Whether you are the owner of a beautiful horse or a student who rides a particular horse on a regular basis, it is likely that you have felt connected to them in some way.
This can occur when you spend a lot of time with one horse, grooming, feeding, and training with them and the connection that you create with them can make them feel like they are your friend or a part of your family. While this does happen a lot with other pets, with horses, it can be hard to tell if they reciprocate the same feelings as you.
If you are wondering about this and want to know if horses can feel love towards their owners, show affection and fondness, carry on reading to find out.
Do Horses Feel Love For Their Owners?
The immediate response that every owner, trainer, or rider, is going to have about whether their horse feels love towards them, is likely going to be positive. They may say something along the lines of, “of course my horse loves me,” but because our understanding of love is minimal as an emotion, we cannot scientifically say that they do love us or each other.
The reasoning for this is there isn’t an exact science that allows us to study the emotions of horses, but we can certainly see that horses do feel affection towards us and show us as such with certain behavioral patterns. We can view these as an attachment.
Can Horses Become Attached to Humans?
Absolutely. Horses do have the ability to form an unbreakable bond with their owner, which is directly correlated with the commitment, trust, and relationship you form with them.
The stable bond that is formed between owner and horse comes from regular contact, such as riding and grooming, and is built in so long as the contact is kind, gentle, and caring. While the bond that they form with you is a personal one, it is not definitive, which means that they are able to build up a bond with anyone who gives them enough time and attention.
While almost all breeds of horses are affectionate, there are some that may come off as less or more friendly than others.
This is due to the varied personality traits of horses. For instance, the Percheron and Appaloosa are very friendly breeds but are more than happy be obey in a calm, independent, and quiet manner.
To contrast this, the Arabian breed may be far more inquisitive and will do their best to sense your emotion and react to you in a way that pleases you.
How Do You Know If Your Horse Likes You?
It is important to understand that horses use body language primarily to communicate with you. They will express their emotions, perceptions, and moods by giving off specific facial expressions, movements, and postures. With this said, here is how to tell whether your horse likes (and loves) you!
- If his or her ears are relaxed and loose around you then he or she is comfortable with you. When riding your horse, pay attention to his or her ears. If they are slightly back, this means that they are concentrating on your and paying attention to your communication skills (a positive sign).
- If your horse has both their head and neck tilted slightly downward when around you, it means that they enjoy being with you and are happy. If you approach your horse and they slightly raise their head and neck, this can indicate excitement to be around you.
- A raised tail and slightly drooping lips are also positive signs that they love you and enjoy your company.
- If your horse uses your shoulders as a chin rest, this is a hug. Horses hug a lot in order to show affection and will wrap their neck around you to show you this.
- If your horse comes towards you and rubs her/his nose against you, they love you a lot. Contrary to popular belief, horses don’t actually like nose pats, so rubbing their nose against you is a positive sign.
- If your horse nickers or “murmurs” at you, it means that you are their favorite person and they want to spend more time with you.
- If your horse licks you or grasps you with their lips (gently), they are telling you that they miss and love you.
Horses that love you or like you will also follow you around and come when called.
Do Horses Know Their Owners By Smelling Their Hands Or Looking At Them?
Horses are able to remember and fully recognize their owners by both scent, sight, and smell. Horses are able to discriminate between humans that are familiar and unfamiliar to them, as they are able to associate the right voices with the right people.
Interestingly enough, when two people are in the proximity of the horse’s gaze, one familiar and one unfamiliar, the horse will always look at and hold the familiar individual in their gaze for longer, showing immense interest.
For those who are unfamiliar to the horse, they take longer to show interest in them, and drop interest in them relatively quickly.
Horses will use their sense of smell to relate to an environment. For instance, they will greet other horses nose to nose and will learn each others scents so that they can find one another in a large grouping of horses.
This is applied to humans as well, as your horse will always sniff you out by extending its muzzle towards you when you are greeting them.
Can Horses Sense Your Emotions?
Researchers from Sussex and Portsmouth Universities have confirmed that horses do recognize human faces and their emotional expressions. What’s more is that horses can read these facial expressions and remember them throughout the day.
When a horse senses that you are sad, excited, or happy, they will adapt their behavior accordingly. Interestingly enough, horses are able to read your emotional expressions by just briefly looking at you and will not have a positive or negative response to this but will remember it later on.
How Can I Tell If My Horse Trusts Me?
If your horse trusts you, they will be willing to follow instructions, will come to you when called, and they will respect you. To determine if your horse trusts you, pay attention and look for the following signs.
If a horse is confident in your leadership, they will follow instructions, even if it is something that intimidates them or is something that they have not done before. This is because they have faith that you will not lead them into harm’s way.
When you go to get your horse, if they come to you, then this is a sign that they trust you. If they try to run away from you, it is because they have a negative association with you.
Generally, this is caused by too much work and not enough reward. Keep in mind though, showering your horse with treats may get them to come to you, but that doesn’t mean that they will fully trust or respect you.
If your horse likes to call the shots all the time and you find it difficult to get them through training, this is because you have not established that you are the leader. You must gain respect in order to have them trust you. While it is natural for your horse to challenge you from time to time as this is required to maintain respect and trust, they should not be challenging you constantly.
Finally, if your horse allows you to touch them without fear or discomfort, then they trust you and do not see you as a predator.