I’m sure most of you are familiar with the various hunter vs farmer theories that many theorists have proposed. Well I have a bit of a new take on it. For the people who are already bored with my horse analogies I appoligize. I was researching bloodlines of horses bred for different purposes and I realized that just as we breed horses selectively that have ‘hunter genes’ for example there may be some humans that also carry those hunter genes. Don’t loose me yet just go with me on this for a second…So in the horse world we breed certain horses to be quick, reactive, fearless, fast, distractible, hypersensitive to stimuli etc…
For example our Eventing (Cross Country horses) have to literally jump huge solid obstacles some they cant even see over at a full out gallop, spin on a dime and go the other way then gallop though a huge pool of water they have no idea how deep it is without a second’s thought. These tend to be crosses with mostly Thoroughbred (Yes those are the ones used for race horses, the adrenaline junkies of the horse world). These horses are known to be overeactive and jittery, and impatient by nature. The ‘cowey’ bred Quarter horses posess the ability to help the human hunt the cow so to speak. In reality they are chasing the cows but the horse is in fact taking a predatory role over their natural role which is of prey. Since horses are prey animals 100% and are not predatory in the slightest way naturally one would have to conclude that any predatory qualities are either trained or have been genentically bred into them. Of course there is alot of training that goes into this however any ‘cutting horse’ breeder will tell you that there are many bloodlines of Quarter horses that are just born wtih cow sense. In fact these horses sell for thousands and thousands of dollars more that ones you have to train this ‘predatory’ instinct into. These horses are incredibly intuitive, and sensitive/reactive to the slightest movements of the cow.
On the other side of the spectrum are the ‘dressage’ horses bred to be calculating, precise, slower, and patient, graceful, steady, and above all 100% FOCUSED and CALM. On a dressage test your horse must be completely focused on the intricacies of the manouvers and they must be calm and relaxed at all times. They have to be so relaxed that you cannot observe any tension in their muscles. This would NOT be true of the racehorses or eventers who need to engage their adrenal glands in order to pass the horse ahead of them or to jump that 5 ft high wall they cant see over as they run uphill.
I just found this interesting! What do you guys think? Since ADHD is genetic in humans could it be that some of us are bred to be the ‘eventers and cowey’ too? lol
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