as an amusing but inexplicable “treat face” reflex); horses’ very strong sense of smell; horses’ almost complete lack of planning and concentration on the immediate.
The second half of the book became less valuable for me as it is much more (justifiably) aimed at the horse rider rather than groomer/observer but I was interested for example: horses concentration on food/rest/space and how this can lead to inadvertent negative reward feedback mechanisms or be used to coach desired behaviours at the end of a ride; horses’ aversion to a squeeze like pressure and how this is used to guide them.
Overall, a valuable read for me.
One thing that quickly struck me was how equine brains are wired very differently both to human brains but also canine brains – which as my avatar suggests I have gained greater familiarity with in the last 5 years (having before than had close to zero dog interactions either) – and how complex the horse/human interaction is.
Most of this I put down to my own complete unfamiliarity with horses – but a brilliant trip to Burleigh in the late Summer for their world famous Three Day Event – and the chance, in particular in the dressage arena, was eye opening in making me realise how even the best horses in the world being ridden by the best riders in the world could be completely spooked by say a slightly differently placed TV camera.
Hence this book which was a Christmas present.
As I have made it clear I am no expert on this topic – and it seems from other reviews that much of the book is basic and some of the remainder not even the latest knowledge; but for me it was fascinating as a kind of behavioural science introduction to horses.
I particularly found interesting for example: understanding the difference between prey and predator reactions to uncertainty; getting more insight (pun intended) into horses’ vision; why (as a result of both) horses find narrow passageways unnerving; the flehmen response (which hitherto I had marked down as an amusing but inexplicable “treat face” reflex); horses’ very strong sense of smell; horses’ almost complete lack of planning and concentration on the immediate.
The second half of the book became less valuable for me as it is much more (justifiably) aimed at the horse rider rather than groomer/observer but I was interested for example: horses concentration on food/rest/space and how this can lead to inadvertent negative reward feedback mechanisms or be used to coach desired behaviours at the end of a ride; horses’ aversion to a squeeze like pressure and how this is used to guide them.
Overall, a valuable read for me.
May 24, 2022
Disappointing read.
Very disappointed with the outdated dominance theory references and the author discouraging the use of primary reinforcers in training. This flies in the face of modern animal training based on basic principles of learning theory. I expected a lot more from this book and was honestly very disappointed. I won't be recommending it to anyone, unfortunately.
Very disappointed with the outdated dominance theory references and the author discouraging the use of primary reinforcers in training. This flies in the face of modern animal training based on basic principles of learning theory. I expected a lot more from this book and was honestly very disappointed. I won't be recommending it to anyone, unfortunately.
February 1, 2021
This is a great book! I loved the authors sense of humor interspersed throughout. The book is easy to read and understand. It's a rather complex issue in trying to understand how horses think. Jones does a great job of explaining in plain English that horses don't have prefrontal cortex's and aren't in their stall at night plotting how they will unseat us in the morning.
More importantly what I took away was that the horses have a very keen sense of human breath, intention and heartbeat and can feel when we are frightened and so they become frightened. Humans being their own heads, seem far less aware of what's going on in their environment than the horses do. Horses are hyper vigilant to their surroundings, that includes the humans they interact with. We humans are much slower at perceiving the facial expressions the horse is making and interpreting them to help us understand how best to be a team in any given situation.
Horses are masters of body language and scanning their environments. There eye sight is very different from ours. The equine is stimulus driven on things that seem to be on the periphery. It is movement of the unexpected object that will make them startle or react and also our human perception of thoughts as we are goal driven and often thinking in straight lines to that end instead of scanning the sidelines.
Jones sums up what it is to be a true horseman in a fabulous last chapter.
More importantly what I took away was that the horses have a very keen sense of human breath, intention and heartbeat and can feel when we are frightened and so they become frightened. Humans being their own heads, seem far less aware of what's going on in their environment than the horses do. Horses are hyper vigilant to their surroundings, that includes the humans they interact with. We humans are much slower at perceiving the facial expressions the horse is making and interpreting them to help us understand how best to be a team in any given situation.
