Reading Horse Emotions and Body Language: What Research Shows

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Can you accurately read your horse's emotions through their body language? A 2025 study from Oklahoma State University suggests most owners — including experienced ones — struggle more than they realize. Researchers found that a structured online course significantly improved horse owners' confidence in recognizing equine emotional states and their stated intention to change how they interact with and manage their horses.

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Understanding what your horse is feeling begins with being present enough to notice — a skill that research suggests most owners need to actively develop.

Why reading horse emotions and body language matters for welfare

Horses communicate constantly. Through the position of their ears, the tension in their muzzle, the set of their tail, the quality of their movement, and the expression in their eyes, they signal their emotional state in every interaction. The problem is not that horses hide their feelings — it is that most humans are not trained to read them accurately.

Research has repeatedly shown that horse owners misinterpret equine emotional and pain-related behaviors more often than they realize. A horse that pins its ears may be labeled as stubborn rather than uncomfortable. A horse that is tense and bracey may be described as forward rather than anxious. A horse showing subtle signs of chronic pain may be managed for a behavioral problem that is actually a welfare one. These misinterpretations are not failures of care — they are failures of knowledge, and they are remarkably common even among people who have worked with horses for decades.

The welfare implications are significant. When emotional states are misread, responses are inappropriate. Training methods escalate when de-escalation was needed. Pain goes unaddressed because its behavioral expression was not recognized. Management practices remain unchanged because the horse's distress was invisible to the person responsible for their care.

Overview: An online course and a qualitative assessment of its impact

Researchers at Oklahoma State University, Purdue University, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln developed RAiSE — Recognizing Affective States in Equine — as a structured online educational tool aimed at improving horse owners' ability to accurately assess equine emotional states, known in the research literature as affective states.

The course was organized into five sequential modules covering the foundations of equine affective states, body language and communication, equine senses, pain recognition and its behavioral expression, and the influence of human behavior on horse welfare.

The study evaluated the course's effectiveness using a qualitative research approach. Forty-five participants completed a pre-course survey, the course itself, and a post-course survey. Nine participants completed follow-up interviews conducted via Zoom, which continued until thematic saturation was reached.

Participant demographics are worth noting: the group was primarily female (90%), highly educated (85% college graduates, 45% with master's degrees), experienced with horses (average self-rated handling experience of 74 out of 100), and interacted with horses frequently (70% more than four times per week). This was not a group of novice owners. The fact that even this population reported meaningful gaps in their ability to read equine emotional states is one of the study's most significant findings.

Key findings: what research reveals about reading horse emotions and body language

From the course modules:

Participants repeatedly identified awareness of the horse's emotional state as the foundation of everything else — the starting point without which management decisions cannot be made well. Many participants described approaching horses with a task-oriented mindset that did not include active observation of the horse's mental state before beginning an interaction.

Body language emerged as both the most important and most underused source of information. Participants described learning to read the full picture — ears, eyes, muzzle, neck, tail, and limb position — rather than relying on isolated cues or defaulting to assumptions about the horse's "personality."

Understanding how horses perceive their environment through their senses — particularly vision — produced several moments of practical insight. One participant described realizing for the first time how head carriage affects what a horse can see during ridden work, leading them to reconsider arena exercises they had been using.

Pain recognition was identified as one of the most challenging and consequential areas. Participants described the difficulty of distinguishing pain from behavioral problems, and several noted that behaviors they had previously attributed to disobedience or temperament might have had a pain-related origin.

Human influence was the theme that produced the most self-reflective responses. Participants described realizing how their own emotional state, tone of voice, body language, and timing directly affect their horse's affective state. One participant noted that their horse did not care about their bad day — and that arriving at the barn without first regulating themselves was affecting their horse's experience in ways they had not previously acknowledged.

From the interviews:

All nine participants expressed intention to change their behavior as a result of the course — paying closer attention to subtle indicators, reassessing behaviors they had previously dismissed, and incorporating affective state awareness into their daily handling routines.

Several participants who were educators described wanting to incorporate the material into their teaching, with one noting that the course prompted her to revamp her sophomore curriculum to include a section on affective states.

How to apply this in your riding, training, and daily care

Before you begin any session, observe first. Before tacking up, before picking up the lead rope, before asking for anything — take sixty seconds to observe the horse's posture, facial expression, ear position, and general demeanor. This single habit, practiced consistently, builds the baseline awareness that makes change visible over time.

Learn to distinguish anxiety from attitude and pain from disobedience. A horse that is resistant, bracey, or difficult is communicating something. The question is not "how do I fix this behavior" but "what is this behavior telling me?" Resistance in a horse with a consistent training history warrants a welfare question before a training response.

Watch the full picture, not just the ears. Equine emotional expression is whole-body — the tension in the muzzle, the softness or hardness around the eye, the carriage of the neck, the swish of the tail, the quality of movement. Focusing on a single cue in isolation misses the context that gives it meaning.

Understand that your horse is reading you. Your emotional state, tone of voice, and body language affect your horse's affective state measurably. Arriving at the barn regulated and present is not a soft concept — it is a welfare practice.

Pain masking is real and common. Horses evolved to conceal signs of pain in the presence of perceived threat, including unfamiliar humans. A horse that appears quiet and compliant is not necessarily comfortable. Regular, systematic welfare checks — not just observation during work — are part of responsible management.

Pursue structured education on equine body language. Time with horses builds familiarity, but it does not automatically build accurate interpretive skill. The study's most important finding is that experienced, educated, horse-engaged owners had meaningful gaps in their ability to read equine emotion. Seeking out structured learning closes gaps that experience alone cannot.

The RAiSE course referenced in this study is available through Oklahoma State University Extension and may be a practical starting point for riders and owners who want to develop this skill systematically.

Read the original study

Wells A, Hiney KM, Brady CM, Anderson KP. Enhancing equine welfare: a qualitative study on the impact of RAiSE (Recognizing Affective States in Equine) as an educational tool. Translational Animal Science. 2025; 9:txaf033. https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txaf033