♪♪
[Suspenseful music plays]
♪♪
THOMPSON: Horses.
[Snorts]
No other animal
has done more for us.
They're bigger,
stronger,
and faster than we are.
[Poignant tune plays]
And, not so long ago,
all horses were wild.
[Neighing]
So how did this huge animal
end up as our companion?
[Grumbling]
My name is Niobe Thompson.
I'm an anthropologist
[chuckling] and I
just love horses.
[Whinnying]
I've discovered that's
something I share
with people all over the world.
[Triumphant music climbs]
So I wonder: What
makes horses and humans
so perfect for each other?
Come with me on a
journey around the world
and back in time
to the origins of this
magnificent creature.
♪♪
[Theme plays]
♪♪
[Portentous chorale plays]
THOMPSON: A horse in motion
[Neighing] is poetry.
We call them the
aristocrat of animals
for a reason.
Their beauty is hypnotizing.
[Suspenseful music plays]
But there's more to a
horse than meets the eye.
Like their unparalleled speed.
A horse can gallop twice
the speed of humans,
with a rider on its back.
[Suspenseful chord strikes]
♪♪
No horse is bigger than this.
A Belgian draft
horse can pull 4 tons.
♪♪
But that isn't all.
[Suspenseful music climbs]
[Performer
vocalizing tender tune]
The body of a horse works
in some very strange ways.
♪♪
Horses have enormous eyes...
[Neighs]
the biggest eyes of
any animal on land.
[Huffs]
In daylight, horses see
almost as well as humans.
But, at night, they see better.
♪♪
They have almost 360° vision.
They have only two blind spots:
just behind and
directly in front.
♪♪
But, even here, [Neighs]
horses have a
kind of second sight.
Like a human hand, their lips
are loaded with nerve endings.
[Grumbling]
Their whiskers are so sensitive,
they can detect what
their eyes can't see.
[Grumbling]
♪♪
Like beavers, their
teeth never stop growing.
♪♪
[Ominous chord strikes]
And, at the end of
their long, thin legs,
horses have shock absorbers.
[chuckling] They're called
hooves.
♪♪
These natural gifts add
up to an incredible animal.
[Triumphant music plays]
But the most
amazing thing of all
is they give those gifts
to us.
♪♪
When I ride my horse, I forget
how much bigger he is than me.
♪♪
He's just so eager to please.
♪♪
So how did Nature create
such a perfect partner?
♪♪
What are the
origins of the horse?
[Suspenseful music plays]
It's a story that began 45
million years back in time.
The Eocene.
Dinosaurs had gone extinct.
[Birds twittering]
Tiny primates, our
ancestors, had emerged.
And so had the earliest horse.
[Whimsical sting plays]
Few traces remain
of that ancient world.
The best place to find them is
this abandoned mine in Germany,
called Grube Messel.
Evolutionary biologist
Martin Fischer
began his career
digging for fossils here.
It was a good choice.
This is the world's richest
source of Eocene fossils.
FISCHER: It's beautiful.
- THOMPSON: Is that a alligator
or a...?
- FISCHER: It's a fish.
THOMPSON: It's a fish?
- FISCHER: It's a fish.
THOMPSON: Nearby is a museum,
built to hold the
discoveries from below.
♪♪
FISCHER: These
are all original fossils.
THOMPSON: This
is the treasure room.
It holds some of the most
perfectly preserved fossils
ever discovered.
Crocodiles.
Birds.
Even bats,
with their wing
tissues still visible.
And the crown jewel:
a 40-million-year-old fossil
of Dawn Horse.
A creature like this
led to all horses today.
Amazing! I've never seen
such a well-preserved
fossil from this era.
FISCHER: Yeah.
It's just wonderful.
But, we have special
permission to take it up,
to see it some very close,
and I can explain the anatomy.
THOMPSON: Oh, it's heavy!
- FISCHER: It's heavy.
Okay.
THOMPSON: The
fossil is so complete,
we can even see its last meal:
grapes.
Dawn Horse was a fruit eater.
FISCHER: It's perfectly
preserved in here
and we have the
four toes in the front.
You see these huge canines here.
It looks like a dog.
- THOMPSON: It really does.
I mean, this looks
like a meat eater to me.
FISCHER: [laughs]
If you ask yourself
why today's stallions have
a canine, the answer is here.
THOMPSON: But, still,
Martin, I look at this animal.
I mean, it's tiny.
It has these big, padded feet.
I just don't see anything
of the horse in this fossil.
FISCHER: I totally agree.