Horses are masters of body language and scanning their environments. There eye sight is very different from ours. The equine is stimulus driven on things that seem to be on the periphery. It is movement of the unexpected object that will make them startle or react and also our human perception of thoughts as we are goal driven and often thinking in straight lines to that end instead of scanning the sidelines.
Jones sums up what it is to be a true horseman in a fabulous last chapter.
August 1, 2023
Nice information about brains, but very poor understanding of learning theory and equine ethology. Outdated ideas about positive reinforcement, herd hierarchy and quitting as the best possible reward.
Still a decent read for some theoretical background on neuroscience, but skip the parts with practical training advice.
Still a decent read for some theoretical background on neuroscience, but skip the parts with practical training advice.
June 23, 2025
A fascinating look at how people and horses think, both separately and together.
June 18, 2023
Revolutionary book about horsemanship
April 23, 2024
Some very outdated info especially on positive reinforcement. Many scenarios that are unrealistic in horses that receive the correct lifestyle management as they would not present the “issues” covered in the book. The writing was a bit juvenile at times.
I enjoyed the first part of the book where the physiological science of the horse is explained, however a lot of behaviour science was missed, making a lot of points misleading. The second half of the book was more opinion based, and is where I felt like DNFing the book, however I powered through.
Before anyone criticises me, I do have an equine science background and try to learn whatever I can. I am happy to have a discussion if anyone is up for it :)
I enjoyed the first part of the book where the physiological science of the horse is explained, however a lot of behaviour science was missed, making a lot of points misleading. The second half of the book was more opinion based, and is where I felt like DNFing the book, however I powered through.
Before anyone criticises me, I do have an equine science background and try to learn whatever I can. I am happy to have a discussion if anyone is up for it :)
December 3, 2022
If there were half stars I’d say 3.5. The first two parts of the book I found very interesting the last parts which is roughly a little over 1/2 the book felt more like opinions using the information provided, some biased. When looking at the sources for the data I wanted to check I found other books cited and not any data or research directly from the source which is disappointing. I’ll have to check out the other books to see if I can find the source and research information. Overall I think it’s a book worth reading for anyone works with horses.
May 13, 2023
It was a good concept, but some of the facts (particularly on learning theory and supposed nonexistence of a horse’s frontal lobe) concern me as they seem to be incorrect. Would expect a more accurate and nuanced discussion from an “expert” in the field. However, it’s a good concept!
May 20, 2025
I know nothing of horses nor neuroscience. Indeed, I hardly pay attention to anything in the natural sciences except physics and specifically cosmology. (Although I loved this book: A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds.) All that might disqualify me from writing a meaningful review. You be the judge.
The purpose of this book is to change how riders and trainers interact with horses. Jones believes that humans blame and punish horses in their attempt to get horses to do their bidding. When horses do not respond to human expectation, humans take out their frustrations on horses. This constitutes abuse and exploitation (she does not use such pointed language). Jones wants to name this problem and fix it.
The logical structure of this book starts with the distinction between animals that are predators and those that are prey. I will admit that this was a revelation to me since I looked at all animals as merely animals.
Evolution has given prey and predator animals different characteristics that emerge from their physiology and neuroscience. This is the second premise of the book. Many reader comments on this book seem to take issue with Janet Jones' depiction of these neuroscientific differences. I have no horse (pardon the pun) in this race.
Rather, my comments are about how Jones develops rules from these premises for horse/human interaction -- what she calls more generally inter-species interaction. I want to think about how those rules may or may not also apply to human interaction.
In effect, Jones addresses two problems that occur when the boundaries between human and horse life remain inaccurate and fuzzy. The first might be called the "fallacy of unwarranted sameness," or what we might call "assimilation" (both terms are my language -- not Jones'). By ignoring the differences and limits of human and horse brains, humans take an anthropocentric posture and therefore expect either too much from horses or underestimate their abilities.
