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Buddy Up: Stressed Horses Respond Better With A Friend

Horses that are stressed or scared are better able to cope when they have another horse nearby. Whether they know the horse or not is of little consequence; the presence of another horse can reduce the first horse's reaction to what is scaring him and can calm him down after the scare, reports The Horse.

Dr. Claire Ricci-Bonot led a study that paired 32 riding school horses with a companion horse they did or did not know.

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Half the companion horses were taught to not react to an opening umbrella or a striped gymnastics ball being placed near their hooves. The test horses, either with or without a companion they may have been familiar with, were then exposed to the objects.

The research team measured the test horses' heart rates and reactions, discovering that the horses reacted more calmly to the ball when they had a companion with them, whether they knew the other horse or not.

Their fearful reaction to the umbrella was the same with and without a companion, but the test horse's heart rate decreased more rapidly when paired with a companion than when alone. This discovery suggests that a companion has a post-reaction calming effect.

A Stinky Situation: Horses Can Smell Human Fear

A study from Poland has shown that horses are able to smell human emotions – including fear.

Dr. Agnieszka Sabiniewicza and her research team collected body odor samples from 10 people who were either happy or fearful to see if the emotional states elicited different responses in horses exposed to them.

The researchers asked the people involved in the study to avoid smoking, smelly foods, exercise, and alcohol for multiple days. They also asked them to wash their clothes in a perfume-free detergent. The scientists then showed the people a cartoon or a horror video while they were wearing sterile pads in their armpits. The pads were collected and frozen to preserve their odor.

The team exposed 21 adult horses to the pads that the fearful or happy humans had worn; the horses were also exposed to pads that were not worn at all, which served as the control.

For the test, two people stood in different corners of the stall while each horse was shown the pads. One person was familiar to the horse and the other was unknown. Neither person interacted with the horse. A pole with four odor pads (either all fearful, all happy or all control) was shown to the horse.

The team found that the horses exposed to the fearful odor raised their heads more frequently and for longer periods of time. These horses also touched the familiar person in their stall more frequently and for longer than they did when exposed to the control or happiness odors.

The team concluded that human body odor alone can serve as an indicator of human emotion and can cause horses to behave differently.

Study Shows Horses Relax In Presence Of ‘Their’ People

An Italian study has objectively shown that horses can recognize individual people familiar to them, highlighting the importance of handler familiarity in the horse-human bond. Horses are generally relaxed when hanging out with humans they know.

Drs. Chiara Scopa, Alberto Greco, Laura Contalbrigo, Elisabetta Fratini, Antonio Lanatà, Enzo Pasquale Scilingo and Paolo Baragli noted that horses can determine if a person is familiar or unfamiliar by both vocal and visual cues. Horses are most likely to engage with someone who is familiar to them; they form long-lasting memories of these people and can recognize them long after their last encounter.

Horses then classify humans based off the interactions they have as either positive, negative or neutral. The research team noted that though the human-horse relationship has been investigated though behavioral analysis, they recommended that physiological indicators be considered for an objective assessment of emotional responses.

They hypothesized that long-term, positive relationships with humans would impact a horse's emotion regulation. The team looked specifically at heart rate variability of 23 healthy horses when they interacted with both familiar and unfamiliar handlers.

The team used 22 people, 12 of them familiar to the horses and 10 unfamiliar people. A baseline heart rate was taken before each person entered the stall and stood near the door for five minutes. The horse could see and smell the person, but could move around. The person then groomed the horse for 2.5 minutes on each side.

The researchers found that the horses appeared more relaxed while physically interacting with familiar handlers; this was especially noticeable during right-side grooming. They concluded that repeated positive interactions with a person are probable triggers for positive emotions during interactions with the same person.

Read the study here.