I found myself watching children playing a computer game a while back. On the screen were characters moving through a labyrinthine setting. The goal of the game appeared to be to rack up points by quickly assessing the movements of these characters and countering them with your own actions. 

The tool used to do this was a device consisting of buttons and a joystick. Of course like any game there was a set of rules. The kids were doing quite well by the sound of it. Along the way they were learning important basics of how to utilize personal computers. The  games were controlled by artificial intelligence, somewhat like I remember computer chess used to be, only a good deal more complicated. 

  Back at the barn, while working with a young quarter horse, getting it prepared to be saddled, then ridden, I realized that this was my computer game. The horse, a herd animal, had its own set of rules programmed in by the predator-prey relationship. It was my mind against his. I was at first perceived as a predator by the horse.

I was racking up points by directing his movements in a way that would give me a win by gaining his confidence. His actions were controlled by a mammalian brain which was loaded with thought patterns and an ability to process information to come to a conclusion.

It got even more intricate and complicated after I had been riding him a few weeks and went to the pasture to work some cows. There I had to link my brain with his to counter the thought processes and moves of a cow, while working with added assistance, and sometimes hindrance of three canine brains. I guess I’ll market this game as Equi-Box!