Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
There’s press conferences for days that explain what the jockey, the owner, the trainer and the guy who last saw American Pharoah before he became a star racehorse are thinking when the latest hope for the Triple Crown is racing. But what’s going on in the horse’s head? Do they even know they’re racing? According to experts who spoke to For The Win, they do and a lot of it is what’s similarly goes on in humans’ heads: The will to win — with varying degrees of competitiveness.
“This is mostly conjecture on my part, but I think that in the same way some horses like to be dominant in a herd, and be more dominant, say, in getting the feed when it’s given, I believe some horses also want to beat other horses in a racing scenario,” said Camie Heleski, the coordinator of the horse management program at Michigan State University.
Specifically in the case of American Pharoah, said Jenifer Nadeau, an associate professor of equine science at the University of Connecticut, he seems to not only be competitive but also dislikes getting dirt on his face. After a muddy Preakness, she points out, he was the only one with no mud at all on his face. “His instinct is to just try to win,” she said.
Kerry Thomas, the founder of of THT Bloodstock, Equine Athletic Psychology said that American Pharoah will definitely know that something big is going on and want to win — or in his mind be ahead and the dominant horse in what he sees as the herd.
“He’ll look at it as the individual competition he won’t put the body of work together but he will feel like he’s in the right place in his herd dynamics, controlling the herd, having control and influence over [the other horses],” he said.
When horses are in the middle of a race, they’re likely viewing it as being part of a herd of horses in motion and it’s in their natural instinct to run, whether it’s on a racetrack or just when they’re let out into pasture. “Even in that at-liberty situation, they will often run (and run fast) and there are always a few that try just a little harder to be out front when they do group gallops,” said Heleski.
After the race, while the horses might not grasp the excitement of winning the Triple Crown or even just the Derby and Preakness, they do know that people around them are excited — or sad said Nadeau. “They take a lot from how the people around them are reacting because they are sensitive,” she said. “That’s the thing about horses they do read people’s body’s language.”
Thomas thinks they also might feel dejection or pride at their performance, even if it doesn’t linger. “He’ll look at it like ‘I did my thing,” he said. “I do think horses get demoralized if they don’t win or are beaten down by another horse.”
But unlike humans, it’s unlikely that American Pharoah will be celebrating too long or wallowing depending on the result.
“Once he gets back to the barn, he wants to have a good meal,” Nadeau said.
This is what renowned horse expert Jerry Seinfeld had to say on the matter.
