Does Your Horse Have a Great Sense of Direction?

Bronzz always knows where he is!

Most, perhaps not all, horses can find their way home or back to a trailer by retracing their steps. The real question is, Can he find his way back in unfamiliar territory by a DIFFERENT route, and do it if YOU are lost? If you know the way, it doesn’t count because horses are too good at reading subtle cues we don’t even know we’re giving. I have lots of experience with this because I have a terrible sense of direction. The first few years that Bronzz and I roamed our local state forest I was routinely lost. Bronzz was not. He remembers every trail he’s ever been on, not surprising since horses have excellent visual memories. He also seems to have a mental map of our state forest trails and where they are relative to each other. If our path is blocked by a downed tree, he knows whether we can bushwhack thru the woods to another trail. (next photo) If he suggests this solution, he sets a steady course, deviating only to weave around trees, and we always pop out on the next nearest trail. (I am good at reading maps so I can verify this.) Even more fascinating, when we are in a strange place, he knows which trails lead back to the trailer, even if he has never been on them before. How does that work?!

Several explanations have been proposed to explain horses' amazing navigational abilities.
1. Their sense of smell is exceptional. Perhaps they air scent or backtrack their own scent.
2. Their exceptional visual memories enable them to remember anywhere they've been and deduce additional information from there.
3. They navigate using magnetic fields. Some (not all) dogs have demonstrated this ability in controlled studies, and I saw it many times in our collie mix. I suspect it’s no accident that the classic “Lassie Come Home” was about a collie. (See references.>
In any case, there are distinct variations. Some horses stick to paths. Some set a direct course, which sometimes proves impassable. Others appear to have no idea which way to go. Following are some stories from readers clearly showing some amazing abilities.

From Tori Taylor Once long ago I had a great mentor. I always rode one of her favorite Arabian mares named Malaka. We did competitive trail and one day we were out helping mark trail on a huge wildlife preserve. I was maybe 14 and a classmate was with me on another Arab. We somehow got hopelessly lost for hours. It was hot. We were running out of water. Flies eating us and the horses. We were at least 2-3 hours overdue so I knew people were looking. And then a recalled once that Vicky (my mentor) had told me long ago that if I was ever lost to let Malaka go. So we did. She promptly turned off the trail into the bushes. Never wavered in her choices. We had to cut (and put back together) two fences. Within less than an hour we stepped out of the clearing less than 100 meters from the trailer we had arrived on that morning. Later Vicky said she wasn’t sure which to be more worried about…telling my mom I was lost or me losing her very expensive mare!

From Kit Tielker I was riding a ranch horse off the ranch to see if the trail I marked earlier on a different horse was navigable in the dark. My flash light died and no moon.lots of deep arroyas with drop off walls between me and the ranch. The marked trail didn't go to the ranch. I was terrified. But I dropped those reins and said a little prayer and we made it back to the ranch without going through one arroyo.

From Pamela Patterson There's a riding area in southern California, north of LA that is basically a swampy part of Tujunga Wash, with tight trails through dense jungle, and many trails criss-crossing. and changing constantly from flooding. The 1st time I rode there was with friends and we got stuck in a tight, muddy dead-end. My mule, Cisco kept trying to go straight into a dense thicket while everyone else was turning their horses around. I figured he might know more than me, and just a few feet past was the main trail! He sure made an impression on my friends! Thank goodness GMPS (Global Mule Positioning System.)

From Julie Smart I have a great example. In 2012 I tamed/trained a number of wild horses on behalf of a rescue charity. One mare we called Annie was homed about 25km away as the crow flies. It was sad to load her up in the truck and send her confidently on her way but gratifying to be able to help that horse acclimatise to life with humans. A year later I got a phone call that there were loose horses in the subdivision between my home and the beach, and were they mine. I knew all mine were accounted for but grabbed halters anyway and went to help. It was Annie and her paddock mate! They were thin, and obviously had not been getting enough to eat. They had broken out overnight, walked through suburban streets to find a beach she had never been on before, followed that up the coast and found the one tiny obscure track that lead to my place. She was literally 500m away from my gate and closing. She wasn’t my horse, sadly, but I returned her to the charity centre wishing I could keep her. Four years later she boomeranged again due to an adopter failing her, and she has lived with my herd ever since.