Image from Martin Cathrae
Believe it or not horses are very expressive animals & reading their body language is an important part of being around such a huge, powerful animal. Here are some fun & obvious expressions of emotion – not in their body language but simply by the expression on their face.
Alert
Image from Armin Ulrich
Concentrating
Image from Just chaos
Content
Curious
Image from dregsplod
Excited
Image from lostinfog
Furious
Image from Dani_vr
Irritated
Image from Dani_vr
Relaxed
Image from Ies
Sleepy
Image from Vix_B
What is Your Favorite Emotion?
I’ve only pictured a few here and will be on the lookout for more because this was a fun post to write. If you like emotive animals, be sure to check out some blue eyed horses who seem to have almost humanlike expressions at times.
My favorite? I’d have to go with the first image of the play faces. They make me so happy.
Oh, these are great pictures! I love the “Alert” look – that’s the one I always go for when taking pictures of horses. Whether it’s an old broodmare standing on a hill, watching for monsters in the bushes, or a two-year-old racehorse catching sight of the racetrack for the first time, those pricked ears and bright eyes get me every time.
I like the alert, content and curious. The irritated and furious scares me.
I think the photo here for curious is adorable. Love ALL the facial expressions horses make! (tho’ hope furious is never directed at me!)
I loved them all, but the furious and irritated were a bit scary. I loved the curious as it was like the horse was reading with the lady. Thanks for posting these.
Love this, thanks for sharing! Content, Curious, Relaxed my favorites
These photos are amazing. I really love the curious one best. It’s like a good toile fabric – so idyllic. Makes me want to jump in there.
the first photo reminds me of a story a friend of mine told me about his parrot. when ever he comes home from work his wife would say “is daddy home”? and the parrot would tilt his head and have one eye open wide looking down the stairs. That’s what the horse on the right looks like.. HA HA HA.. however… I do love wild horses and really love the furious photo.
I really like those pictures, thanks for sharing, 🙂
Snoo
PS- I <3 Horses!
I think that relaxed is not so relaxed. I think he is putting his ears back at something. If he were relaxed, his ears would be facing outwards and floppy. I like curious because all involved are relaxed and enjoying each other’s company. Concentrated is just that one ear forward, one ear back.
Love the facial expressions of all the horses. The only one that seems inaccurate to me is the fleabitten grey that has his lips up because he is detecting the scent of a mare in heat. Not sure how you get irritated out of that.
Is there a way to post a picture from here onto facebook? I friend just stated she is so hungry she could eat a horse and the by Image from Martin Cathrae would be perfect for me to post with a response caption of “Oh no she didn’t just day ‘Eat a Horse!’ did she?”