Affiliative Behaviour - Equine Body Language and what people don’t see

SO many videos and posts about horses ‘bossing each other around’ ‘shifting the other horses’ feet’ and ‘putting the others in line’

Humans place a BIG focus on agonistic behaviour.

Are we primed for it? Waiting for it? Do we enjoy agonistic behaviour? Why do we not see behaviour unless it is a BIG display?

Are we not subtle enough? Not aware enough?

Why do we miss smaller displays? Why do we need displays?

Many humans don’t see that horses grazing together ARE exhibiting affiliative behaviour. They are being cohesive, they are getting along. Often when grazing they will all be facing the same direction (mine do, anyway!)

Affiliative behaviours amongst horses happen nearly ALL the time, yet most people miss these, or mis-understand them

If a horse swishes its tail, lifts a leg or puts his ears back, everyone is quick to notice.

Im suspicious that humans don’t recognise any other affiliative behaviours that horses display, other than mutual grooming

Grazing together is affiliative. Drinking together is affiliative. Following single file to the water trough is affiliative. And no - it isn’t the lead mare that initiates this, or ‘makes it happen’ I would suggest it may be the thirstiest!

Sharing the shade of a big tree is affiliative. Standing quietly next to each other is affiliative. Swishing to keep flies off each other is affiliative. Waiting together when it is hay time is affiliative.

These signals and more horses exhibit ALL the time, and we either ignore them or don’t recognise them, or don’t give them credence for what they are. Do we think that the horse is not ‘doing’ anything? Yet we are quick to point out when things are not so smooth.

I think it is time we acknowledge ALL the good signs, not just focus on the bad.

When we see agonistic displays we need to question WHY they are happening.

They are so rare in normal, stable herd interactions. An agonistic display SHOULD make you think ‘what is wrong?’ – Why is that happening? What needs to change in that herd or environment so that behaviour doesn’t need to occur? What management has the human missed that has caused this?

Agonistic displays account for under 0.01 percent of all horse interactions (1) – yet these are what we focus on?

Humans - I’ll say no more.

1 {Affiliative interactions and responses significantly out number aggressive ones (p<0.01) The Roles of Individuals and Social Networking in a Small Group of Domestic Horses at Pasture C. Ricci-Bonot University of Rennes Marthe Kiley-Worthington Centre d'Eco-Etho Recherche et Education }