And, actually, this horse never
thought of becoming a horse.
Like always in my life, I
wanted to see things moving
and I would love to
see this horse moving.
THOMPSON: Martin made his name
by showing us how
animals really move
from the inside out.
Dogs.
Cats.
♪♪
Even lizards.
♪♪
But with Dawn Horse,
he's tackling something
much more difficult.
Using what he's learned
about living animals,
Martin is going to
rebuild Dawn Horse,
bone by bone,
and, then, bring her to life.
It's the very definition
of an educated guess.
FISCHER: We can
show you a first attempt.
THOMPSON: You've got some
of the bones in movement now?
FISCHER: Yeah.
THOMPSON: Yeah,
I'd love to see that.
Wow. Okay, so, there's
a sense of life there.
Those legs seem to be
moving realistically to me.
FISCHER: That's the point.
- THOMPSON: Even though there's
nothing attached to those
legs, - FISCHER: [Laughing]
THOMPSON: there's no animal
above them, the legs are moving.
How long is it going to take you
to get to the full,
moving animal?
FISCHER: I would guess that...
What you would say,
another three months?
MAN: [Laughing]
FISCHER: Two to four months?
Simply difficult.
THOMPSON: Okay, Martin,
well, I'm gonna come back
in three months and we'll
see how far you've gotten.
How 'bout that?
- FISCHER: Okay.
Sirs, no more weekend,
[Laughter] no
holidays, no nothing.
Doing all this work, it is fun.
That's science.
It's sailing to an
unknown island
and our island, in the
moment, is Dawn Horse.
This is what an explorer
or a scientist does
and it's great fun.
♪♪
THOMPSON: All Martin's
hard work finally pays off.
[Whimsical tune plays]
He can now reveal how Dawn
Horse's bones fit together.
[Clacking]
♪♪
And how this creature moved.
♪♪
Unlike a horse, she
had a flexible spine.
♪♪
She could turn and corner.
♪♪
Dawn Horse didn't gallop.
She scampered.
♪♪
[Snort]
Compared to horses
today, she was tiny,
a vulnerable animal.
♪♪
Desperate for cover.
♪♪
[Insects chirping]
It's true this creature was
nothing like the horse we know.
[Suspenseful music plays]
But she was a perfect reflection
of her own tropical world.
There were dangerous predators.
[Neighs]
But also places to hide.
♪♪
Dawn Horse was built to
survive in dense forests.
[Ethereal vocals
play] But I wonder:
How did this
evolve into this?
[Ominous music climbs]
What on Earth
happened to horses?
[Suspenseful music plays]
Well, the answer is:
Earth happened.
[Portentous chorale plays]
Early horses were
perfectly suited to their world,
full of dense, lush forests,
full of cover from predators.
I'm only a few
feet away from you,
but look how easy
it is for me to hide.
And look at all the
succulent leaves:
a herbivore's feast!
This was a greenhouse world.
It stayed hot for millions
of years and, in all that time,
Dawn Horse hardly
changed at all.
And then, about
the Earth began to cool.
♪♪
With the cooling climate,
tropical forests
began to disappear.
[Birds chirping]
A cooler world was
also a drier world
and, now, early horses
were challenged to adapt.
As new kinds of horse emerged,
to survive the cooling climate,
new plants also appeared
and the result was that
large parts of the planet
were covered by an
entirely new habitat:
grasslands!
[Triumphant chorale climbs]
♪♪
Grasses were Nature's
answer to this cooler, drier world.
♪♪
Pound for pound,
grass isn't nearly as nutritious
as the fruits and nuts
of the Eocene forest,
but this was now the
habitat horses chose
and it's amazing,
just how much this
plant shaped the horse.
[Snuffling]
Blades of grass are
like sandpaper on teeth.
♪♪
So horses' heads became
longer, to make room
for rows of molars
that never stop growing.
[Snorting]
Their enormous eyes
moved up their long heads,
perfect for spotting
danger while eating.
♪♪
Horses even developed
a special kind of stomach,
able to quickly digest
grasses and immediately run.
♪♪
No cow can do that.
♪♪
Horses now lived in
a world without cover.
Keeping a distance from
predators was critical,
so horses had to get faster.
♪♪
As horses grew, their legs
became longer and thinner,
the legs of a runner.
[Neighing]
♪♪
But the most
amazing change of all
was in their toes.
♪♪
They lost them all.
Except one.
[Crackling]
Martin Fisher helps
me understand.
FISCHER: Remember
the Dawn Horse?
