Mentally Handicapped?

Is there such thing as a mentally disabled horse? (As like some humans) PLEASE don't take this in the wrong way, I'm just wondering....(I've been reading Flowers for Algernon book, good book, anyways, it got me thinking about this) If there is such thing do they destroy it, or is it used for riding or any other disicpline or does it just "sit there" Thanks!

Mentally Handicapped?
This is a really good question! It's certainly got me thinking!





Intelligence, or mental capacity, in horses is quite different from most other domestic animals. Because horses have evolved as prey animals, the intelligence of a horse is quite different that that of a predatory animal, and different metrics must be used to measure intelligence. When attempting to measure equine intelligence, we generally look for equine intelligence along three dimensions:





Scope of learning – determining the cognitive ability of a horse to solve increasingly complex problems.





Rate of learning - A quantitative measure of the time required for the horse to learn the task.





Retention of learning – The ability of the horse to remember the learned behavior.





The intelligence of horses is often represented as an evenly distributed bell curve, with approximately 80% of horses falling within two standard deviations from the mean. This distribution of equine intelligence suggests that it is possible to develop a field test to identify those horses with superior intelligence.





To be accurate, a field test of intelligence, or mental capacity, must measure the alertness of the horse and manner in which the horse interacts with the environment. The field test usually consists of the following areas:





Ear reflex index – Alert horses with a high degree of ear motility tend to be more intelligent and a measure of the ear reflex index can discern the intelligence of the horse.





Pressure Response - Measuring sensitivity and response to pressure can often reveal the hoses intelligence. Intelligent horses respond quickly and decisively to applied pressure.





Response to socialization – Intelligent horses have mastered equine social behavior and display the proper “etiquette” when interacting with other horses and people.





Umveg testing – Intelligent horses are able to navigate a detour to achieve a goal.





While each of these tests are somewhat subjective and difficult to quantify, they provide a fairly accurate measurement to equine intelligence, so I guess those who would score way below adverage in such tests could be deemed to have 'special needs', or a degree of mental incapacity.





Seriously, GREAT question! Thanks for posting it!
Reply:i dont really believe that there are mentally chanllenged horses by nature, though physical injury causes neurological disorders and problems which defenaitly will change a horse. Sometimes when they are born they dont get the oxygen they need fast enough which causes problems. And as for the person that posted something about that mean filly. It is SOO true. BUT i wouldnt worry about breeding her because my mares DAM was MEAN!!! like attacking MEAN, and it was the same with her...they thought she has issues. My mare was the first foal out of this pairing that they chose, and my mare was Amazing, not a mean bone in her body......yet her mother was horrible. And 5 more foals we born from her and they we are great. But anyways thats a good question....got me thinking. If there isnt such a thing now...there should be soon. Cause it really makes sense to classify them like that.
Reply:Hi "Troll'





Sadly, I've seen more riders who I thought were mentally challenged than horses. Usually the horse is blessed with more common sense than the rider.





I'm sure there are breeds of horses who are mentally a little "slower" and may give you an impression of their being handicapped but they usually are not. Just takes longer for their "switch" to hit the "on" position.
Reply:I've had a couple that I would be willing to swear were mentally handicapped! LOL!
Reply:To a fashion, yes... Obviously it's not the same as in humans, though! There are horses who are completely unable to function, who cannot cope with life - in some cases that's down to previous experience / mishandling / lack of education - but not all the time. Sometimes it's just them.





I've known of a pony who couldn't function properly; he was very detached, had no social skills, and was treated exactly the same as every other foal before him (he was from a very well respected breeder) and was the fifth foal of a successful pairing. There were no outside variables that could take the blame, and he was just not right. As he got older he became more and more dangerous, so he was put down before he caused an accident (whether to himself or anyone else).





Yes, it does happen. Most are not as extreme as that pony, and some carry on a life despite their lack of engagement - but every so often there is the occasional extreme case.
Reply:All horses, just like people, have varying degrees of intelligence. This is part of the reason why some horses are harder to train than others.





As far as officially declaring a horse mentally challenged - this is only observed in recording IQ scores in humans. Since there is no IQ test for animals, there is no way to say specifically that a horse is mentally challenged, or less intelligent than other horses to the degree where they would be put in 'special' classes if they were a human child - there is no test for that.
Reply:I was boarding my neighbor's yearling and I thought she was slow mentally. The other horses ignored her, she never got excited about anything, would bump into things, had problems doing simple stuff like walking through gates and backing up. She just didn't act right. She was a sweet loving little filly though. That summer she started loosing weight and so I had the vet out. Turns out she had a heart murmur and the bigger she got, the more it bothered her. The neighbor made the right choice and put her down.


Good question!
Reply:I believe there called Thoroughbreds,,,,,,,,,, LOL sorry couldn't resist (inside joke at my farm). We have a couple that are extremely dumb
Reply:I had a filly born several years ago that had something very much wrong. The vet commented when she was born that her ears hung off the sides of her head, which was a sign that she was "dismature". Anyway, that filly had a terrible mean streak. Evil mean. Wanting to hurt people if at all possible mean. Even though she matured to be stunningly beautiful, she just wasn't right in the brains department. She was a liability to have around because you couldn't walk through the pasture without worrying that she would catch sight of you, and run to attack. She had never been mishandled, we've never had a baby with an attitude like hers. Physically, she was everything we'd done that breeding for, so we kept trying. Three trainers worked on her, but she would not be trained. Blood chemistry was normal, nothing obvious as to what her problem was. I SHOULD have put her down. But she was so gorgeous that the stallion owner talked me into letting him have her. She never was broke, and go figure....they're BREEDING her. Just makes me cringe.

sweating