A Sentience Article from All-Creatures.org

Horses have complex emotions, but interpreting them has proven difficult

From Eric Ralls, Earth.com Staff Writer, as published on Tuesday's Horse
January 2024

Researchers in England have made a breakthrough in understanding the emotional lives of horses. In a recent study, they have pinpointed distinct facial expressions that differentiate between frustration and disappointment in horses. 

Researchers in England have made a breakthrough in understanding the emotional lives of horses. In a recent study, they have pinpointed distinct facial expressions that differentiate between frustration and disappointment in horses.

The research team is composed of Claire Ricci-Bonot and Daniel Simon Mills from the University of Lincoln. The study involved a series of tests that centered on the availability of food as a reward, which they conducted on a diverse group of 31 horses, aged 2 to 23.

“There is good reason to suppose that horses live in an emotionally complex world,” the researchers wrote in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science.

Horses have an intricate communication system

According to the researchers, horses are not just social animals. They also possess an intricate system of communication that involves subtle visual signals like eye direction, ear position, and, importantly, facial expressions.

However, the experts noted a prevalent issue: the common misunderstanding of horses’ negative emotions. Most of the time, the emotions horses express are misread or overlooked altogether. This problem is partly because much of our understanding of horse expressions comes from anecdotes, lacking in scientific evidence.

How the study was conducted

Ricci-Bonot and Mills set out to bring science into this arena. They trained the horses to anticipate a food reward in a controlled environment. The food, in the form of pellets, was placed inside a clear acrylic screen. After a wait of 10 seconds, the screen was moved back, making the food accessible.

Once the horses had familiarized themselves with this process and the 10-second wait, the researchers conducted tests under three different conditions.

The first scenario created anticipation of the reward, considered a positive emotional state. The second was a frustration phase, where the horses had to wait for a minute before they could reach the food. The third stage was a disappointment phase, where the horses found no food after the wait. The second and third situations were considered negative emotional states.

To accurately gauge the horses’ reactions, all interactions were videotaped for later examination. These videos were analyzed using the Horse Facial Action Coding System (EquiFACS), which objectively records facial movements based on muscle contractions.

What the researchers learned

While the researchers couldn’t pin down facial markers for anticipation, they found a set of nine distinct actions that occurred under the scenarios of frustration and disappointment. When frustrated, horses often revealed more of the whites of their eyes, rotated their ears more, and tended to turn their heads to the left more frequently than when disappointed.

On the other hand, disappointment was characterized by increased blinking, nostril-lifting, showing the tongue more often, and more frequent chewing behaviors. These horses also exhibited a tendency to lick the feeder. Frustration, rather than disappointment, prompted horses to bite the feeder.

“There is good reason to suppose that horses live in an emotionally complex world,” the researchers wrote in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science.

Horses have an intricate communication system

According to the researchers, horses are not just social animals. They also possess an intricate system of communication that involves subtle visual signals like eye direction, ear position, and, importantly, facial expressions.

However, the experts noted a prevalent issue: the common misunderstanding of horses’ negative emotions. Most of the time, the emotions horses express are misread or overlooked altogether. This problem is partly because much of our understanding of horse expressions comes from anecdotes, lacking in scientific evidence.

Gender also plays a role in how horses emote their feelings

In addition, the researchers found a gender difference in the disappointment phase, with female horses blinking more than their male counterparts.

According to Ricci-Bonot and Mills, these findings show that specific facial expressions can potentially help discern a horse’s emotional state. “The results highlight how there may be different qualities of a given emotional valence (frustration and disappointment) which can be distinguished from the facial expressions shown at the time,” they wrote.

However, the researchers added a note of caution, stating that these results might only be applicable in feeding situations, underlining the need for further research. Another question raised by their study is whether the anticipation of food is truly a positive event for horses, as they were unable to identify facial markers for this state.

The study marks a significant stride in understanding horse emotions, and their research could open the door to improving our interactions and overall relationship with these remarkable animals.

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