Horses Can Sense Your Heartbeat

Horses have incredible hearing, with the ability to hear the heartbeat of a human from four feet away. In the wild, horses will synchronize their heartbeats to the other horses in the herd in order to sense danger more quickly, and recent studies have shown that they use those tactics in domesticated life as well. When our horses interact with us, they tend to synchronize to our heartbeats as well, meaning they can sense slight adjustments in our mood. This means when we as riders get nervous about something, we inadvertently translate our fears and anxieties onto our horses. 

1. The horse, a prey animal, depends on flight as its primary means of survival. 
2. Horses are one of the most perceptive of all domestic animals. Since they are a prey species, they must be able to detect predators. 
3. The horse has a very fast response time. A prey animal must react instantly to a perceived predator to survive.
4. Horses can be desensitized to frightening stimuli. They need to quickly learn what is harmful and what is harmless so they do not spend their whole lives running away.
5. Horses forgive but do not forget. They especially remember bad situations! 
6. Horses categorize most experiences in two ways: something not to fear and something to fear. 
7. Horses are easily dominated. The horse is a herd animal where a dominance hierarchy is always established. 
8. Horses exert dominance by controlling the movement of their peers. They accept dominance when we or another animal causes them to move when they prefer not to. They will also accept dominance when we or another animal inhibit movement when they want to flee. 
9. The body language of a horse is unique to the equine species. As a highly social animal, the horse communicates its emotions and intents to its herd mates through vocalization and body language. 
10. The horse is a precocial species, meaning the newborn foals are neurologically mature at birth. 

Horses fit so well in our lives because they are very social creatures. They need to interact with others in order to fulfill needs like safety, affection, and play. To better understand your horse, you can learn how horses communicate with each other, why they live in groups, and what their daily life is like in the wild.

For example, baby horses must immediately interpret other horses’ body language for survival. If mom says run, they need to run – now. Growing foals also go through a crash course in learning about cause and effect. They learn that certain actions lead to nips and bites. They also learn how to dish out those nips and bites for rude behavior. This expert ability to quickly learn the consequences of an action – and how to influence others – makes horses so trainable.