I really think it’s the same – horse-human-any mammal. Details differ, such as we have our scapula connected to our collarbone and horses don’t, diet details since we evolved eating plants and animals, and horses didn’t, differing digestive systems, etc., but when something is injured or not right for any reason, or there’s pain or just discomfort, humans can describe it – horses can only show in the ways they can that they don’t feel good – they look tense, move out of balance, refuse jumps, buck, rear, bite and kick. When attempts to communicate fail they shut down. One of my horses spooked due to gunfire, ran out of the barn door where I was standing, avoided me and hit his hip on the door frame, scraped off the hair and hide, made a loud bang when he hit the door and that spooked him even more – (he’s totally ok, just scared for a few minutes and bruised). A couple of days later, he’s moving fine, not lame, but kicks out with that leg when I drove behind him with the RTV – suddenly he’s LAME even though it was an air kick and he was too far away from anything to make contact! OH NO!!! so i watch him, he’s limping a bit for a few minutes, then shortly after trots up for dinner totally sound – I think he might have had a muscle spasm. No sign of lameness at all after that. If he could talk, he could describe it and I’d know. But instead I have to watch, question, assess, have a plan for what to do based on what I see (ie, do I need to call the vet?), and it’s really difficult even if one is relatively good at this from experience. Just glad it was a momentary glitch, and nothing concerning. As for the first incident if I had not been standing there, I would have never known why he scraped himself. Really glad he chose to hit the barn though and not me, I’d have been in the hospital.
