How to read a horse? Calm, relaxation and alertness from the ground and from the saddle
Fear and anger in a horse are easy to spot.
It is harder to recognise that a horse feels good, is relaxing or is just letting go of tension.
We show what the latest research says about this, and what you can see from the ground and what from the saddle.
- A horse that feels good spends most of its time eating, walking calmly and looking around. Staring at one spot for a long time and standing motionless are more likely a sign that something is wrong.
- Relaxation and pleasure look different. When resting, a horse has a loose lower lip; when scratched in a favourite spot, it pushes its upper lip out.
- Researchers link chewing with an empty mouth and snorting after something difficult with a return to balance. Yawning is less clear-cut.
- From the saddle you see less than you might think. In studies, many horses considered to be working comfortably were lame.
- A single signal says little. What counts is several signals at once, the situation and a comparison with how that particular horse usually behaves.
People often say of horses that “you can see everything”. That's true of fear or anger. Signs of calm and relaxation, however, are quiet and easy to miss, and they are exactly what tells you whether what you do with your horse is all right for it.
We've gathered the latest research on what a horse looks like when it feels good, is relaxing, is letting go of tension or is alert. We write separately about what you can see from the saddle. At the end you'll find a table to help you read it all.
Why it's worth learning
In a study in which members of equestrian groups watched six videos, most people recognised signs of stress in the horse in only some of the videos. Behaviours indicating unpleasant emotions often went unnoticed, and the videos showing natural horsemanship methods and bridleless riding were most often wrongly judged to be pleasant for the horse[1].
This can be learned. Participants in an online course on recognising horses' emotional states said they had started to look at the horse's whole body language, at its senses and at how their own behaviour affects the horse[2].
There is also a difficulty worth keeping in mind from the start. A review of 109 studies on interactions between horses and people notes that in most such situations the horse's behaviour is directed or restricted by a person. This can mask both bad and good signals. When horses had freedom, pleasant experiences with people were linked with approaching, and unpleasant ones with avoidance[3].
Calm: a horse that feels safe
A horse that feels good looks surprisingly ordinary. Wild and semi-feral horses living in calm conditions, with no predators and plenty of food, spend most of their time grazing, resting, looking around and slowly moving from place to place. Researchers call this state contentment: a pleasant, low-intensity emotion whose essence is calm[4].
In a study of 174 horses from eight yards, time spent eating, walking calmly and looking around went hand in hand with indicators of good welfare. Standing motionless for long periods, staring at one spot and unfriendly interactions with other horses went hand in hand with indicators of poor welfare[4]. A 2024 systematic review counted eating forage and friendly interactions with other horses as good signals. As bad ones: withdrawal or agitation in a familiar environment, avoiding people during handling, and conflicts in the herd[5].
of observation at quiet times of day was enough for researchers to describe the “atmosphere” in a yard well, that is, how the horses living there feel[4].Hausberger et al., Animals, 2026
A simple everyday indicator is the ears while eating hay. Horses that spent more time eating more often held their ears forward while eating. Earlier studies linked ears constantly laid back while eating with chronic problems such as back conditions or stereotypies[4].
Relaxation and pleasure are not the same thing
A relaxed, resting horse usually has half-closed eyes and a loose lower lip. In a Polish pilot study, a loose lower lip was the sign most often seen in horses during massage, and with their eyes half-closed the horses at times looked as if they were dozing off. There were, however, only five horses[6]. In a study of 32 racehorses after manual therapy, 78% lowered their heads and 63% let their ears drop to the sides. The authors point out that there was no measurement before the treatment and no comparison group[7].
Pleasure looks different. In a study by French scientists, horses were groomed over 11 sessions either gently, in the places they liked most, or according to a fixed routine. The gently groomed horses more often sought contact, while those groomed according to the routine more often moved away[8].
