To understand horse behaviour and human relationships we need to appreciate the horse’s side of the conversation and realise why horses say things to one another. Body postures or outlines play an important role in communication and co-ordinating activities. Horses are primarily visual communicators they are extremely sensitive to subtle changes in the body language of others. While it is important to correctly read each individual sign the horse sends to you, you also need to read a collective of signals and initiate an appropriate response. If you want your horse to both respect and trust you, don’t ignore any of the signals, horses constantly test each other to find out where they stand in the herd hierarchy.

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Understanding specific body language and how it is used in a herd helps us to to understand horse behaviour and human relationships. Indicators horses often use include the positioning of their ears, movement of the head, showing of teeth and swinging of hips and we often find they use indicators in a combination to form a whole expression.

To find out what a horse is trying to communicate start by looking at the position and gestures coming from its head. In comparison to many mammals horses have reasonably inflexible faces but they do have small muscles dedicated to the subtle movement of their ears, eyelids, eyebrows, nostrils and lips. As humans we are used to observing facial expressions daily that are both voluntary and involuntary, and we respond to these expressions almost instantly. Horses form a multitude of expressions from the basic elements of ear position and tension around their eyes, nostrils, lips and the movement of their mouth.

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To understand horse behaviour and human relationships it is important to understand how horses communicate with one another. Horses are social animals, as herd members they interact with each other continually and use a system of communication including sounds, body positions, movements and odours to let herd mates know what they want and don’t want.  Studies show that in feral and free ranging herds their society consists of strong relationships between mares and their offspring and family bands are generally led by mares. The stallion is neither the most dominant within a group nor the most aggressive. In the wild, membership within a group is the key to survival. It minimises confrontation and conflict whilst providing stability within a group. A horse can have social group order without reinforcing dominance. Many horses within a domestic situation are stabled at yards where their instinctive settled social groups are always changing.

The question then arises does a rider need to assert dominance over a horse? A horse’s natural reaction to dominance is to react either with aggression or avoidance. It could be methods that establish cooperative relationships with a horse could work more within a horse’s natural social structure. One of the most important features with horses is the formation of bonds that are mutually supportive. Horses that work in bonded pairs tend to associate closely when grazing, resting and mutual grooming.

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