Human history is horse history. As soon as Homo sapiens recognized the transportation potential of equines, everything changed. Cultures, languages, goods, customs, could fly along emerging trade routes at the speed of galloping hooves. Fast forward more than 4,000 years, and humans and horses have been through a lot together. Accounts from metropolises such as New York and London in the late 19th century tell of streets drowning in horse manure, the animal was such an omnipresent transportation option. Now, horses are largely relegated to ceremonial uses, the farm, and sporting events. But in all that time, are we humans any good at deciphering the feelings, and pain, of our longstanding companions?
According to science, not so much.
Researchers in the United Kingdom and Brazil recently published the first ever report on humans’ ability to read pain in horse faces. The team, in a paper in Anthrozoös, suggested that people have a hard time reading feelings on a horse’s face.
The scientists showed photographs of horses and humans to 100 volunteers—30 had some experience with horse care and 70 had none—asking them to rate the images for pain, arousal, and valence, which in psychology refers to pleasantness or unpleasantness. They compared these responses to those from a 10-person panel of animal behavior experts.
Read more: “Even Worms Feel Pain”
The study participants were far less accurate at predicting pain in the face of a horse than they were in humans, which may come as little surprise. Although the volunteers who had some experience with horses were better at reading pain in horse faces, keying in on subtle but tell-tale clues, such as ear position, muscle tautness, and eye appearance. Horses may have evolved this inscrutability. “Horses are very good at hiding their pain, which is an evolutionary trait to disguise their vulnerability and avoid predators, but this makes it harder for us to spot discomfort,” said Rosa Verwijs, a co-author and horse behaviorist and nutritionist at Anglia Ruskin University in Writtle, U.K., in a statement. “Many people might not realize a horse is in pain until the animal’s behaviour escalates to potentially dangerous levels.”
The authors also found that participants who reported social anxiety at the time of the trials were better at identifying pain in human faces but often erroneously saw pain in the faces of horses who were not in pain. “This shows how human psychology may affect our interpretation of body language, highlighting that education and training on recognizing pain in horses would benefit anyone with horses in their care,” Verwijs continued.
The findings could improve animal welfare by upping the recognition of pain in horses, which don’t put their emotions on display. There are several methods to train people in such facets. One, cited by the authors, is known as the Horse Grimace Scale.
Hopefully research and training in this area will allow us to one day stop asking our equine friends, “Why the long face?” 
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Lead image: Oleksii Nedolia / Shutterstock
