The underexplored role of chemical communication in the domestic horse, Equus caballus

Guarneros, Marco; Sánchez-García, Octavio; Martı́nez–Gómez, Margarita; Arteaga, Lourdes

doi:10.1016/j.jveb.2020.05.008

Cited by 8 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…Nostril dilatation is part of ritualized behaviours expressed in stallions’ interactions and it conveys communicative signals 56 . Nostril dilatation is also involved in auditive 85 , 86 and olfactive communication 87 , 88 . Facial expressions have been suggested to have evolved from ancestral autonomic and protective actions into communicative signals 89 , 90 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Horses (Equus caballus) facial micro-expressions: insight into discreet social information

Tomberg,

Petagna,

de Selliers de Moranville

2023

Sci Rep

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Facial micro-expressions are facial expressions expressed briefly (less than 500 ms) and involuntarily. Described only in humans, we investigated whether micro-expressions could also be expressed by non-human animal species. Using the Equine Facial action coding system (EquiFACS), an objective tool based on facial muscles actions, we demonstrated that a non-human species, Equus caballus, is expressing facial micro-expressions in a social context. The AU17, AD38 and AD1 were selectively modulated as micro-expression—but not as standard facial expression (all durations included)—in presence of a human experimenter. As standard facial expressions, they have been associated with pain or stress but our results didn’t support this association for micro-expressions which may convey other information. Like in humans, neural mechanisms underlying the exhibit of micro-expressions may differ from those of standard facial expressions. We found that some micro-expressions could be related to attention and involved in the multisensory processing of the ‘fixed attention’ observed in horses’ high attentional state. The micro-expressions could be used by horses as social information in an interspecies relationship. We hypothesize that facial micro-expressions could be a window on transient internal states of the animal and may provide subtle and discreet social signals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Horses (Equus caballus) facial micro-expressions: insight into discreet social information

Tomberg,

Petagna,

de Selliers de Moranville

2023

Sci Rep

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“…When an odour of interest is detected, the horse will perform the flehmen response to force air directly into the vomonaseral organ for quick analysis [ 13 ]. Despite this knowledge, little research has been done on the impact of odour on communication in horses [ 16 ]. Horses engage in sniffing behaviour to recognize kin [ 16 ] and this may be why early horse trainers sought to have the horse accept them by rubbing the horse’s chestnuts on their hands and equipment [ 17 ].…”

Section: Equine Olfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite this knowledge, little research has been done on the impact of odour on communication in horses [ 16 ]. Horses engage in sniffing behaviour to recognize kin [ 16 ] and this may be why early horse trainers sought to have the horse accept them by rubbing the horse’s chestnuts on their hands and equipment [ 17 ]. By smelling conspecifics’ feces or genital areas, horses can detect their state of arousal, health, age, sex, and reproductive status [ 18 , 19 ].…”

Section: Equine Olfactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced Understanding of Horse–Human Interactions to Optimize Welfare

Merkies

Franzin

2021

Animals

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Horses (Equus caballus) have been domesticated for millennia and are regularly utilized for work, sport, and companionship. Enhanced understanding of human–horse interactions can create avenues to optimize their welfare. This review explores the current research surrounding many aspects of human–horse interactions by first highlighting the horse’s sensory capabilities and how they pertain to human interactions. Evidence exists that suggests that horses can read humans in various ways through our body odours, posture, facial expressions, and attentiveness. The literature also suggests that horses are capable of remembering previous experiences when working with humans. The interrelatedness of equine cognition and affective states within the horse’s umwelt is then explored. From there, equine personality and the current literature regarding emotional transfer between humans and horses is examined. Even though horses may be capable of recognizing emotional states in humans, there remains a gap in the literature of whether horses are capable of empathizing with human emotion. The objective of this literature review is to explore aspects of the relationship between humans and horses to better understand the horse’s umwelt and thereby shed new light on potential positive approaches to enhance equine welfare with humans.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scent marking behavior and olfactory investigation of feces suggests that horses have a good memory for the areas they occupy and that odor-based signalling may be part of their spatial ecology, i.e., they use odor to update their frame of reference with respect to their movement (Feist and McCullough 1976; Gosling 1982, Guarneros et al 2020). For example, horses spontaneously exploring or ridden in a familiar arena nevertheless make a record of objects and feces located on the surface of the arena by sniffing and they show that they remember objects on that day by not returning to sniff them again (Burke and Whishaw, 2020; Whishaw and Burke, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memory for a day: Olfactory place episodic-like memory for dung droppings by the domestic horse (Equus ferus caballus)

Guyonnet

Whishaw

2022

Preprint

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The domestic horse (Equus ferus caballus) makes dung deposits to form stud-piles and investigates dung droppings more generally, suggesting that dung contains species-relevant communicative information. This natural behavior provides a behavior with which to examine a species-typical form of memory used by horses in relation to their social behavior. Horses were video recorded in indoor and outdoor riding arenas as they were lightly taken on a lead line to experimenter-determined objects or dung-piles. Frame-by-frame video analysis was used to measure sniffing duration and spatial memory of dung dropping visitations. Horses readily approached and sniffed dung for longer durations than they sniffed other objects. They always approached dung at new locations, made head movements across the extent of dung-piles as they sniffed, showed no preference in the nostril directed to the target, and might blink during sniffing and always blinked when disengaging from sniffing. Horses did remember dung visited withing a day by reducing visits and sniff duration but displayed little retention between days. The results are discussed in relation to the idea that this form of episodic-like memory is time limited because it competes with safety-related behavior related to horse movement within foraging areas.

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The underexplored role of chemical communication in the domestic horse, Equus caballus

Cited by 8 publications

References 88 publications

Horses (Equus caballus) facial micro-expressions: insight into discreet social information

Horses (Equus caballus) facial micro-expressions: insight into discreet social information

Enhanced Understanding of Horse–Human Interactions to Optimize Welfare

Memory for a day: Olfactory place episodic-like memory for dung droppings by the domestic horse (Equus ferus caballus)

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