A Growing Awareness of the Sentience of Horses
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Research Finds Horses Can Perceive and Interpret Human Feelings
At least since 2,000 B.C., humankind and horses have traveled, worked, fought, and raced together. Modern research into animal behavior is now finding that these animals—from giant draft horses to miniature ponies—are emotionally complex and highly intelligent.
“Horses are fascinating and deeply emotional beings. I often think of them as the definition of sentience—the ability to feel,” eminent animal researcher Dr. Marc Bekoff once wrote in Psychology Today.
To better understand the environment and the creatures that inhabit it, scientists have long been studying animal intelligence.
Researchers have already discovered that dogs, cows, and mice can distinguish human emotions through scent. Now, a peer-reviewed study, recently published in the online journal PLOS One, found that horses can perceive and interpret human emotions through facial expressions and vocal tones and also through chemical signals in human sweat.
Studies like these raise the question: How many types of other animals can recognize, interpret, and react to cross-species cues?
“Becoming aware of these sometimes unconscious processes helps us realize just how much we influence animals—and how much we are influenced by our contact with them,” said one of the PLOS One study’s authors, Dr. Léa Lansade. She is the research director at France’s National Research Institute of Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) and has studied horse behavior and sentience for years.
“I have always been passionate about ethology [the study of animal behavior], horses, and the close relationships they share with humans,” she explained. “It therefore felt very natural for me to start studying them. This has been my profession for the past 20 years.”
Her goal is to parse out the truths and myths about human–horse connections, and her research is making it clearer how strong that bond can be. This comes as no surprise to Bekoff, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado and cochair of the Jane Goodall Institute’s ethics committee.
He has studied and written about animal emotional intelligence for decades. One of his best-known books, The Emotional Lives of Animals (written in 2007 and revised in 2024), dives into a trove of studies on the topic.
“This kind of chemical communication [in horses] is fascinating because we cannot see it or consciously perceive it.”
“I added about 300 references [to the revised edition], and they were all supportive of the fact that a wide variety of animals have rich and deep emotions,” Bekoff told The Earth & I. “None of the studies said companion animals or wild animals didn’t have the emotions we thought they had or the emotional lives we thought they had. Every study said or implied we can always do more to increase their quality of life and their well-being.”
Bekoff asserts that the research is so aligned on this point that assuming an animal is not emotional is antiscientific. Legislation and cultural norms still have a long way to go to match how humans act toward nonhumans with what the research shows, but Bekoff believes that communicating the research to the public and encouraging people to engage more with other animals is a step in the right direction.
Horses Smell Our Moods
For her study, Lansade and her colleagues had 30 human participants stick cotton pads under their armpits while watching either 20 minutes of the horror film Sinister or 20 minutes of wholesome clips. All participants made sure not to wear any fragrances or perfumes or eat any foods prior to the experiment that might impact body scent.
After collecting the sweaty cotton pads, the researchers froze the samples for a few months. The scientists then exposed 43 horses to either a “fear” or a “joy” pad—or a neutral (unused) pad, used as a control. Reactions were documented when the horses were just roaming their enclosure, and then when they were being groomed, near a random human, surprised, or exploring an unknown object.
In addition to documenting observable behavior, the researchers collected saliva samples from the horses and monitored their heart rates.
They found that horses exposed to a “fear” scent grazed less, touched the random human near them less, were more easily spooked, and glanced at the random object more. Fear seemed to impact behavior more than joy when compared to the neutral scent.
Lansade told The Earth & I she was surprised by how much the horses were impacted by the different odors.
“These pads were frozen and tested with horses months later. And yet they still contained enough chemical compounds to influence the horses’ behavior. Imagine how strong the effect must be when we experience emotions in real time in front of horses—the impact is likely much greater,” Lansade said. “This kind of chemical communication is fascinating because we cannot see it or consciously perceive it, and it may explain many phenomena.”
The study showed that humans who spend time around horses really can’t lie to them. How a caretaker or trainer feels can genuinely impact how a horse behaves or reacts.
This might help people understand why a horse is more reactive during equestrian games, therapeutic riding sessions, or medical appointments. And maybe, if the world is causing more stress for humans, the horses can feel it too.
Seeing the World through a Pet’s Eyes
Recognizing that there might be a deeper connection—or a strong potential for a deeper connection—with other animals can develop an important way for people to connect with the world around them. This is something The Earth & I has enjoyed exploring before. While it can be difficult for people to connect to wild animals, companion animals like cats, dogs, and horses can provide an important bridge for feeling more sympathy for other creatures.
“I’m not saying [animals’] pain and suffering and joy is the same as ours, but they have their own pain and joy and positive and negative emotions.”
“I’ve written a lot about ‘bringing it home’—thinking of companion animals as gateway species for what I call bridging the ‘empathy gap,’” Bekoff explained. “I’ll always point out that dogs are mammals, cats are mammals, horses are mammals, so all mammals have pretty much the same neuro-apparatus. I’m not saying all their pain and suffering and joy is the same as ours, but they have their own pain and joy and positive and negative emotions.”
For example, as recounted in a 2024 Psychology Today article, Bekoff helped a lot of people in his home state of Colorado develop more sympathy for the wolves reintroduced in the west Colorado wild in 2023 and 2025 by comparing their emotional lives to those of domestic dogs.
Speaking of his pioneering animal psychology work, he said, “I’m very fortunate that I’ve made a living spending my time around a lot of animals, [which] most people don’t.”
He recommends people start by just going to dog parks and watching the dogs’ behavior, even if they don’t have a dog themselves. Then people can expand this experience to wild neighbors by observing the behavior of the squirrels, birds, and even pollinating insects outside.
“Just go watch them!” he encouraged.
Getting kids involved in programs like his late friend Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots program is also a great way to jump-start the next generation’s interest in their animal neighbors. Indeed, the children can end up being a link to animals for the adults in their lives.
Any method of bridging the empathy gap makes an important difference—and not just for the environment. Growing empathy for animals also increases empathy for other humans. Bekoff is intrigued by the One Welfare framework and research that highlights that connection.
“How we treat nonhumans and the environment impacts how we treat others, and if you increase the well-being of nonhumans, you can also increase the well-being of humans,” Bekoff reasons.
*Becky Hoag is a freelance environmental reporter. You can find her work on her site beckyhoag.com and through her YouTube channel https://youtube.com/beckisphere.
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