The Nature of Horses

Part of the Horse exhibition.

No other animal can match the contributions that horses have made to human civilization. What makes horses such good partners for people? Horses cannot learn the way people do; training horses involves working with their natural instincts, not trying to change them. But fortunately for us, most of the qualities that make horses helpful to humans were already present in wild horses. Their bodies are powerful, living machines that can work all day, powered only by grass. And their brains give them both the ability to understand subtle commands and the motivation to obey them.