Four in the front
THOMPSON: Yeah.
- FISCHER: and three in the back.
THOMPSON: That's right.
The phalanges, the finger bones.
FISCHER: This is the upper
arm and this is the lower arm.
That's the wrist joint.
These are the bones here.
- THOMPSON: Mm-hmm.
FISCHER: And this is the finger.
THOMPSON: The finger. Amazing.
And they stand on the end
of that finger and run on it.
I mean, that's incredible.
- FISCHER: That's the point.
THOMPSON: And you say running.
How does this structure
make running more
efficient or faster?
FISCHER: The lesser surface you
have, the lesser friction you have.
The lesser friction you
have, the faster you can go.
THOMPSON: Right.
Stands to reason.
So it makes sense that
you would go up on one toe
and have a delicate
connection to the Earth.
FISCHER: This is really
an extreme adaptation.
THOMPSON: The
epitome of a runner.
♪♪
Standing on a single
toe, the horse sits far out
on the end of its
evolutionary branch:
an animal built to run,
specialized for speed.
♪♪
Millions of years
after it evolved,
that extraordinary
ability has us bewitched.
♪♪
In the modern world, machines
do the work horses once did,
but our fascination
with the running horse
hasn't ebbed at all.
♪♪
For good reason.
There's no other animal on
Earth that can carry a human
this fast.
♪♪
It just shouldn't be possible.
How does this huge
mammal practically fly?
[Birds chirping]
If you want to understand
just why horses are so fast,
Kentucky is a
good place to start.
David Lambert
has spent a lifetime
studying the thoroughbred,
breaking down the physics
and chemistry of a running horse.
I've pulled David away from
his work to help me understand,
with the help of a special,
slow-motion camera.
There we go. So we'll
be able to see the footage
on this monitor as
the horse runs by.
LAMBERT: Perfect.
Yeah. Let's do it.
[Hooves thudding]
THOMPSON: Hoh!
- LAMBERT: [Laughing]
THOMPSON: Honestly,
all I see is a blur
LAMBERT: Yes. Yes.
- THOMPSON: of moving parts
as he goes past.
If we take that run-past
and slow it down a little bit,
tell me what you're
seeing there in the body.
LAMBERT: So let's
look as he puts his foot
onto the ground, right there,
and, now, he's loading that
tendon and that ligament,
and it's bouncing and
throwing the leg forward.
That leg's being thrown
by elastic, stored energy,
not by muscle.
And it's like a catapult.
The size of the forces
just throw those bones
out there and back again
and onto the next stride.
THOMPSON: So
that's very efficient,
when those elastics give
the energy back to the horse.
- LAMBERT: Yes.
Yes, without that
elastic energy,
he'd have to have legs which
were 100 pounds in weight,
just in muscle, to
move his big body.
[Suspenseful music plays]
We're dealing here
with a very heavy animal.
[Snorts] As that
weight descends,
it loads up all the soft
tissues in that limb.
The load is suddenly released
and, then, the leg is simply
propelled out into space,
driven by stored,
elastic energy.
It's happening all
over the horse's body:
along his back,
on his hind legs.
When he gets going,
he's going so fast
and there is so
much stored energy,
it reaches a point
where it's beyond control.
♪♪
When you compare him to all
the other mammalian species,
he kind of stands alone,
in terms of his
size and his speed.
He's out there on a little
pinnacle all on his own.
♪♪
THOMPSON: You know,
I've noticed one thing:
When we're listening to the
training horses as they go past,
you hear this enormous
breath, every stride.
It sounds like they're
struggling for breath.
LAMBERT: Their stride is linked,
one-to-one, to their breathing.
When the horse runs,
he must breathe out
when his front
legs hit the ground
and he can only breathe
in when he's up in the air.
[Suspenseful chord strikes]
♪♪
When we run and breathe,
we're using our ribs.
He's not doing that.
His ribs are locked closed
and when he puts his weight
on his front legs like that,
the weight and the
momentum of his viscera
is pushing against the diaphragm
and creating like a big
piston inside his body,
so it pushes the air out
- THOMPSON: I see.
LAMBERT: and then,
when he comes up in the air,
the viscera drop back
and it sucks the air in.
So he's a big
piston, doing this.
THOMPSON: Front
legs down, breathe out.
Up in the air, breathe in.
♪♪
LAMBERT: And that
creates certain limitations.
The faster he goes,
the less time he's
got to breathe.
THOMPSON: It sounds
to me like it's not...
It's not like breath holding,
but it is like suffocation.
