Horses Can Read Human Emotions!

Through a series of experiments, we can see how horses read human expressions.
**More info & videos below**

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Nature is a production of THIRTEEN for PBS. Throughout its history, Nature has brought the natural world to millions of viewers. The PBS series has been consistently among the most-watched primetime series on public television.

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More videos:

[Turboy]

Horses are very attuned to the emotional state of the humans around them. Anyone who has ever spent much time around horses already knows this. And if they like a human, they will do certain things that will put you in a more positive mood if your mood was negative before.

[quantumgravity]

The real question should be ‘‘ Can we read the expressions of horses ?! ‘’

[lexi]

As a horse rider for ten years I agree with all of this, when the expression was happy, the horse went right up, ear up saying hello! Saying “ah you’re happy, let’s be friends, lemme come to you and make you happier!”
If they were angry, the horse stayed back to give them space, waited until the human was ready.
We can also read horse emotions as well! It’s hard, but it can happen after practice.

[Dashin]

Horses are such empathetic creatures. When my 32 year old quarter horse was in the last year of her life, I had several scares where I thought it should be her last day. Whenever I cried she would gently nuzzle me and look deeply into my eyes with her ears up, like "its ok, I'm here". Even on her last day, after having a suspected stroke and being very listless, she still responded to me crying and tried to comfort me and make me happy. I miss her so much.

[KFrost-fxdt]

I think horses can understand our emotions even better than we can. That's a given. What I want to know is what these 17 horsey facial expressions are.

[katrina]

Angry face appears.

Horse: Hmm yes, the floor here is made out of floor.

[fionathornton]

I volunteer at a therapeutic horse barn and one of the things they do there is teach horse expressions. It help clients understand their horse and relate to them making them feel more secure and showing them what they can do to make their horse feel more calm. It’s really cool to watch and learn about horse have so much in common with our emotions.

[blaseforestcall]

Simply fascinating, but would appreciate more human expressions presented to the horses

[ElJobSebastian]

One of the most beautiful animals in the universe

[petradegroot]

My horse looked after me when i had a depresion. She knew when i had a bad day (standing still for log times and me cuddle her, or lay her nose agains my shoulder) and and when i felt better (she would move around a lot more and could be really stubborn which would make me laugh). She was like a 3 grandmother to me. She past away from old age (almost 32 years old) now 5 years ago; i stil mis her, she was so kind to me

[allisonjames]

It’s crazy that after centuries of living with animals as closely as we do horses, dogs, cats etc, we still question how much they think & understand. Of course they can read our expressions. Just as people who have spent a lot of time with horses can read theirs. What will be cool is when we design talking horse buttons like Bunny the Talking Dog has to communicate in our language. Then we’ll really get an insight into what they think. When you see Bunny put together complex sentences & use words to describe things she hasn’t been taught, you’ll understand how limited our understanding is of our animal friends.

[bradwolfe]

That's why horse therapy is so very successful, it is all spiritual interaction, they are spiritual like humans, glad some humans are catching on ... finally

[erynd]

My mare and I are working through some past abuse issues ( both her and I) and this is great information about how these lovelies think and process information. Thank you.

[juliettej.]

Horses are so emotionally connected to the emotions of other beings that they will react to each emotion differently. Among horse people, the saying: a horse mirrors a human, which means that the horse will literally mirror the emotions of humans. If I am going to ride a horse while I am very stressed, the horse is going to be stressed as well. If I am scared, he will become insecure. If I am feeling secure, the horse will trust you more and you will make a better team. I have experienced this so many times. I have a horrible ride whenever I am stressed, but the best are the ones where I feel comfortable.

Horses you share a special bond with, will recognise your feelings and they will try to turn them into something more positive.

Horses are amazing animals!

[destinationaddictionsamsar]

Horses are exstreamly observant animals who recognize a flick of a ear and tail, the expanding of the eye and nose etc.

I love a trainer called Warwickshiller as he uses the horses body language to draw the horse in. From just getting the horse to flick a ear to him he eventually can get them to do liberty. He's so good at reading the horse and using that to train the horse. He doesn't demand the horses attention but ask for it by using their curiosity

[geniemedford]

Horses are so smart...mine came to me from across a small pasture when I screamed after hurting my hand and wrist area. He even stopped eating, looked up and stared at me and walked straight to me. His food is of utmost importance also. I was blown away by his reaction. It is though there is a human inside of him. Next story: Just a few days before that, two little ones flipped their 4 wheeler and were hurt. He heard the scream and ran over to the far pasture fenceline to see if Knox was hurt. He stood straight as a statue focused on the actions of the parents and boys. A broken arm was the result of their accident and my horse knew it was not a good thing. I stood as well in the distance praying that no careflight or ambulance was called. They were two small pastures over, in the distance. He is always alert on what happens over there. He loves children and the little boys' laughter and fun in the distance.

[secretariatgirl]

This was a fantastic show!!! I learned so much about the way they breathe, run...and the fact that they are MINDREADERS!!! Highly recommend this

[hh]

I would like to see the 17 expressions. 💖

[feloniousbutterfly]

The fact that we've lived side by side with animals for this long and only now people are like "Wow they can understand our physical language!" Is really alarming considering it suggests we are very slow at learning basic things.

[kayreeve.author]

That's amazing. I think people far underestimate the importance of emotions in every living creature. I love the work this lady is doing in removing the communication barriers. I'm sharing this with my niece who is training with horses at college. 😍