The second problem might be termed the "fallacy of unwarranted difference," or "othering." Here the similarities between horse and human are ignored and therefore opportunities missed that might tighten the bond and the communication between horse and rider.
We can immediately see these two fallacies are also performed by human cultures towards other cultures. The history and development of these two fallacies are perhaps best depicted by Tzvetan Todorov in his seminal book, The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other. Here is my shorthand of Todorov's message: sameness leads to assimilation; difference to inferiority. Of course, both occur at once, as he shows spectacularly in the case of Christopher Columbus' treatment of "Indians." What we want instead, Todorov implies, are accurate depictions of sameness AND difference.
There is, of course, one crucial difference between interhuman and interspecies encounters. The latter do not occur in what we think of as human language. This difference helps me understand the political economy of what I call the "pet-industrial complex."
Jones, near the end of her book, references the differences between horses and pets such as dogs and cats (both predator animals). The difference is that many humans treat cats and dogs (and horses too?) as part of their human family. I am unsure of Jones' stance on this issue, but I am firmly opposed.
It is not that I mind the presence of dogs and cats in human homes. What I object to and think of as ethically wrong is the human incorporation of their presence as "their best friend" or "favorite family member." To me this attitude constitutes a kind of human pathology -- the expression of a deep alienation with self and human others. But rather than address that pathology head-on via human-to-human interaction, many humans thrust this pathology on to pets. This projection leads to both "assimilation" and to "othering." It is this pathology that the pet-industrial complex exploits for profit.
Jones's book has finally given me the tools to understand the logical basis of this pathology. Namely, a nearly willful misunderstanding of the boundaries between humans and animals, a misunderstanding that allow humans to treat pets as family members.
Jones clarifies the boundary between humans and horses in order to decrease exploitation of horses and increase the pleasures and benefits of the thousands of years long relationship between the two. I think her implicit social theoretical work can be generalized to human encounters with other animals (e.g. cats and dogs) and to inter-human encounters. A clear study of boundaries helps humans better understand themselves and others thereby potentially decreasing exploitation and increasing our pleasure in the company all kinds of others.
The purpose of this book is to change how riders and trainers interact with horses. Jones believes that humans blame and punish horses in their attempt to get horses to do their bidding. When horses do not respond to human expectation, humans take out their frustrations on horses. This constitutes abuse and exploitation (she does not use such pointed language). Jones wants to name this problem and fix it.
The logical structure of this book starts with the distinction between animals that are predators and those that are prey. I will admit that this was a revelation to me since I looked at all animals as merely animals.
Evolution has given prey and predator animals different characteristics that emerge from their physiology and neuroscience. This is the second premise of the book. Many reader comments on this book seem to take issue with Janet Jones' depiction of these neuroscientific differences. I have no horse (pardon the pun) in this race.
Rather, my comments are about how Jones develops rules from these premises for horse/human interaction -- what she calls more generally inter-species interaction. I want to think about how those rules may or may not also apply to human interaction.
In effect, Jones addresses two problems that occur when the boundaries between human and horse life remain inaccurate and fuzzy. The first might be called the "fallacy of unwarranted sameness," or what we might call "assimilation" (both terms are my language -- not Jones'). By ignoring the differences and limits of human and horse brains, humans take an anthropocentric posture and therefore expect either too much from horses or underestimate their abilities.
The second problem might be termed the "fallacy of unwarranted difference," or "othering." Here the similarities between horse and human are ignored and therefore opportunities missed that might tighten the bond and the communication between horse and rider.
We can immediately see these two fallacies are also performed by human cultures towards other cultures. The history and development of these two fallacies are perhaps best depicted by Tzvetan Todorov in his seminal book, The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other. Here is my shorthand of Todorov's message: sameness leads to assimilation; difference to inferiority. Of course, both occur at once, as he shows spectacularly in the case of Christopher Columbus' treatment of "Indians." What we want instead, Todorov implies, are accurate depictions of sameness AND difference.