LAMBERT: It would be
suffocation for you and I,
but, again, the
horse is different.
His body has adapted to
tolerate this unique situation
that allows him to keep going
far longer than you
or I could keep going.
♪♪
We don't think of racing,
the first step of a race,
as being the first
event in asphyxiation.
If you or I were to run, we
can't drop our oxygen level.
It's too painful.
A horse, however, doesn't seem
to have those same restraints.
He'll take all the last,
little drop of oxygen
and drain it all out, right
to the very, very last drop.
♪♪
He's at a point, at
the end of a race,
which would render
you or I unconscious.
For some people, it
would almost k*ll them.
It's extraordinarily severe.
♪♪
THOMPSON: Severe
for us, but not for a horse.
♪♪
That ability, to run
on very little oxygen,
is a gift of evolution
and in the past,
it kept wild horses alive as
they outran their predators.
[Whinnying]
All horses can do it.
But some can do it better.
♪♪
Tapeta Farm, in Maryland.
A kind of exclusive, private
school for thoroughbreds
and the home of legendary
trainer Michael Dickinson.
Owners send Michael
their most promising horses
and he tells them how
promising they really are.
[Static crackles] DICKINSON:
That's nearly perfect.
THOMPSON: He
works closely with David,
who's spent a lifetime
building a system
to predict how fast
a horse will run.
[Neighing in distance]
[Whinnying]
SPEAKER: Easy, girl.
THOMPSON: Today,
David and Michael
are taking three
horses out for testing.
He needs these horses
to sustain 45 miles an hour
for a full mile.
That's twice as fast as
humans have ever gone.
DICKINSON: Perfect.
[Crackle] Well done,
Alex. Thank you.
My one-acre road.
So they all went
all right, didn't they?
[Grumbling]
Did nothing wrong, did he?
THOMPSON: A hard
gallop is punishing.
But it turns out, the cost is
even higher than I thought.
[Neighing]
LAMBERT: When a
horse tries to run flat out,
he's so big and
he's going so fast,
so there's a price
to pay for that.
The blood gets more and
more acidic all the time.
The carbon dioxide in
his blood builds up and up
and up and up
and gets really high.
THOMPSON: These are all
things that, when we're running
or we're swimming,
feel really painful,
and tell us to stop,
- LAMBERT: Yes,
yes, exactly.
- THOMPSON: like a brake
on our effort.
- LAMBERT: Yes, yes, exactly.
And horses switch
those brakes off.
[Neighs, snorts]
It's not altogether surprising
that horses should
be able to do this
because there are other animals.
Seals, when they dive.
He can go down into the water
and swim around for a long
time without having to breathe.
Essentially, it's
the same process.
[Huffing]
THOMPSON: So when we get a
pain signal that tells us to stop running,
something different
happens in a horse.
It begins to metabolize
energy without oxygen.
Human can do this,
but not as well as horses.
LAMBERT: Some of the byproducts
of this process are euphoric.
He's feeling positive;
he's feeling energized.
Basically, he's high.
So the typical picture
that a person would have
of a thoroughbred racehorse
is that bouncing,
lively, snorting animal.
All of that is coming from
this euphoria they're feeling,
having gone to
a level of fatigue
that we couldn't even tolerate.
THOMPSON: The
physiology of the horse
is set up to
sacrifice everything
for a run.
- LAMBERT: Mm-hmm, absolutely.
THOMPSON: Can you
think of another animal
that would do that for us?
- LAMBERT: No, no, it's amazing.
[Suspenseful music plays]
[Ethereal vocals join]
♪♪
All those things that we feel
when we're around a racehorse:
courage, admiration.
♪♪
There's something
special about these animals
because they've endured.
♪♪
[Snuffling]
♪♪
And there's something
unbelievably trusting
about the way they will
respond to the care of the humans
and come around and do it again.
♪♪
THOMPSON: Horses
take us to speeds
we could never reach
on our own two feet.
[Triumphant chorale plays]
Yet, without a human in
sight, horses still love to run.
It's just their nature.
♪♪
[Neighs]
So I wonder, in
the horse's past,
was their amazing
speed how they survived?
♪♪
Only one animal can
answer that question.
[Neighs]
♪♪
Deep in Mongolia's Gobi Desert,
there's a cousin of
the modern horse,
very different than
the animal we know.
We call them
Przewalski horses.
Incredible.
It's gorgeous!
Right down there
is a green valley
running right along the
sands of the Gobi Desert
and, somewhere in that valley
is the closest living
relative of the horse.