The difference showed on the face. During pleasant grooming the horses had half-closed eyes, the upper lip pushed forward, either still or twitching, the neck at medium height and the ears pointing backwards, almost in line with the nose. During unpleasant grooming: a high-raised neck, wide-open eyes or visible whites, tight lips and each ear positioned differently. A year later, during ordinary grooming, facial expression still distinguished the two groups, although the behaviour itself no longer did[8].
Two practical tips come from this study. First, ears pointing back don't always mean anger: when scratched in their favourite spot, horses held them exactly like that. Second, pleasure is not rest. The gently groomed horses didn't have a resting expression with a loosely hanging lower lip, but a tense one: with ears back and the upper lip pushed out[8].
What gives pleasure depends on the horse. A study of 20 horses tested four approaches: scratching at the withers, tasty food, reward-based training and the company of a favoured horse. Each could work, but the horses reacted differently depending on their personality[9].
Alertness: looking around or staring
Alertness is a normal part of a horse's life, not a bad sign in itself. What matters is the kind. Researchers distinguish looking around, that is, actively scanning the surroundings, from frozen attention, that is, staring at one spot for a long time. Looking around was linked with better health and welfare. Staring was more often seen in horses with indicators of poor welfare, for example stereotypies or ears laid back while eating[4].
In practice: a horse that raises its head, turns its ears towards a noise and goes back to eating after a moment is alert and calm at the same time. A horse that stands for a long time with its head held high, staring at one place, needs your attention. It's worth checking what is bothering it.
Beware of apparent calm. In a study of 59 working horses, 24% had periods of immobility in an unusual posture: with a fixed gaze, a motionless head and motionless ears. These horses responded less to what was happening around them, but in more difficult situations they reacted more strongly. The researchers called this posture withdrawal and compared it with descriptions of depression in humans[10]. So a quiet horse in the corner of its stable is not always resting.
Letting go: when tension eases
Letting go is the shift from tension to calm. It's easiest to see right after something difficult: after a fright, after a treatment, after the saddle comes off, after finishing an exercise. Studies describe several such signals:
- Chewing with an empty mouth and blowing. After a sudden fright, horses more often chewed with nothing in their mouths and made a characteristic sound through the nose. Researchers link these behaviours with the body returning to balance after stress[11].
- Snorting. It is heard more often in pleasant situations, for example while grazing at pasture, and in horses with fewer signs of chronic stress[12].
- Blinking. In stressful situations horses made fewer full blinks, and when feeding was held back their eyelids twitched more often[13]. A return to normal, calm blinking may therefore mean that the tension is passing.
- Lowered head and ears to the sides. After manual therapy these signs were seen in most horses[7].
That's why, after something difficult, it's worth giving your horse a moment before moving on to the next thing. That makes it easier to notice whether the tension is easing.
Yawning, licking, chewing: what came before matters
These behaviours are often presented as sure signs of relaxation. Research shows that it's more complicated than that.
Yawning. In domestic horses and Przewalski's horses living in large enclosures, yawning was linked with intense situations in the group: in Przewalski's horses with aggression, in domestic horses with friendly interactions. The authors suggest that what matters is the intensity of the experience, not whether it was pleasant, and that yawning may help release tension[14]. In horses with stereotypies, yawning increased at the same times of day as the stereotypies and went hand in hand with them[15]. Yawning can also be contagious: in a herd of mares at pasture, horses more often responded with a yawn to the yawns of those they had a good relationship with[16].
Licking and chewing. After a fright they were linked with a return to balance[11], and after manual therapy they were seen in all the horses in the study[7]. But since they appear after stress, it means that something was stressing the horse beforehand. So what tells you the most is what happened just before: the bridle coming off, the end of a treatment, or perhaps something that is still to come.
If a horse usually yawns at the same times of day as its stereotypies appear, for example crib-biting or weaving, it's more likely a sign of tension than of relaxation. In horses with stereotypies, yawning increased at exactly the same times as the stereotypies[15].