There is, of course, one crucial difference between interhuman and interspecies encounters. The latter do not occur in what we think of as human language. This difference helps me understand the political economy of what I call the "pet-industrial complex."
Jones, near the end of her book, references the differences between horses and pets such as dogs and cats (both predator animals). The difference is that many humans treat cats and dogs (and horses too?) as part of their human family. I am unsure of Jones' stance on this issue, but I am firmly opposed.
It is not that I mind the presence of dogs and cats in human homes. What I object to and think of as ethically wrong is the human incorporation of their presence as "their best friend" or "favorite family member." To me this attitude constitutes a kind of human pathology -- the expression of a deep alienation with self and human others. But rather than address that pathology head-on via human-to-human interaction, many humans thrust this pathology on to pets. This projection leads to both "assimilation" and to "othering." It is this pathology that the pet-industrial complex exploits for profit.
Jones's book has finally given me the tools to understand the logical basis of this pathology. Namely, a nearly willful misunderstanding of the boundaries between humans and animals, a misunderstanding that allow humans to treat pets as family members.
Jones clarifies the boundary between humans and horses in order to decrease exploitation of horses and increase the pleasures and benefits of the thousands of years long relationship between the two. I think her implicit social theoretical work can be generalized to human encounters with other animals (e.g. cats and dogs) and to inter-human encounters. A clear study of boundaries helps humans better understand themselves and others thereby potentially decreasing exploitation and increasing our pleasure in the company all kinds of others.
August 11, 2024
Horse Brain Human Brain has forever changed the way I interact and will interact with horses. After listening to this book, I learned that brain-based horsemanship is an excellent way to understand how the horse brain operates so our human brains can act accordingly. To think that horses view the world the same way we do is very self-centered and wrong. Such assumptions can even be dangerous and life-threatening.
Horses are dynamic animals that interpret the world in a way that is unique to them, especially as prey animals. Their senses are unique and finely tuned to their risks and strengths. The fact that horses trust us, predators with eyes in front of our faces, pays tribute to their special qualities and abilities as animals. They are incredibly in tune with body language, both from humans and other horses. This makes them amazing to develop a relationship with and teaches us as riders and owners to develop those fine-tuned skills to interact with such incredible creatures.
One thing I was grateful to learn is how slowly their eyes adjust from bright light to indoor and shady areas. Knowing this, I can plan accordingly to help my horses' eyes adjust if I am entering an indoor area, allowing them time to adapt.
After listening to the audiobook, I am compelled to purchase a hard copy to add to my growing collection of horsemanship books. This is a book I will read and listen to repeatedly until it is ingrained in my “equestrian” brain.
I love the concept of neuroplasticity, which teaches us that we can develop areas of our brain and create connections that help rewire and recalibrate our minds, developing desired skills, attributes, and outcomes. Not having grown up with horses, I am, as an adult, developing an equestrian brain and learning to better interact with them and become a better horsewoman. Thanks to this book, I am fostering thought processes that positively impact my interactions with horses. I look forward to deepening my relationship with my horses and developing myself as a more in-tune and mindful individual because of them.
I appreciate the author’s honesty and humility in sharing personal examples where she, as a human, humbled herself to genuinely interact with horses at their level and understanding of the world.
Horses are dynamic animals that interpret the world in a way that is unique to them, especially as prey animals. Their senses are unique and finely tuned to their risks and strengths. The fact that horses trust us, predators with eyes in front of our faces, pays tribute to their special qualities and abilities as animals. They are incredibly in tune with body language, both from humans and other horses. This makes them amazing to develop a relationship with and teaches us as riders and owners to develop those fine-tuned skills to interact with such incredible creatures.
One thing I was grateful to learn is how slowly their eyes adjust from bright light to indoor and shady areas. Knowing this, I can plan accordingly to help my horses' eyes adjust if I am entering an indoor area, allowing them time to adapt.
