Researchers confirmed that horses can smell specific odors in human sweat that reflect emotions like fear and happiness, which could open doors to a whole new way of understanding emotion transfer from human to horse, they say.
So, how do horses show fear? Depending on the situation, horses can show fear physically as their eyes will widen, their nostrils will flare, and their necks will brace upward. Sometimes horses will physically shake out of fear or chew their bit to help ease their anxiety.
Horses monitor their surroundings and detect danger through their sense of vision, smell, hearing, and touch. Horses see much differently than humans and are generally considered to have poor vision. In the wild, horses are animals of prey.
In one study, the heart rhythms of horses and humans were analyzed over the course of various interactions with one another. The findings indicated that horses care capable of detecting when a human is expressing and projecting positive feelings towards them and is likely to reciprocate those positive feelings.
Performance anxiety: Horses, like people, can become anxious before events. Sometimes, they simply pick up on our nonverbal anxiety cues, like feeling their riders tense or hang onto the reins a little too tightly.
Due to their natural instincts and intuitiveness, horses can sense the anxiety, frustration, and stress of someone approaching them. They are considered mirrors to your current emotional state, meaning approaching a horse in a calm and relaxed manner; the horse will remain calm and relaxed.
Moreover, horses reacted in accordance with the valence of the vocalization, both behaviorally and physiologically (heart rate). These results show that horses can cross-modally recognize human emotions and react emotionally to the emotional states of humans, assessed by non-verbal vocalizations.
If a horse is grazing in a field and they come towards you when you are around you can be sure they like you. Horses that follow your movements in their presence show they are focused on and give you 100% of their attention. If your horse follows you around when they see you, they consider you as a friend.
All horses want that one special person that will love them and care for them. They desire that heart-to-heart bond to support them and give them true happiness. Most of all, they want to feel loved, protected, and special.
Why do horses nudge you? Have you ever been nudged by a horse? Horses use body language to communicate with humans (and other horses), and one of the ways they do this is through touch. Nudging is a way for a horse to get your attention, which can signify affection or impatience.
Being a prey animal means horses are constantly looking for potential threats. Encountering a sight or sound that scares a horse may cause them to react by either fighting or fleeing; it's important to note that the preferred response is flight.
Notice that recognition when you approach a horse; the horse reaches out its muzzle to take in your scent by sniffing you. As with other animals, extending the back of your hand is a good way to let the horse get to know and trust you, and accept your presence as a herd mate and not a predator.
Horses can read human emotions, too, often in uncannily accurate ways; alerting us to our sadness or nervousness, sometimes before we've even consciously registered it.
Many horses also squeal while they are running wild, bucking or fighting. Another sound in the animal's sound palette is the roar: It can be heard when a horse is unsettled, angry or even afraid.
Horses have incredible hearing, with the ability to hear the heartbeat of a human from four feet away. In the wild, horses will synchronize their heartbeats to the other horses in the herd in order to sense danger more quickly, and recent studies have shown that they use those tactics in domesticated life as well.
Horses recognize individuals in their current social group.
Individual recognition is widespread across animals; it insures stability of the social group because each member can distinguish between allies, competitors, neighbors, and strangers.
Horses have excellent memories and can remember certain people after long periods. A recent study completed in 2021 proved horses could recognize and understand human facial expressions and emotional responses. Extensive research has shown horses can maintain memories of humans when they have positive interactions.
On approach, try to look at the horse's knees as opposed to directly in the eyes as this can make a horse feel threatened. If you are approaching the horse, not in eyes view, it is especially important to let your presence be known.
Much like other pets, horses use licking as a way to show their love! Breathing on you, licking, and kissing are all ways a horse may be trying to tell you how much you mean to them. They also may grasp you with their lips to pull you in, and then lick.
A horse may also be very happy to see you if they trot over to you from the pasture when they see you coming. These are two common ways that horses show they are excited and eager to see you. Horses will become very relaxed when they are in the company of someone they love and trust.
Horses probably cannot telepathically read a person's mind, but some horses might seem to do so by learning to respond to subtle and unconscious intention movements that precede a rider's deliberate cues.
Horses DON'T form attachment bonds with their owners despite what equine enthusiasts might think - but they do regard humans as 'safe havens' Horses think of humans as 'safe havens' but don't form attachment bonds with their owners - despite what equine enthusiasts might think, a new study reveals.