Everyone's heard of a "bird's eye view", but not many people stop to think of a horse's vision. Because a horse's eyes are situated on the sides of its head, it can't see objects directly in front of it but instead has what we humans consider great peripheral vision. This is one contributing element to a horse's "spook factor". In simple terms, while we riders tend to look ahead, a horse sees things off in the bushes to the side; many times resulting in the horse's jumping sideways to escape the danger it perceives.
Everyone's heard of a "bird's eye view", but not many people stop to think of a horse's vision. Because a horse's eyes are situated on the sides of its head, it can't see objects directly in front of it but instead has what we humans consider great peripheral vision. This is one contributing element to a horse's "spook factor". In simple terms, while we riders tend to look ahead, a horse sees things off in the bushes to the side; many times resulting in the horse's jumping sideways to escape the danger it perceives.
