The author sounds like someone that never had a horse, nor ever rode a horse, or even just been around horses.
Horses have different personalities. Some definitely like to race. Some would rather just plod along. Herd movement behavior has nothing to do with individual playing behavior.
The herd moves to a location as a unit, but once there they separate and do lots of different things. Just like people!
(Also horses are smart – if they like you, they will want what you want. So if you want to win and they like you, they will want to win.)
If you haven’t been around horses, just read some accounts of movie star horses. Fascinating animals!
Agree with you, David. A horse would have to be really dumb not to figure out that it’s expected to run fast and beat the other horses to a finish line or that winning that race is important to its rider.
It’s put into a unique environment: a small racing stall along with a bunch of other horses – no way it would confuse this environment with normal life or herd movement, pick up the tension of its rider and everyone else, or the noise and peculiar environment of a race track. Then everyone runs really fast to an end point and suddenly everything calms down. Further, it’s probably been trained for this for years. My take is that horses too dumb to figure out their role in a race wouldn’t get to a race track in the first place.
My uncle used to tell a story about the local ice delivery man. After his daily route, he would stop at the bar in town and get drunk. He would leave the bar and pass out in the wagon. The horse would take him home.
The author sounds like someone that never had a horse, nor ever rode a horse, or even just been around horses.
Horses have different personalities. Some definitely like to race. Some would rather just plod along. Herd movement behavior has nothing to do with individual playing behavior.
The herd moves to a location as a unit, but once there they separate and do lots of different things. Just like people!
(Also horses are smart – if they like you, they will want what you want. So if you want to win and they like you, they will want to win.)
If you haven’t been around horses, just read some accounts of movie star horses. Fascinating animals!
Agree with you, David. A horse would have to be really dumb not to figure out that it’s expected to run fast and beat the other horses to a finish line or that winning that race is important to its rider.
It’s put into a unique environment: a small racing stall along with a bunch of other horses – no way it would confuse this environment with normal life or herd movement, pick up the tension of its rider and everyone else, or the noise and peculiar environment of a race track. Then everyone runs really fast to an end point and suddenly everything calms down. Further, it’s probably been trained for this for years. My take is that horses too dumb to figure out their role in a race wouldn’t get to a race track in the first place.
My uncle used to tell a story about the local ice delivery man. After his daily route, he would stop at the bar in town and get drunk. He would leave the bar and pass out in the wagon. The horse would take him home.
Of course Jerry has this covered…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIXAcTEffek
And here we are trying to reproduce that ability with self driving cars.