The human–horse bond: what science says

Anyone who has spent time around horses has the feeling that they “understand”. In recent years, researchers have started to put that intuition to the test. Here are some of their findings.

Horses read human expressions, and remember them

In 2018, a team from the universities of Sussex and Portsmouth published a simple, elegant experiment in Current Biology. Horses were shown a photo of a person with either an angry or a smiling expression. A few hours later, they met the actual person from the photo, this time with a neutral expression. The horses reacted differently depending on the expression they had seen, and only towards the person in the photo, not towards other people. The authors said it was the first evidence that a mammal can remember the emotional expressions of specific people.

In short: the way you treat a horse today may also matter next time.

An earlier study, from 2016, had suggested that horses’ heart rates rise faster at the sight of angry faces. Its statistical analysis was later criticised in a re-analysis published in the same journal, so that result should be viewed with caution. Science is still a work in progress, and that’s the beautiful part.

Horses sense our emotions

In a Swedish study published in The Veterinary Journal (Keeling and colleagues, 2009), people leading or riding a horse were warned that, on their fourth pass by an assistant, an umbrella would suddenly open. The umbrella never opened, but the people’s heart rates went up, and so did the horses’. In other words, the horse sensed the person’s tension even though there was no real danger.

Horses “talk” to each other with their faces

Horses have very expressive faces. Researchers Jennifer Wathan and Karen McComb (University of Sussex) showed in 2014 that, for horses, other horses’ ears and eyes are essential clues to where their attention lies. When those clues were covered, the horses in the experiment could no longer use them. For us, it’s an invitation to pay attention to the same signals. See how to read a horse’s ears.

We gain something, too

The study carried out for the British Horse Society by the University of Brighton showed that one of riders’ strongest motivations is the sense of well-being they get from interacting with horses, along with the time spent outdoors.

What this means for you

• Come calm. The horse senses your tension before you say a word.
• Smile. It’s not just good manners; it seems horses remember, too.
• Watch for signals. The ears, eyes and posture tell you how the horse feels.
• Build trust in small steps: a calm approach, a quiet voice, a hand resting on the neck.

The bond between a person and a horse isn’t built in a day. But it starts in the very first minutes.

Sources

1. Proops, L. et al. (2018). Animals remember previous facial expressions that specific humans have exhibited. Current Biology. (University of Portsmouth press release)
2. Smith, A.V. et al. (2016). Functionally relevant responses to human facial expressions of emotion in the domestic horse. Biology Letters.
3. Schmoll, T. (2016). Can horses read emotional cues from human faces? Re-analysis of Smith et al. (2016). Biology Letters.
4. Keeling, L.J., Jonare, L., Lanneborn, L. (2009). Investigating horse–human interactions: The effect of a nervous human. The Veterinary Journal, 181(1), 70–71.
5. Wathan, J., McComb, K. (2014). The eyes and ears are visual indicators of attention in domestic horses. Current Biology, 24(15), R677–R679.
6. The British Horse Society, University of Brighton (2011). The health benefits of horse riding in the UK.

Updated on 24 October 2026. This article is for information only and does not replace guidance from your instructor.