This species went
extinct in the wild,
but, now, it's back.
[Suspenseful music plays]
♪♪
[Birds tweeting]
[Tender tune plays]
♪♪
[Snorts, grumbles]
♪♪
[Snorts]
A stallion group.
[Whinnying]
No mares in sight.
For now, this is play-fighting.
Rehearsal.
[Snorts]
♪♪
The Przewalski horse is so rare,
I've only ever seen
them in pictures.
At one point, there
were only 12 animals left,
all of them in captivity.
[Whinnies]
Few people believed these
horses would ever return to the wild.
[Whinnying]
They're here today
because of this woman:
conservation
biologist Claudia Feh.
For decades, Claudia fought
to bring a handful
out of captivity
and, eventually, back
to their native habitat.
Now, there are
Most of them were
born here, in the wild.
[Whinnying, snorting]
Claudia's project
is a fragile success.
♪♪
Because the Przewalski
lives in the closest thing there is
to the original home of
horses, I think they can tell me
how horses survived
before we tamed them.
♪♪
At dawn, Claudia takes me
out to find the biggest herd.
To survive, wild horses
need a big territory,
but that means they can be
very hard to find, even for Claudia.
Yep. I don't see a thing.
FEH: I see many
things, but no horse.
[Laughter]
- [Speaking local language]
[Clicking]
- They're in the sandy
part. Very strange.
Usually, when they
are in unusual places,
something happened in the night.
Either there were stallion
problems, stallion fights,
or wolf attacks.
[Birds chirping]
THOMPSON: Just a generation
ago, all Przewalskis lived in zoos.
But out here, nothing is
protecting them from predators.
The Mongolian wolf
is a constant threat.
[Snorting]
So is it speed that
keeps these horses alive?
Or is it something else?
FEH: I choose the
animals in such a way
that they would be compatible
because I really hoped that
they would form a herd again.
The big herds are much
more efficient against predators.
[Whinnying]
Horses' typical
predators are wolves.
They hunt in packs.
I've seen wolf attacks.
The whole herd gathered
together and the stallions attacked.
THOMPSON: The
stallions attacked?
FEH: Attacked. They
attacked; tried to bite
and tried to kick them
with their forelegs.
So you have cooperative
predators and cooperative prey.
THOMPSON: So the fact
that they're being predated
by groups of wolves has
forced horses to be cooperative.
FEH: They do have a
sort of real cooperation.
They know what task sharing is
in the highly
complex social herds.
[Snorting]
[Poignant tune plays]
THOMPSON: But not
all herds are the same.
There are bachelor groups,
a collection of
stallions without mates;
and there are family groups,
mares and foals,
with a single stallion.
♪♪
The bonding
behavior is constant.
Mutual grooming.
Subtle hierarchy displays.
And, sometimes, not so subtle.
[Whinnying]
♪♪
The horses are
constantly negotiating
for a rung on the ladder.
Each horse has its place.
Hierarchy gives
the herd strength
and ensures only the
fittest stallions get to mate.
♪♪
But I'm surprised to learn
it isn't just the toughest
stallions who rise to the top.
FEH: The dominance hierarchy
in horses is not based on size.
It's not based on
physical strength.
It's mental strength.
It's personality.
THOMPSON: It's
recognizing character.
You recognize the
character of the leader.
FEH: Yeah. And I
think that translates
to the horse-human
relationship because, obviously,
if you ride a horse, I
mean, the horses are, what,
about ten times heavier
or five times heavier?
So how can we ride a horse,
being so much smaller,
and dominate the horse?
It's mental.
[Snorts]
♪♪
THOMPSON: These wild
horses can fight and run.
But, according to Claudia,
that isn't really why
they're still here.
♪♪
For them, survival is
about working together,
about social life.
Perhaps that's why
they accept Claudia
almost like one of the herd.
♪♪
Left to themselves,
horses build a community.
And, just like for us, it's the
community that protects them.
FEH: I try to help them
have a more natural life.
Horses do not need to be
ridden, you know? [laughs]
They don't need us.
They are independent,
happy to be independent.
♪♪
THOMPSON: This
amazing spectacle,
truly wild horses
living without humans,
it's like a vision from the past
with a message
about horses today.
It turns out, speed and
power aren't so important
as the quality
they share with us:
a social mind.
[Grumbling]
And, everywhere
we see horses today,
we see that social mind at work.
What the Przewalski
horses do in the wild,
our own horses do in our fields,
if we only let them
be themselves.