After listening to the audiobook, I am compelled to purchase a hard copy to add to my growing collection of horsemanship books. This is a book I will read and listen to repeatedly until it is ingrained in my “equestrian” brain.
I love the concept of neuroplasticity, which teaches us that we can develop areas of our brain and create connections that help rewire and recalibrate our minds, developing desired skills, attributes, and outcomes. Not having grown up with horses, I am, as an adult, developing an equestrian brain and learning to better interact with them and become a better horsewoman. Thanks to this book, I am fostering thought processes that positively impact my interactions with horses. I look forward to deepening my relationship with my horses and developing myself as a more in-tune and mindful individual because of them.
I appreciate the author’s honesty and humility in sharing personal examples where she, as a human, humbled herself to genuinely interact with horses at their level and understanding of the world.
August 9, 2023
A groundbreaking book which illuminates how horses actually think, perceive, learn and behave informing the reader on how to best work with the horse brain instead of against it. In this revelatory book, brain scientist and horsewoman, Janet L. Jones breaks down the neuroscience of horsemanship in straightforward, relatable language. There is no plot to the book, however, small, true, stories are provided throughout each chapter as examples and to reinforce the main idea of the chapter. Such as on page 38, where a horse mistakes a ray of light for a snake, and has to overcome that fear. Also, very helpful illustrations are provided in the book. These detailed pictures are great for visual learners. A great example of this is on page 79, where the path of the olfactory input and of the optic nerve is shown. All the illustrations have explanations of what is shown in the image. The author is rather witty and weaves humor throughout the book. Her comical style adds to the overall enjoyment of this interesting read. I would absolutely recommend this book for riders of all levels, or if you’re just interested in brain science. It is a wonderful book!
May 23, 2024
This is a clear, honest and wonderfully written book on the horse and human brain. It has exercises and multiple examples for the types of horses and interactions you want to watch for, as well as recommendations for addressing concerning behavior with clear explanations for why we take certain approaches. I really appreciated the author reminding us as many times as necessary to work with your horses and their brains with the understanding that you are separate, in some cases opposing, entities with very different evolutionary and present experiences. We need this reminder in every instance of care with the many animals we live and work with; it benefits us to remember we are animals, too, and helps avoid the pitfalls of our own emotions and accusations directed at the other creatures around us who are simply responding within their nature. The final couple chapters work to drive this home and offer some beautiful prose speaking to the value of having horses in our lives. It makes me miss riding and caring for these sensitive, hard-working animals, and I look forward to bringing what I’ve learned to my future with them!
September 15, 2023
I promise, if you get yourself a copy you won’t regret it and you will learn so much about how your horse’s mind operates from a scientific perspective (so there’s no room to argue that your horse did indeed pee in its feed bucket on purpose to spite you!) I highly recommend this book to ALL horse people, owners or not. It was a fascinating read that was hard for me to put down, and I’m no science wiz. It was simply written so that anyone could understand the concepts. The author goes over how horses see, hear, smell, taste, touch and how all those senses are different from our own. This helps me to put things in perspective when I'm riding and Captain "spooks at nothing" to handle it better. It wasn't nothing. I just couldn't hear or smell it. She also goes over well how to train according to how the horse's brain works, not ours, so we can not only teach them how to do something, how to stop doing something, but we can also build trust and bonds that will last a lifetime.
July 10, 2025
I enjoyed the science of this, and the application of the science through stories. I did not enjoy the step-by-step breakdown of how to do something. horses, inherently, are all individuals. To say that following a particular step-by-step process will work every time is to lose sight of the individual. Also, I found some of the steps to be incongruent with the science. I would be careful who I recommend this book to, which makes me a little sad. I think the topic is sorely needed, and the science well explained here. But I have a hard time recommending books that offer step-by-step processes that could fall short in the hands of someone with less understanding, less resources, and less feel. Read it for the science, let that inform your understanding of horses. Filter through the steps to take what is good and leave what doesn't work.
