Do Horses Have Autism?

Post Reply New Topic

It just came to me that maybe they do as horses don't like making eye contact. Probably why they like me, though I am not that used to horses and my mum doesn't sant to go near them. Grew up with goats. My mum can handle goats. They are easy. We know goats. As a youngster I used to be sent in the padocks to look for poisionus plants and pull them up so the goats didn't get them, and put them in when it rained etc. Mind you. The goats could tell when rain was on its way before the weathermen did on the TV.
Horses. Well, thee aee lots here as some of our neighbours keep them. I once had a family friend try to get me on her horse. It is high up up there. But I am used to bicycles and found myself being told "Let go of his ears. He doesn't like it" as I was trying to find rhe brakes! "Where are the handlebars?" I replied.... Ummm. Now if the horse aas pulling a cart, I would probably get on really well with that. The cart is mechanical. I can do that part.

It's nice up here. A mile to get to the nearest street lamp and two miles to a main road or a bus stop. There are about ten houses around here though the immediate area of this lane has six houses. This house was once a farm many years ago. Not sure how old it is but I know the top of the thatch roof came off and landed on a neghbours roof (Which is about a football pitch length away though would have been the old house which was there not the current one) back in Storm Timotei back in the early 1600's. They named the storms after the first ship to go down. If no ships were sunk it wasn't classed as a storm.

Humans are rather unusual - they're about the only animal that makes prolonged eye contact for any reason other than to assert dominance and/or aggression, and even then, it depends on social culture (for example, it's very much frowned upon in Japanese society - schoolkids there are explicitly taught not to do it in most situations.)

I think that's probably part of the reason that many Aspies seem to get along with animals so well; we don't associate eye-contact with showing affection so much, so don't freak them out by accidentally coming across as aggressive. It's often been joked that I'm a "p**** magnet", because I seem to attract cats - but all I really do is to patiently wait for them to come to me in their own time without making it obvious that I'm trying to attract their attention. Most people seem to make the mistake of treating them as if they're human children, then wonder why the cat turns its back on them!

I think cats are the animals most associated with autism/Asperger traits.

Horses autistic? Doubtful...

They are sociable -- they run in herds and have a social order among themselves. They enjoy each other's company.

They make eye contact -- they do try to look at what's around them, but they are generally far-sighted and can't see what's directly in from of their faces out to about 2 to 3 feet.

They communicate -- They are even verbal at times, although most of their "language" seems to rely on body language and scent (as it does with most animals).

Most "prey" animals, and herbivores, are not autistic----because being autistic would render one, quickly, the victim of a carnivore.

There are autistic carnivores, though, who like to keep to themselves and are not into social interaction. One example: the leopard.

There exist the leopard equivalent of "misanthropes." I'll have to look up the Latin equivalent of "anthro" for the leopard.

^ So now you're a qualified animal psychiatrist ... ?

Yeah....I have my degree all gold-plated and everything....

Obviously, I'm speculating! I never claimed to be an expert.

I'm just making, somewhat, an "educated guess."

You know what they say; you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it socialize.

I thought it was, "You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make it think" ... or something like that ... ?

I used to have a fantasy about leading whores to "culture"......

What does a horse stim look like?

Horses are prey animals and so hyper alert to sensory stimuli.

Horses are herd animals and so very tuned in to the feelings/ nonverbal emotions/ mirror neurons of other horses.

Horses brains are definitely wired differently than NT humans. They do share a few traits with us which make them good therapy animals for autism, but horses are wired differently than us, too. They're horses. Being "different" and diagnosed is an analytical human construct.