It's amazing how eager
horses are to please.
Without a language in
common, that's like mind-reading,
an incredible ability
that English animal
psychologist Karen McComb
is trying to understand.
At a riding stable,
Karen's researchers
are preparing for a
day of horse testing.
For Karen, this is science.
But, for the horses,
[chuckling] it's play.
McCOMB: I mean, anyone
who's worked with horses,
they sense this
enormous personality
that differs from
individual to individual.
No one has looked
at that it an animal.
We're used to the way
humans express emotion,
but, actually, horses
are making these very
subtle facial movements
and have an
incredibly mobile face
and they are expressing
emotions as well.
What we really want to do
is work out what the
emotional life of horses really is,
what their emotional
world is really like.
THOMPSON: To build her
library of horse emotions,
Karen has designed a set of
experiments to trigger them.
[Whimsical tune plays]
She plays recorded horse
talk and observes the response.
[Rumbling nearby]
Startled and afraid. [Cheeping]
Or curious.
♪♪
She shows them
photographs of horses
and of humans.
[Neighing nearby]
♪♪
Toffee likes this one.
[Neighing nearby]
[Snorting]
This one isn't so popular.
♪♪
Karen's team has made
the surprising discovery
that horses have 17
different facial expressions.
That's three more
than chimpanzees
and one more than dogs.
[Neighing nearby]
They're subtle.
But, by playing the images
back, Karen can show me
what the untrained
eye might miss.
McCOMB: He's sniffing
the ground, ostensibly,
and you'd think, "Ooh,
he's just sniffing the ground.
Another horse was in here."
But stop. Actually,
that sniffing the ground
again occurs
consistently in response
to something that's
a bit more negative,
so that he's unsure about this.
Humans do that
as well, you know.
When we're a bit uncomfortable,
we might scratch ourselves
or we glance away
from something.
Just gives us a little
bit of time to adjust.
[Birds chirping]
[Hooves thudding]
[Snorting] So, now,
this'll be interesting.
Look at what part of the
face he's gonna go to.
Look, he's going towards the— -
THOMPSON: Right to the mouth.
McCOMB: The mouth, yeah.
And sometimes they go
right up to the eyes. Yeah.
It's interesting, that sweep
between the mouth and the eyes.
It's almost as if
they understand
that the mouth and the eyes
are the most significant
bit of the human face.
They have enough
understanding to interpret,
not only emotion in the
faces of their own species,
but emotion in our faces.
[Birds chirping]
[Hooves thudding]
THOMPSON: It makes
sense that horses use emotions
[Neighing nearby] to
communicate with each other.
But what fascinates me is they
can read our emotions as well.
[Huffing]
McCOMB: They're
capable of putting together
the sort of representation of
the person with the emotion.
To me, that shows a very
acute emotional awareness.
I mean, that means, really,
horses are eavesdropping
on the human world all the time.
[Neighing nearby] [Snorts]
THOMPSON: Horses
are mind-readers.
But that's not all.
Karen is also interested
in another quality:
curiosity.
[Neighing]
So this is interesting.
Leanne is going to do
what she calls a
novel-object test,
which means walking
into a paddock full of horses
with a great, big beach ball
and leaving it there and
observing what the horses do.
Will they run away from it
or will they come
and investigate it?
- [Neighing]
- [Snorts]
McCOMB: Horses are
naturally very inquisitive.
[Neighing nearby]
We're also trying to see where
personality fits
into the whole thing.
For example, how bold
an individual is, versus shy.
It's these differences,
which we also see in humans,
that are going to be the stuff
of their emotional lives, too.
[Grumbling]
THOMPSON: With these tests,
Karen is able to identify
outgoing horses and introverts,
just like we see in humans.
Popular horses like to
spend time with other horses.
But the horse standing
at the edge of the field
might prefer human company.
- [Neighing]
- [Snorts]
McCOMB: Children who
don't fit in will turn to their pets,
but it's quite interesting
[chuckling] that horses
that don't quite fit in
will also turn to humans.
[Neighing nearby] [Snorting]
And our tests are
actually showing that.
[Tender tune plays] [Rumbling]
THOMPSON: These
experiments paint a picture
of an intensely social, curious,
emotionally alive creature.
If we pay attention, we
can read a horse's mind
and they can read ours.
[Neigh nearby]
♪♪
♪♪
And, wherever we
bring horses to work,
mind-reading is
just part of the job.
[Lowing]
On the eastern slopes
of the Rocky Mountains,
horsepower still means
just what it always has.