August 13, 2025
Listened on audio via Spotify and thought it was excellent. This was my first book on horsemanship and I loved learning from a brain-based perspective. Also, this book heavily aligns with my trainer’s approach to horsemanship, so this was a wonderful, deeper dive into things I am familiar with but had not taken the time to connect so thoroughly. While some parts were more dry than others, overall this kept me engaged and I’m considering buying the physical book to reference or reread parts as needed.
September 7, 2020
For any equestrian people out there, this is the book to read. Even the younger persons will understand the concepts and research that is put before them and will change your attitude towards training and working with your horse(s). Dr Jones is concise, articulate, funny and writes so that anyone can understand. Best book I have read in a while and I read a lot of this kind of book.
October 23, 2020
The real Horse Revealed
This is a scientific book about horses that is written so well, any human connected with horses will be able to understand it. Your horse is not at all what we humans think. Your horse has many differences from what most us humans understand.
Amazing knowledge in the book which will,help out any person interest is improving their knowledge and this horsemanship....a vague word.
This is a must read for everyone connected with horses!
This is a scientific book about horses that is written so well, any human connected with horses will be able to understand it. Your horse is not at all what we humans think. Your horse has many differences from what most us humans understand.
Amazing knowledge in the book which will,help out any person interest is improving their knowledge and this horsemanship....a vague word.
This is a must read for everyone connected with horses!
March 8, 2021
Interesting but too full of obligatory pics of neurons, dendrites, brains, etc. to add pages to a book that should have been a long essay. I fully understand our brains and neurobiology - just tell me how the horse processes the same information I do. It's not bad info. It's just packaged to be "sciency" so that we trust the author and that falls flat. You have your Phd, you work with horses, I trust you.
February 9, 2022
This was a very interesting book, full of very pertinent information. Much of it was somewhat new and it will certainly influence my thinking when with my horses. It also provided some considerations when dealing with my dogs and cat. This is an absolute must read for people who spend any time with equines.
February 22, 2024
I just don't think I can push through to finish it. I was so excited to start reading it when I got it...... Two years ago..... It's just super dry. It's informative, sure! But its so hard to power through it. I'm 60% through it. Unfortunately, after two years of trying to finish it, I won't be able to.
March 20, 2025
Some valuable information. Not much new for me. I wish the author had focused more on horse behavior as neither good or bad and that horses don't "misbehave" just to be spiteful (like people do). She touched on this but throughout the book she also made statements that contradicted this (primarily in statements I believe were meant to be funny).
May 19, 2025
I loved this take on how horses think and how humans can make their place in our world less confusing for them.
Takeaways: Sometimes it isn't the handler's fault, it's the horse being a horse.
Understanding how a horse sees things both literally and metaphorically helps me have a better experience with my horse.
Getting a human brain and an equine brain to align is magical.
Takeaways: Sometimes it isn't the handler's fault, it's the horse being a horse.
Understanding how a horse sees things both literally and metaphorically helps me have a better experience with my horse.
Getting a human brain and an equine brain to align is magical.
September 18, 2021
A must read for anyone that rides, trains or otherwise works with horses. Concepts and explanations are in not in scientific language but words the everyday person can understand. I found explanations for many things I already knew and new knowledge as well. A wonderful read.
April 1, 2024
Viewing the horse through the lens of neuroscience enhanced my understanding and reframed my approach in several areas. Jones occasionally wanders in the writing but less so than many do when applying neuroscience to practical application.
August 4, 2020
Written with a concise, easy to understand approach, Horse Brain, Human Brain lets us access those brain differences and work within them to establish a more effective relationship with our horses.
December 21, 2021
Awesome Information
A great book that everyone involved with horses at any level should be required to read. Highly recommend for true horsemanship.
A great book that everyone involved with horses at any level should be required to read. Highly recommend for true horsemanship.
December 30, 2021
Excellent and enjoyable!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews