Horses remembering vs. horses not remembering?

[rfXlove]

I have a thoroughbred who I trail ride and do some showing with. Back in the fall, we were at a local park where they offer trails for horses. We ended up on the wrong trail which lead us to a nature park. Well, while we were going through the nature park we were crossing over tiny bridges that were obviously not meant for horses. The next bridge we came to ended up to be a boardwalk, which was about 2 feet off the ground over a swamp. After 2 minutes of walking on this boardwalk, my horse balked. He ended up backing off the boardwalk, and we both catapulted into the swamp. The mud in the swamp came up to my hips and my 16h horses stomach. This was not a good situation, obviously. I scrambled to the boardwalk, and my horse was thrashing, trying to get aboard the boardwalk as well. He got his two front feet on the boardwalk, but it wasnt wide enough to get his back feet on it as well. After thrashing and attempting to get on the board walk he ended up doing a straddle over the boardwalk, with his front legs on one side and is back legs on the other. He managed to get his back legs on the boardwalk and fell onto the other side where he was down for a few minutes. We managed to get him back up onto the boardwalk with a lot of coaxing and encouraging. He severely cut up his back legs and managed to rip off both front chestnuts.

Now this is where the memory comes into play. The other day I was on some trails that were just cut out at the farm I board at. A bridge was just put in, about 4 feet wide, very similar to the boardwalk we fell off of. This was the first time we were going to cross a bridge since our fall in November. When I went to cross the bridge, my horse refused. I kicked and kicked, and I said "this is no use" after about 5 minutes. It was also rare, because my horse very rarely spooks at anything and hes never had problems with bridges. I got off of him and tried to lead him across, but he wouldn't. Finally, I got him to put his two front feet on the bridge. He was shaking, tremendously. He obviously showed fear. He finally crossed the bridge, nostrils flared and the whites of his eyes showing. And this is where I have to ask the question... do horses remember things? Based off of my account, I say yes.

 

[devinej]

oh yes, horses have excellent long term memory. there have been scientific research papers published on the subject showing excellent long term memory over several years.
i'm sure he'll be scared of bridges for quite a while but it looks like you made some progress with going over an appropriate bridge and having a good experience. the more easy and good experiences you can let him have with bridge-like objects, the better. i'd stay away from non-horse bridges though

 

[Duckz]

WOW! Yes, horses absolutely remember things. For far longer than you would like, most times. In this case your horse probably has a point. It will take lots and lots of positive retraining to get him over that trauma. Be patient. And please stay away from non-horse bridges.

 

[ladyhawk]

I had a situation some years back while my horse was at a boarding facility. My horse had never had a whip used on her to my knowlege. I was standing outside of her stall and she had her head over my shoulder, pulling me into her chest, hugging me if you will... One of the girls came past with a whip.
When my mare quickly backed up to the far wall of her stall and hunched herself to the point she looked like she was trying to be a part of the wall, it didn't take much to figure out she was being beaten and who the person was doing the beating...

There were many times other boarders walked past her stall with whips, crops and ropes swinging and she never reacted at all but when that particular person would walk past her stall, there was always some backing reaction even when there was no whip...We moved soon after...

So, not only do they remember, but they have a way of telling you when an opportunity presents itself! There were other times she told me about something but that one event was to the point and more clear than any of the others. Believe it or not, one incident even involved my dad who couldn't believe how I found out!

June~

 

[SugarNSpikes]

Ohh yes, I absolutely believe that they remember things. Especially the traumatic events.

My horse was dead lame when we moved to him a new boarding facility a few years back and the people moving him were attempting to put him in a trailer with a ramp and they were doing it in a less than polite manner.

Then, when we bought my own trailer (it also had a ramp), it barely fit him and he got his head stuck out the side escape door, and tried to rear up. He banged his head pretty badly and I was unable to get him to get back on the trailer.

We didn't go anywhere for a year or so until I bought the newest trailer, a step-up, and he was just absolutely traumatized by it when we tried to get him on. He acted like he was dead lame and tried to crawl his way onto it with his knees. Needless to say, it took many hours of patience to get him to figure the new one out.

He's such a good boy and I've never seen him balk at anything else, so I assume that it must be because of those bad experiences.