Horse lovers are aware that we cannot deceive horses, who have a sixth sense and can sense how we are feeling inside. Studies for this are provided by French research.
Two brief video clips without sound were shown simultaneously on one screen on the right and left. A woman was shown in one sequence with the good feelings of pleasure and happiness, while in another she was shown with the negative emotions of anger and wrath.
Three video cameras were used to capture the horses’ behavioral responses. The horses’ heart rates were also measured.
Through both physiological (heart rate) and behavioral responses, the horses responded immediately and quickly to the human emotional states that were provided visually and audibly. In addition to the audio expression of emotion, the horses could very clearly distinguish between the two different human face emotions of pleasure and anger.
Horses are capable of capturing and interpreting emotional signals depending on their meaning and regardless of their modality (optical/auditory). This result was not surprising, as previous studies had already shown that horses can assign the meaning of facial expressions and voice expressions to the same emotional category.
