When the racing season begins, everyone becomes an expert on the horses who will be the stars of the show. TV personalities, professional analysts, and form guides all extol the “will to win” of the favourite. The equine competitors “battle it out” in close races, exhibiting “heart”, “grit”, and “determination”. But do horses even realize they’re in a race, let alone want to win it? Do kids realize what it means when their nose is the first to pass through the post? Based on decades of experience and everything we know about horse behaviour, I think the most plausible answer is “no”.
Horses are highly social creatures
There are a few inherent advantages to winning a race from the standpoint of a horse. Reaching the finish line may offer relief from the strain of galloping at high speeds and from whip strikes from the jockey, but this is true for all horses as they pass the finishing line. If the race is close, the eventual winner may be whipped more frequently in the final stages than horses further back in the pack. While being the first to reach the winning post can be critical to the horse’s human connections, there is very little direct, intrinsic advantage to the horse that would inspire it to willingly gallop faster to attain this result.
So does a horse even know it’s in a race? Again, the answer is likely “no”. Running (cantering or galloping) is a fundamental horse behaviour, and horses will run in groups freely when given the option, even in races without jockeys. There are several reasons to believe that horses have not acquired the motivation to “win” during a group gallop. Horses are highly social creatures. To reduce their individual exposure to predators in the wild, they synchronize their movement with other horses in their herd.
This includes maintaining similar speeds to other group members (to keep the group together), being aware of their own and their neighbours’ positions to avoid collisions, and adapting their speed to the terrain and environmental cues that indicate impending danger or obstacles. In the wild, “winning”—that is, arriving first and well ahead of other group members—could potentially be a disadvantage, exposing the “winner” to heightened predation risk. This is the polar opposite of what owners, trainers, and punters want from their horses during a race.
Jockeys utilize a variety of tactics to overcome their natural desire to synchronize
Horse races are determined by two horse-related factors: the horse’s intrinsic desire to synchronize with other horses and the horse’s ability to be trained to disregard these tendencies in response to rider cues during a race. Individual horse preferences are also exploited by trainers and jockeys. Some horses dislike clumping together with other horses during a race, therefore jockeys allow them to move to the front of the field (these are “front runners”). Other horses crave the security of the group, so jockeys allow them to stay in the group until they are near the winning post (these are “come-from-behind” winners).
Jockeys utilize a variety of tactics to overcome the horse’s natural desire to synchronize. These could include: 1). directing the horses to travel much closer to the other horses (risking the sometimes fatal injuries we sometimes see at the track), 2). travelling at speeds, not of the horse’s choosing (usually at far higher speeds and for longer durations, and often maintained by use of the whip), 3). preventing the horse from changing course to adapt its position relative to other horses in the field (directing its path via pressure on the mouth from the bit or taps from the whip).
They understand what is likely to happen and what to do during the event from prior experience and instruction
During the early stages of a race, jockeys rely on the horse’s natural desire to stay with the group to ensure they maintain the physical effort required to stay with the top runners. This propensity may then be overruled, allowing the horse to act independently of the group, leaving it behind and eventually winning. So horses are unlikely to understand what it means to be in a “race,” where the purpose of their galloping is to arrive at a specific point on the course before any of the other horses. They do, however, understand what it’s like to be in a race. That is, they understand what is likely to happen and what to do during the event from prior experience and instruction.
And, with jockeys and trainers who understand their horses’ specific preferences in order to maximize their chances during the race, there will always be one horse who arrives at the winning post before the other horses in the group. But what about winning horses who understand they are there to “win”? It’s considerably more likely that the mix of natural aptitude, physical condition, and riding skill determines which horse wins, rather than any innate desire on the part of that horse to get to the winning post first.