What you can see from the saddle
From the saddle you see less than you might think. The rider can't see the horse's face, eyes or tail, and a ridden horse does what it is asked to do, so many signals are muted[3].
In a study of 60 sport and riding school horses that their owners considered to be working comfortably, 73% had mild lameness (up to grade 2 on an 8-grade scale) in at least one leg, and 47% had an abnormal canter[17]. That's why it's worth knowing what a horse without pain looks like under a rider. In a study of 1,358 horses at competitions, most of the horses that were not lame:
- held their head steady, without up-and-down or sideways movements,
- had their eyes open, with no whites showing,
- kept their whole tongue in their mouth, with the bit sitting level,
- carried their tail straight and freely,
- moved with an even rhythm and tempo, straight, with the hind feet following the front feet,
- struck off into canter on the correct lead and didn't change it on their own,
- didn't stumble or drag both hind feet along the ground,
- moved forward willingly, without spooking, bucking or rearing[18].
Some of these things you can feel from the saddle: rhythm, even tempo, straightness, willing forward movement, the correct canter lead. The rest, that is, the face, eyes, ears and tail, is best checked on video.
behaviours from the ridden horse pain ethogram is the threshold above which musculoskeletal pain is likely. In horses at competitions the median was 4, so single signals also occur in healthy horses[18].Dyson and Pollard, Animals, 2024
The ears and the gaze tell you the most. Ears laid back for at least 5 seconds and an intense, fixed stare for at least 5 seconds were linked with abnormal movement[18]. Observers judging the harmony of horse and rider also look at the ears and eyes. In an eye-tracking study, 30 people from the equestrian world most often began looking at a horse-and-rider pair with the horse's ears and eyes. Returning to them often went hand in hand with a lower harmony score[19].
An interesting everyday test is the reaction to the saddle. In the study of 174 horses, researchers assessed the first reaction of a horse seeing a saddle in the doorway: ears forward and approaching counted as a positive reaction, ears back as a negative one. Horses with a positive reaction spent more time eating[4].
Conflict signals under the rider
Tail swishing, head tossing, pinned ears and mouth opening are conflict behaviours. They appear when a horse finds it hard to cope with physical or mental discomfort[6].
In a Polish pilot study, there were on average 32 conflict behaviours during riding, 12 before it and 2 after it. The most common was tail swishing. When the horses were given a massage before riding, under the rider they swished their tails, pinned their ears and opened their mouths less often[6].
Single episodes happen almost always. At show jumping competitions, at least one conflict behaviour was seen in every one of the 120 horses, most often head shaking, followed by tail swishing. Most horses, however, showed only one or two types of such behaviour, a few times during a round[20]. So what matters is not whether the horse swished its tail once, but how often, in what situation and whether this changes from week to week.
Letting go also works the other way round. A horse learns from the moment the pressure disappears, so releasing the reins exactly when the horse responds tells it “that's what I meant”[21, 22].
How to read it
The table brings together the most important signals. None of them is certain on its own, so in the third column we suggest what else to look at.
| What you see | What it may mean | What else to look at |
|---|---|---|
| Eats, keeps ears forward at the hay, walks calmly and looks around | Calm, contentment[4] | Is this what most of the day looks like |
| Half-closed eyes, loose lower lip, head lower | Rest, relaxation[6, 8] | Does the horse react when you approach |
| When scratched, pushes out the upper lip, half-closes the eyes, turns the ears back | Pleasure[8] | Does it offer that spot itself |
| Raises head, turns ears to the noise, goes back to eating after a moment | Normal alertness[4] | How quickly it goes back to eating |
| Stares at one spot for a long time, ears and head motionless, indifferent to surroundings | Withdrawal, poor welfare[4, 10] | Is this a new behaviour |
| Chews with an empty mouth, snorts or blows after something difficult | Return to balance[11, 12] | What happened just before |
| Yawns | Intense experience, release of tension[14] | Does it happen at the same times as stereotypies[15] |
| Under the rider swishes tail, pins ears, opens mouth | Conflict, sometimes pain[6, 18] | How often, and whether it is changing |
| Under the rider: even rhythm, tail carried freely, willingly forward | Typical of horses that are not lame[18] | Video from the side once a month |
How to practise observing
- Learn your horse's normalWatch your horse a few times for 10 minutes, at quiet times when nothing is going on. For researchers, three such observations were enough to describe how the horses in a yard feel[4].
