Horses and humans have an ancient relationship. Asian nomads are thought to have domesticated the first horses some 4,000 years ago, and they remained essential to many human societies until the advent of the engine.

While most horses are domestic, others remain wild. Feral horses are the descendents of once-tame animals that have run free for generations. Groups of such horses can be found in many places around the world. Free-roaming North American mustangs, for example, are the descendents of horses brought by Europeans more than 400 years ago.

Social animals

Wild horses generally gather in groups of three to 20 animals. A stallion (mature male) leads the group, which consists of mares (females) and young foals. When young males become colts, at around two years of age, the stallion drives them away. The colts then roam with other young males until they can gather their own band of females.

Domestic horses have maintained this natural need to be in stable social groups.

Wild horses

The Przewalski's horse is the only truly wild horse whose ancestors were never domesticated. Once nearly extinct, the population of these wild horses has since rebounded on the dusty steppes of Mongolia thanks to successful conservation efforts.

Emotional and expressive animals

Horses use facial expressions in social communication, and they can express their emotions through their faces, they also have a number of unique vocalisations. 

Horses use cues from other horses, such as head orientation, ear postures, and eye movements to locate hidden food sources, communicating information about food location between themselves. In behavioural studies it has been shown that when a horse’s eyes and ears are covered, the observing horse can no longer find the hidden food, demonstrating that facial expressions are essential for this form of communication.

Training styles can affect the emotional state of horses

Positive reinforcement training techniques are known to result in positive emotions in horses. Whereas, negative reinforcement training techniques cause negative emotions. Horses who had been trained using negative reinforcement are also more motivated to get a food reward than those who had been trained using positive reinforcement, suggesting that horses experience relief at the end of the negative training, and because of this, they are more optimistic about future opportunities for food rewards.

Rescued horses are optimistic

The experience of neglect and abuse can have a long-term effect on the mood of animals. To determine if this is the case with horses, two groups of horses were studied. One group had experienced neglect and abuse, and the other had only experienced good care. They were trained to associate a bucket placed at one location with food (rewarded), and at another with no food (unrewarded). The two groups showed no difference in how long they took to approach the rewarded location. They then placed the bucket at a new location and observed the equines responses. The rescued horses approached the new location more quickly than the non-rescued ones. This indicates that the rescued animals may be more optimistic about opportunities for rewards than the non-rescued animals. It also shows that previous neglect does not cause long-term pessimism in equines.

Horses can spontaneously count

In behavioural studies, horses were presented with a choice of two quantities of fake apples; one or two, two or three, four or six and two small apples or one big apple. Despite the difference in quantities being small, the horses consistently chose the bigger number of apples. These findings show that horses, along with some other species, can spontaneously assess quantities. 

Horses can learn from humans

Horses can learn from humans by observing them. This is a form of social learning, which indicates a high level of intelligence. It is particularly remarkable because the horses are learning from another species, us humans! Horses who watched a familiar person open a feeding device showed observational learning by being able to open the feeding device themselves 20 consecutive times. The naïve horses, who had not seen anyone open the device, could not open the device. They would, however, approach nearby humans more often, potentially seeking help from them.

Horses can tell whether a human is feeling happy or sad

Horses can understand how a human is feeling by listening to their voice, and by looking at their facial expressions. They can even tell when a human's face is not expressing the same emotion as their voice. Horses know that when we laugh it is positive and that when we growl, it is negative, and potentially threatening. 

Horses can remember humans’ past facial expressions 

Horses can not only tell whether a person’s facial expression is positive or negative, but they can remember that facial expression. When horses are shown pictures of humans who are angry, sad, or neutral, they respond differently to their facial expressions. They will also remember this information, and respond differently when they meet the person, hours later.

Horses feel better when on pasture

Horses have evolved to live in groups out on pasture, but they are often kept singly in stables. Those who live out on pasture, are more optimistic and have a more positive mood than horses who are housed singly and just a short spell out on pasture, after being housed in a stable, can significantly improve the mood of horses.

Horses communicate their emotions through their whinnies

The whinnying sound that horses make is one way in which horses communicate with one another. A horse’s whinny includes information about the individual’s identity, which group they are a member of, their body condition and size, and their social and hormonal status.

Horses’ whinnies also contain information about their emotions, and they change the frequency of their whinnies depending on whether they are feeling positive or negative, and how excited or relaxed they are. 

Other horses can understand this and they respond accordingly. Researchers played different whinnies to horses, and they found that when the horse was familiar to them, the listening horse could tell whether the other horse was feeling positive or negative. When they heard a negative whinny, the listening horse breathed faster, had a higher heart rate, moved their head more, held their head up high for longer, vocalised more, and reacted more quickly, compared with when they heard positive whinnies.

Horses snort when they are feeling good

The snorts that horses produce are indicative of positive emotions. Horses produce two different types of snort, and both have been found to be associated with positive contexts such as being out on pasture. Details like this can help us to understand how horses are feeling, which means that we can take better care of them.

Horses really are amazing animals!

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