I haven't stepped out today to see what it's really like. So far I just opened the door to let the dog in and out. I think it's supposed to be 57 F today, but it is ugly and grey. Ugly, grey, horses, mud. Should I go out there? It's almost an hour drive to and back from the barn.
My horses don't know about this long drive. They know about cars and trucks and trailers, and roads and trails that go somewhere, but have no concept of how long it takes to get there. Their time is so different than ours, it is so broadly defined, marked by night and day, seasons. Their daytime is measured by the boundaries and territories they establish as they move along the pasture and graze. If you watch them every day, they have a pattern. What determines it? They are not turned out 24/7 but on days when they are turned out, they usually form their hierarchical groups and will start grazing at the same spot they started the morning before. Through the day they work their way all around the pasture and it seems fairly consistent as to the direction they travel. Do they follow the sun, even when it's obscured by a day like today? the atmosphere? The pattern they establish is not just the territory they cover while grazing; within the pattern of movement, there is time to nap (usually sometime in the morning and about 3pm they get a little drowsy,too), take their turn at the water trough, play, flirt.
There are variables: natural causes like the weather, a spook that gets them running, or the artificial causes of human intervention--whether or not flakes of hay have been thrown down. Still, they strive for consistency in their habits. Atmosphere appears to be a variable. They are aware of barometric pressure changes and adjust accordingly, but it doesn't alter the general pattern of the day.
I wonder what my pattern looks like to them? Even though I'm not always consistent, do they know a pattern I keep over time that I'm not aware of? I imagine they interpret me in their life as one of the variables. Like dogs, they know the sound of my van and I know they know at some point that I'm coming down the road, but how far away am I before they know this? These are the interesting questions that lead the animal behaviorists to develop and test hypothesies. "Pet Psychics" exploit the results. A pet psychic could say " they know you are coming the first second you think about them as you are driving along." I know this has been tested with dogs, and results have not been all that remarkable, but a true scientist would say, "we don't really know for sure when or how they know, but there is probably a logical explaination, some event or change within the environment that is remarkable to them but undetectable through our overly evolved human senses," something to that effect anyway.
I know this much, they don't plan their day around whether or not I'm coming, and some days they could care less. Other days they seem extremely happy to see me. I haven't really learned what it is that always determines this, but sometimes it's because I can do something for them that they can't do themselves, and they have been thinking about wanting to do this through the day, like let them out of their stalls when they have to stay in, and here I come, Finally!! "Let us out, let us out!"
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