Working cattle is one of
the most demanding jobs
a human can ask a horse to do,
and that's why cowboys created
the quarter horse...
[Snorts]
a remarkable breed,
combining endurance, agility,
power...
ANDERSON: Whoa.
- THOMPSON: and smarts.
ANDERSON: [Whistles]
[Birds chirping]
[Smooching]
THOMPSON: In horse country,
Jimmy Anderson
is a bit of a legend.
They say he can
read a horse's mind.
But maybe it's the
other way around.
[Snorting]
Either way, he seems to have
a secret language
with his horse,
a gelding called Maverick.
- ANDERSON: Up. [cluck]
Up. [cluck]
He likes sittin'.
[Laughing]
Whoa.
[Birds chirping]
THOMPSON: People who
are not working with horses
the way you work with horses,
they're just seeing
the tip of the iceberg.
There's a whole animal
they haven't discovered.
ANDERSON: The
person really doesn't see
and look at that horse.
They just kind a treat
it like a motorbike.
THOMPSON: And a
motorbike is not a smart animal.
[Laughter] Not
compared to a horse.
ANDERSON: Not
compared to a horse.
That is so true.
[Lowing]
THOMPSON: Cutting
calves is standard ranch work.
But, it fascinates me.
In nature, wild horses
were chased by predators.
So how does Jimmy
get Maverick to do this?
It's the behavior of a
sheepdog, not a horse.
When you're cutting, are
you giving Maverick directions
to go right and left?
ANDERSON: It's
happenin' too fast.
If you're trying to
give them directions
to go right and left,
most times, you're late.
When I drop my hand,
that's signaling to him,
"Okay, now it's your
turn, your responsibility.
Take over."
- THOMPSON: Takes over.
ANDERSON: Yeah.
- THOMPSON: Knows what to do.
ANDERSON: Knows
what to do. They just look
After that. Yeah.
- THOMPSON: That's incredible.
ANDERSON: That's
kind of the exciting part,
is how smart these horses are.
You can really train a
horse to do anything.
We could train it to
fetch, if we wanted.
THOMPSON: Horses are so
smart, they can learn to do things
that go completely
against their nature.
But it takes training.
We used to call it
breaking a horse.
But that isn't it at all.
♪♪
ANDERSON: In the
past, when we've talked
about colt starting and colt
breaking, that's what it was.
They wanted to get a job done,
kinda just force
everything onto this horse.
They expected the horse to jump;
they expected the horse to rear,
they expected 'im to buck,
because there
was no relationship.
Talk about breaking the spirit.
And, now, it's
almost the opposite
of what we're wanting now.
We want that spirit; we want
that heart; we want that desire.
THOMPSON: I'm
here to see Jimmy start
a two-year-old
colt called Shiver.
Until now, Shiver's only
seen humans from a distance.
He's never been ridden.
[Neighing]
[Huffs]
[Neighing]
ANDERSON: Now,
what I'm gonna do is
start workin' myself
a little bit closer to 'im.
THOMPSON: I've
come for the week,
but Jimmy figures he'll get
a saddle on sooner than that.
[Neighing]
That seems a little
optimistic to me.
[Neighing]
ANDERSON: And so...
he's tryin'...
[Snorts, huffing]
There.
The-e-re we go.
You'll hear me
talk about two eyes.
THOMPSON: Mm-hmm.
- ANDERSON: When that horse
can start to give
me them two eyes,
he also gives me his focus.
[Huffs]
[Snorts] Ni-i-i-ce.
He really needs
to get used to this.
THOMPSON: If he can't take
that touch, he won't take a saddle.
ANDERSON: [chuckling]
No. We're getting him used
to an external pressure.
Tap this hind end
and have him
yield that hind end.
Nice.
Tap this hind end...
[Huffing]
The-e-re.
Nice.
I'm gonna come up here,
see if I can't get
some pettin' in there.
[Huffing]
[Grumbles]
THOMPSON: Jimmy knows
horses are prey animals.
Dogs are always
looking for supper,
but horses are
looking for safety.
And that need is
Jimmy's magic key.
[Grumbling]
ANDERSON: When I look
at horses that are spooky,
if he's away from the herd,
he doesn't have a leader.
When you get that
trust and that confidence
and that relationship
with a horse,
I mean, really, sky is the
limit of what you can do.
[Huffing]
When I start a colt,
it's never a competition.
It's more of a partnership
and a relationship
that we can start to
get workin' together.
I'm gonna come up here
and, now, with the rope,
I'm gonna move
them hindquarters.
