why do horses like to chase and play with balls when they aren’t predators with a chase drive?
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For prey animals, play is a way for the young to practice fleeing from predators, fighting predators, or competing for mates. In social animals like horses play is also a way large groups bond. So a ball can be a good way to provide a single horse or small herd of horses a way to exercise their instinct for play.
Domesticated horses have had their cognition and behavior altered by human breeding. They are different from wild horses.
Long time horse owner here. Animals that live in groups have a lot of social behaviors connected with group dynamics. Herds, packs, flocks and schools of animals have leaders and followers and every individual in between. So when you see a horse outside with its friends you’ll often be able to *see* which of them is in charge— they’re not terribly subtle about it. An interesting thing is that though there is a generally fixed pecking order, they sometimes play by taking turns being “boss”.
So bottom line, horses have a herding instinct. Depending on their individual personality, they try more or less strongly to boss someone around. And boy oh boy, do they ever find it fun to boss that ball around. You can just hear the horse thinking HA! Wuss-ass ball! It does whatever I tell it! ROLL, beeeetch! Now stop! Now roll over *there*! Now im gonna stomp you!!
Fun fact, polo ponies can and do kick the ball and if they score a goal, it counts.
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