New video from WHW highlights horses’ emotional intelligence

The third episode of World Horse Welfare’s educational video series Horses Explained is now live, offering valuable insights into how horses process emotions and interact with their environment.

Presented by Nicole O’Malley and featuring neuropsychology lecturer and equine behaviourist Dr Emma Lethbridge, the episode explores how horses learn, react to stress and respond to human moods.

“The horse is very able to take emotional information and use that information, so horses are able to understand when we’re not happy and when we are in a pleasant mood,” said Dr Lethbridge. “They do change their response, their vigilance, their way of being in response to that information, so we need to build that into how we are responding to them.” 

Key topics covered include:

• The importance of recognising horses as sentient beings capable of complex emotions
• How stress can affect learning and behaviour
• The role of sleep and environment in equine wellbeing

“With regards to our husbandry and our training […] we need to think about how each of their emotions are going to be managed within their environment from the horse’s perspective and not from a human point of view,” Dr Lethbridge added.

This episode and all previous ‘Horses Explained’ videos are free to view on World Horse Welfare’s Education YouTube channel or at www.worldhorsewelfare.org/advice/horses-explained