- Look at the whole pictureEars, eyes, face, tail, posture and what the horse is doing at the time. The same signal, for example ears back, can mean something different in a different situation[8].
- Film your ridesOnce a month, film a few minutes of riding from the side, from the same spot. On the video you'll see the face, eyes, ears and tail, which you can't see from the saddle[18].
- Give your horse a momentAfter something difficult, wait before starting the next thing, and see whether the tension eases[11].
When to call the vet
- the horse increasingly stands motionless, with a fixed gaze, and stops taking an interest in its surroundings[10],
- it constantly keeps its ears laid back while eating hay[4],
- under saddle it shows many signals at once, for example pinning its ears, swishing its tail, opening its mouth, stumbling or changing leads in canter[18],
- the horse tenses or moves away every time it is touched in the same place, for example on the back[23],
- the way the horse reacts to the saddle or to you has suddenly changed.
Frequently asked questions
How can you tell that a horse is relaxed?
A relaxed horse usually has half-closed eyes, a loose lower lip and a lowered head[6, 7]. Day to day, a horse that feels good spends most of its time eating, walking calmly and looking around[4].
Does a horse licking its lips mean it has relaxed?
After stress, researchers link licking and chewing with a return to balance[11]. It does mean, however, that there was tension beforehand, so it's worth knowing what caused it.
Why do horses yawn?
Yawning is linked with intense situations, whether pleasant or not, and may help release tension[14]. In horses with stereotypies it went hand in hand with the stereotypies[15]. It can also be contagious between horses that like each other[16].
Do ears laid back always mean anger?
No. When scratched in their favourite spot, horses held their ears back, almost in line with the nose[8]. Under a rider, however, ears laid back for at least 5 seconds were linked with abnormal movement[18].
What can you feel from the saddle when a horse feels good?
An even rhythm and tempo, moving straight and willingly forward, and cantering on the correct lead. The face, eyes, ears and tail are better checked on video[18].
Scientific sources
We checked every publication in the Crossref and PubMed databases. The numbers in the text link to the list, and the DOI links lead to the original articles.
- Bell C, Rogers S, Taylor J, Busby D. Improving the Recognition of Equine Affective States. Animals. 2019;9(12):1124. doi.org/10.3390/ani9121124
- 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. doi.org/10.1093/tas/txaf033
- Hall C, Kay R. Living the good life? A systematic review of behavioural signs of affective state in the domestic horse (Equus caballus) and factors relating to quality of life. Part 2: Horse-human interactions. Animal Welfare. 2024;33:e41. doi.org/10.1017/awf.2024.41
- Hausberger M, Lerch N, Grandgeorge M. Farm Atmosphere: Calm Attention and Mobility Characterise Positive Horse Welfare. Animals. 2026;16(10):1557. doi.org/10.3390/ani16101557
- Hall C, Kay R. Living the good life? A systematic review of behavioural signs of affective state in the domestic horse (Equus caballus) and factors relating to quality of life. Part I: Fulfilment of species-specific needs. Animal Welfare. 2024;33:e40. doi.org/10.1017/awf.2024.38
- Jastrzębska E, Górecka-Bruzda A, Ogłuszka M, Lipka MS, Pawłowska A. Effect of Massage on Stress Indicators in Recreational Horses - A Pilot Study. Animals. 2025;15(6):789. doi.org/10.3390/ani15060789
- Paksoy Y, Ural K, Erdoğan H, Erdoğan S, Paşa S. Behavioral Assessment of Equine Relaxation Following Manual Therapy: A Pilot Study. Veterinary Sciences. 2025;12(9):865. doi.org/10.3390/vetsci12090865
