Guide Horse Relief

Question
Hello Dr. Bentz!  Questions came up about the mini horses which blind folks use as guide animals, when I was looking at a web site.  There was no name to whom I could write, so I thought I could write to you.  These horses can be house trained.  There was a photo of a blind lady with her horse in New York, and he was standing in one of those sidewalk patches of dirt and a tree or two, with his legs slightly spread and with penis extended outside of the sheath.  It seemed like the photographer snapped the shot just before the horse relieved himself, because there was no stream or puddle.  How would a horse be trained to wait until it got to such a little area?  Also, I noticed that the tail was not lifted and the horse was not in the spread-legged stance I have seen by full-sized horses.  Do minis do it differently, or is it more likely that the horse just was not quite in position yet?  That was quite an amazing picture!  Thanks, I'll be interested in your insights.

Answer
Ken:

there are probably 2 main reasons why a horse would be dropped out: 1) to urinate and 2) to ejaculate. If a horse remains persistenly dropped, there can be a neurological problem or a problem of swelling keeping the penis from being withdrawn. Horses can and do develop shat we call "substrate preference" which means they may be able to learn or be taught to void urine on a particular surface. We see that most distinctly when we use a freshly bedded straw stall to encourage them to urinate. They do hold their need to urinate often until they are put onto a surface that they prefer to void upon. Unless they have to go very badly and are not afforded a prefereable surface, they often do hold it until they get somewhere where they prefer to go. thats why horses often avoid urinating in trailers and on concrete and other solid surfaces unless they just cannnot hold it any more. As a snapshot in time, i cant tell what the horse in the picture was doing. He would need to be watched over time to see what it is he is doing to know if he is about to urinate or even extending his penis to masturbate which even geldings do on occasion. Minis urinate in the same was as adult horses, your picture just does not reveal this because it does not show what happens with time. Hope this helps some.