Human Brain, Horse Brain

See the ladder leaning against the side of the shed? Yes? Well, I didn't.

My son has been cleaning the gutters after school for petrol money, and last night he started on the big goat shed. Sticky, the black pony, has her night yard along the back of the shed.

Sticky spent about half an hour witnessing the ladder being moved along the back of the shed as my son worked on the gutters. We decided it was best if he moved the ladder to outside of Sticky's yard when he was done so that she didn't accidentally knock it over during the night.

This morning I walked around this end of the shed to catch Sticky and put her out in the big paddock. I thought 'boy must have finished the gutters and put the ladder back in the garage'. I got around the corner and noticed that the gutter was only have done. I wondered why the ladder had been put away if the gutters were only half cleaned...

I caught Sticky and started to lead her out of her yard as usual, opening the spring gate and asking her to give me space. I was quite shocked when she leapt sideways and bumped me hard with her shoulder. But I knew without looking that the ladder was there on the end of the shed, and she had seen it.

I still had to turn around and look to confirm to myself that the ladder I had walked straight past while actively thinking about it was in fact leaning against the end wall of the shed.

That pony saw it straight away, the only thing changed in her regular walk from her yard to the big paddock.

The human brain is built to filter out the minutiae and only notice 'important' things. What it deems 'important' is ever changing and not always what we need most, and what it discards sometimes ends up being important.

The horse brain is built to notice tiny changes in the environment and to respond instantly to those changes.

My brain filtered out a whole ladder, even while I was thinking about that very same ladder.

Remember, horse brains are not like ours, but they are very good at what they do.

After her initial fright, Sticky walked past the ladder a couple of times for me and then walked out to the paddock with no further issues.

I'll see the ladder next time, if it's still there. Probably.