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horses perform 8-9 full blinks / minute . When stressed , this decreases 5 blinks / minute and is a feature of the fight or flight response . Blinking and eyelid twitches are relatively easy to monitor and can indicate a stressful situation for the horse . Since our horses can ’ t tell us how they are feeling , eyeblinks and twitches help us to identify underlying emotions and stress level .
FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
As well as being very visual , horses have a rich facial repertoire that indicates their emotional state . Microexpressions are involuntary , fleeting facial expressions lasting less than ½ a second . They reveal transient emotional and mental states and feelings . Although these expressions can be barely perceptible , the muscles that produce them are found in all vertebrates and have evolved to contribute to the display of emotions and communication .
All horses display micro-expressions which make up over 65 % of all facial expressions and over a third of these are related to eye closure and lid lowering . ‘ Worry wrinkles ’ where the eyebrow moves down and inwards also increase under stressful situations .
TEMPERAMENT , HAIR WHORLS AND STRESS In horses , a higher blink rate is associated with a more anxious temperament , while a lower rate is linked to a more docile temperament . There is also a correlation between facial hair whorls and temperament - horses with high facial hair whorls have been described as more difficult to handle than horses with medium or low whorls ( Figure 1 ).
Horse owners and riders have reported that horses with very high whorls have a less desirable temperament and are more difficult to ride .
AQHA NOVEMBER / DECEMBER ISSUE 2023