Wrong - they are quite alert, will take action when something annoys or threatens them, and they are quick about it too.
Yup. State trooper buddy of mine said they all had to help clean the stalls at the academy. One day he made the mistake of trying to push the horse’s rump out of his way while cleaning. It pushed back - hard - as it was trained, and nearly crushed him against the stall wall.
I had a horse who delighted in trying to crush me against the stall wall. Otherwise, we were good friends, but he got an obvious chuckle out of this!