- Lansade L, Nowak R, Lainé AL, Leterrier C, Bonneau C, Parias C et al. Facial expression and oxytocin as possible markers of positive emotions in horses. Scientific Reports. 2018;8(1):14680. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-32993-z
- Loftus L, Newman A, Leach M, Asher L. Exploring the induction and measurement of positive affective state in equines through a personality-centred lens. Scientific Reports. 2025;15(1):18550. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-98034-8
- Fureix C, Jego P, Henry S, Lansade L, Hausberger M. Towards an Ethological Animal Model of Depression? A Study on Horses. PLoS ONE. 2012;7(6):e39280. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0039280
- Scopa C, Palagi E, Sighieri C, Baragli P. Physiological outcomes of calming behaviors support the resilience hypothesis in horses. Scientific Reports. 2018;8(1):17501. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-35561-7
- Stomp M, Leroux M, Cellier M, Henry S, Lemasson A, Hausberger M. An unexpected acoustic indicator of positive emotions in horses. PLOS ONE. 2018;13(7):e0197898. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197898
- Merkies K, Ready C, Farkas L, Hodder A. Eye Blink Rates and Eyelid Twitches as a Non-Invasive Measure of Stress in the Domestic Horse. Animals. 2019;9(8):562. doi.org/10.3390/ani9080562
- Górecka-Bruzda A, Fureix C, Ouvrard A, Bourjade M, Hausberger M. Investigating determinants of yawning in the domestic (Equus caballus) and Przewalski (Equus ferus przewalskii) horses. The Science of Nature. 2016;103(9-10):72. doi.org/10.1007/s00114-016-1395-7
- Fureix C, Gorecka-Bruzda A, Gautier E, Hausberger M. Cooccurrence of Yawning and Stereotypic Behaviour in Horses (Equus caballus). ISRN Zoology. 2011;2011:1-10. doi.org/10.5402/2011/271209
- Galotti A, Romano M, Baragli P, Palagi E. Yawning in sync: implications for social cohesion in horses. Current Zoology. 2024;71(2):137-151. doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoae052
- Dyson S, Pollard D. Application of a Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram and Its Relationship with Gait in a Convenience Sample of 60 Riding Horses. Animals. 2020;10(6):1044. doi.org/10.3390/ani10061044
- Dyson S, Pollard D. Determination of Equine Behaviour in Subjectively Non-Lame Ridden Sports Horses and Comparison with Lame Sports Horses Evaluated at Competitions. Animals. 2024;14(12):1831. doi.org/10.3390/ani14121831
- Wolframm IA, Everding M, Savulchyk V, Borssen J, Gudden DDM. From Concept to Perception: Equestrian Definitions of Harmony and Visual Attention in Horse–Rider Evaluation. Animals. 2026;16(10):1483. doi.org/10.3390/ani16101483
- Nothaft IT, Padilha FGF, Meriade GB, Leite JDS, Ferreira AMR. Conflict Behaviour Frequency During Show Jumping Competitions: A Practical Study. Animals. 2026;16(11):1620. doi.org/10.3390/ani16111620
- McLean AN, Christensen JW. The application of learning theory in horse training. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 2017;190:18-27. doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2017.02.020
- Eisersiö M, Egenvall A, Yngvesson J, Hernlund E, Byström A. What is reinforced? The timing of the release of rein tension and the horse’s response latency for trot to walk transitions. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 2025;285:106590. doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2025.106590
- Lesimple C, Fureix C, Biquand V, Hausberger M. Comparison of clinical examinations of back disorders and humans’ evaluation of back pain in riding school horses. BMC Veterinary Research. 2013;9(1):209. doi.org/10.1186/1746-6148-9-209
Published . This article is for educational purposes and does not replace an examination by a vet.