Move those hindquarters.
Move those hindquarters.
Nice.
[Snorts]
[Grumbling]
THOMPSON: How do you know
how far to take it and when to stop?
ANDERSON: You
know, we're lookin'
at the expression in his face,
lookin' at that tightness
through his neck.
He's tellin' me, "Jim,
you can do more,"
or "Jim, I'm
gettin' too worried.
I can't take this."
So that's where I'm just
readin' him and lettin'
him tell me how much.
And so, when I
can go through this
with him not gettin'
worried and just no big deal,
that's when it's gonna tell
me he's ready to saddle.
[Neighing]
[Grumbling]
Now, he's gettin'
good with the tarp.
Ni-i-i-ce.
Good boy.
THOMPSON: So what
are you doin' now, Jim?
ANDERSON: I'm just
bringin' Maverick in.
Maverick's gonna give
him a little bit of confidence
as I put the saddle on.
THOMPSON: And
that's the first time?
ANDERSON: That's the
first time, right there, yeah.
[Neighing]
[Grumbling]
[Whinnying]
[Grumbles]
And that is totally
okay with me.
He kinda got worried.
He had to deal with
it that way a little bit.
That's totally okay.
Yeah. There, he moved his feet,
kinda tightened
up, but come back.
And so, the next thing
that I'm workin' here...
See, every time he stops, I
want him to start to look for me.
The-e-e-re we go.
Ni-i-i-ce.
[Birds squawking]
That's what I wanna see.
That focus, that lookin'
to me for that answer.
THOMPSON: [chuckling] He's
come a long way since morning.
ANDERSON: He's
come a long ways, yeah.
[Snuffling]
[Birds chirping]
I need to get him used to me
jumpin' up and down here 'cause,
if I wanna get on him...
[Grumbling]
[Grumbling]
Really, really
good changes here.
[Clucking]
[Grumbles]
[Poignant tune plays]
♪♪
THOMPSON: Just amazing.
Completely calm.
♪♪
ANDERSON: [Clucking]
♪♪
My partner's helpin' me.
THOMPSON: [Laughing]
ANDERSON: [Smooching]
Yeah.
[Smooching]
♪♪
[Clucking]
- [Snorts]
[Smooching]
♪♪
[Smooching]
- [Whinnies]
[Smooching]
♪♪
Nice.
THOMPSON: That was just superb.
That was incredible to watch.
ANDERSON: Good boy. You know,
couldn't have asked
for a better first day.
Good boy.
And here he is.
For the first time.
THOMPSON: He's your
best friend now, isn't he?
ANDERSON: Yeah.
When I take the halter
off, what I want to see is
him not leavin' me.
[Birds chirping]
[Whistles]
His focus isn't there.
[Grumbling] Ni-i-i-ce.
Perfect. See? And I wanna
be hooked up to these,
not through a rope -
THOMPSON: Yeah.
ANDERSON: or through
manhandlin' or forcin',
through their mind.
♪♪
THOMPSON: In a single morning,
Jimmy and Shiver have
found a common language.
♪♪
It's truly incredible,
what we can do together
when a horse
agrees to trust in us.
♪♪
After all, we sit
on a horse's back
exactly where a wolf
would've leapt up to attack.
It shows us: horses judge humans
and some of us pass the test.
ANDERSON: Horses
are really amazing,
[Lowing] how much
they will be a partner
and they try a crazy amount
and I wanna try that same
amount back for them.
[Lowing]
When they give
me that much trust,
I can never let anythin'
bad happen to 'em.
When I lay Maverick
down in the arena,
he has given me his trust.
Maverick knows I won't
let somethin' happen to him.
♪♪
THOMPSON: The more
time I spend with horses,
the more I understand
what a gift they are.
A body loaded with the most
amazing physical attributes,
yet, also, a mind that
connects with our own.
That's what makes
our partnership unique.
But I wonder: How
did it all begin?
[Suspenseful music plays]
In the final episode,
travel back in time and
discover how horses
sparked the beginning
of art.
FLOSS: These guys
had a spiritual connection
with these animals.
Join me on a journey
into the incredible
world of horses today
and be amazed
at their diversity.
♪♪
[Neighing] From the
coldest place on Earth
to the hottest,
and even to an
uninhabited island
where horses rely for survival
on seals.
[Poignant tune
plays] And learn why,
no matter what,
horses are here to stay.
RED CROW: We
are still on our horses,
just like our forefathers.
It's our way of life.
[Music climbs]
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
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