During racing season, many people become experts on the horses that participate in the spectacle. They confidently discuss the horses’ “will to win” and describe their battles, heart, grit, and determination. However, it is unclear whether horses are aware that they are in a race or have a desire to win it. From decades of experience and knowledge about horse behavior, it seems unlikely that they do.
From a horse’s perspective, there are few rewards for winning a race. While reaching the end may provide relief from the pressure to gallop at high speeds and endure hits from the jockey’s whip, this applies to all horses once they pass the finish line. In fact, the horse that eventually wins might even be whipped more frequently in the final stages than horses further back in the field. Therefore, there is little direct benefit for the horse that would motivate it to voluntarily gallop faster to achieve victory.
Horses are social animals and naturally run together in groups. However, there are reasons to believe that they have not evolved a desire to win during a group gallop. In the wild, horses synchronize their movement with others in their group to minimize individual exposure to predators. This includes maintaining similar speeds, being aware of their own and their neighbors’ positions to avoid collisions, and adjusting their speed based on environmental cues. In the wild, arriving first could increase the risk of predation, making “winning” a negative outcome.
This collective behavior contradicts what owners, trainers, and bettors desire in a race. Horse races rely on the horse’s innate tendency to synchronize with others but also require them to be trained to ignore these tendencies based on cues from the jockey. Trainers and jockeys also consider individual horse preferences. Some horses prefer to be at the front of the field, while others seek security in the group. Jockeys use various interventions to override the horse’s natural synchronization, such as directing them to travel closer to other horses or at speeds not of their choosing.
Horses likely have no concept of being in a race with the goal of reaching a certain location before other horses. However, they learn through experience and training what to expect during a race. The combination of natural ability, physical fitness, and jockey skill determines which horse wins, rather than any innate desire to reach the finish line first.
