Free-roaming horses in Italy, 2010 – Pic by José De Giorgio-Schoorl

How many people actually really know the horse as he is? This is the more important question. A lot of people think that in nature horses are reactive animals, always in an emotive inner state, searching for their leader to have guidance. False. Horses become highly reactive/emotive due to human breeding, management and activities. In nature horses are cognitive/emotional animals. They are thinking animals. Each their own balanced individual, capable of belonging to something bigger as a herd.

But what does cognition really mean? Cognition usually refers to the cognitive mechanisms involved in learning, memory, perception, decision-making and other. Cognitive ethology starts from the animal as sentient being. In the same way, the zooanthropological philosophy starts from considering animal as dialogical subject and not as passive object.

Equitation, modern or classical, more or less “natural”, using negative or positive reinforcement, has…