How can you read a horses personality by looking at their face?

Question

I heard that you can read a horses personality by looking at the face. like there are certain things to look for, and i have a basic idea, but would like someone who really know how to do it. Please try and describe as best you can. you can send me web sites too. I am a total horse-o-holic!! and would love to be able to do that. it woudl help me so much in my horse life!

Answer 1

Well if the horse has bite marks on its face that can mean dominate, marks on back is more summisive around other horses.  Ears up is good mood, happy, or just sees a carrot.  Stareing can mean ADD or spooky.  Low head can mean calm natered horse and more "western". High head holder more energetic personality.  

Answer 2

There may be other experts in this subject -- but the most popular is Linda Tellington Jones, founder of the TTouch massage.

She has a FANTASTIC book called "Getting In TTouch: Understand and Influence Your Horse's Personality" Described as follows: By analyzing the shape of your horse's head, eyes, ears, chin, jowl, and profile, you can learn the innate personality of a horse and understand how to improve your horses's performance. Actual case histories are explored with 21 horses in over 200 photos and 136 drawings.

I have the book and I must say her analysis of facial characteristics combined with the examples of horses and descriptions of their personalities is SPOT on.  She described my horse to a T and her insight into his personality and what makes him tick (or not) has VASTLY improved our relationship.

Unfortunately, she takes EVERYTHING into account in her analysis, including the size, shape and placement of the nostrils, ears, mouth, muzzle, jowls, forehead, nose, etc.  

Best $20 I ever spent -- get the book and take a couple of pictures of any horse you are considering -- front and profile.  Then go home and match the various characteristics with the horse's personality traits to determine if you will be a good match.  The process will take at least 45 minutes, but it is literally a window into a horse's soul.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Umm, I think its like reading any animal/person.

You can get information about how they are feeling at the time by how they are holding their head, what way their ears are facing and the general look in their eyes.

Another good indicator is the tightness of their lips, a really relaxed horse will often have the lower lip hanging alittle, when they are nervous or upset they will tighten that lower lip up.

I like to look at the eyes and see if they like people, I have met several horses who when I looked at them I got the feeling that they simply did not like people. In both cases the horses ended up being serious problem horses, one of which my trainer did not even want me working with on the ground because she felt he was too dangerous. He simply was not reliable and when you looked at his face you got the feeling that he was a very angry horse (which in my opinion he was).  

Answer 4

I don't know about that but I do know that sometimes you just connect with a horse, just like with certain people. I cannot tell just by talking to most people for a few minutes if I like them or not, but I can talk to some people for a few minutes and know instantly that I like them and I can talk to some people for a few minutes and know instantly that I don't like them. I think it is sort of like that with horses too. Sometimes people can just almost instantly connect with a horse, and vice versa. I think it is just something the two see in the other's eyes, something maybe like a soul connect. Training will always be much easier when it just sort of clicks like that.

Answer 5

I'm really not sure on that one but I've heard that you can tell if it is a bad/misbehaving horse if it shows the whites of its eyes. But I think that you could tell a placid horse from a psycho one, they just look different, they way they hold their head and stuff like that. But like I said I'm no expert, just thought I'd give my 2c.  

Answer 6

I heard something about you can tell about the horse a bit by looking at the swirls on their faces.  After working with horses for a while, you can just kind of tell right away.  =D

Answer 7

Like people horses show what they are thinkin' through their eyes, unlike people, their ears also tell you a lot about what's going on.

All bug eyed and ears straight forward:  They are LOOKIN' at something!  If they snort at it too, they are frightened or caught off guard.

Ears Pinned back, teeth bared:  They are pissed, time to stand back!

Sigh:  Horse is giving into you or just relaxed.  

Eye lids kinda half closed:  Horse is napping make noise upon approach.

These are just some of their expressions. There's a LOT more that you learn to respond to as you spend time with a horse.

I had a gelding who looked like he was going to bite your head off when it came to feeding time.  The funny thing is that if you blew at him, he'd go hide.  There wasn't a vicious bone in the horse's body, EXCEPT when he attacked his hay!  LOL

Answer 8

One thing is Wall-Eye, I once heard that horses with Wall-Eye have a little wild side and I have found that to be moslty true.

But I mean other than that it is just reading the animal.  You get to learn expressons from being around them.  Ears perked forward, Alertness in eyes, something has caught their attention.  But the face isn't always the best indicator, you look at my horse, he looks like he'd be the sweetest guy,  no mischieve, but he is an escape artist.  

After being around horses, you just learn to read them like a book.

Answer 9

If you look at their eyes

1. The farther apart they are, the smarter they are (the more room for their brain) (sounds fake but it's true)

2. The darker, deeper their eyes are the kinder they are.

Answer 10

I believe it's all in their eyes. They will tell you if the horse is happy, content, sad, scarred, spunky. I have owned horses all my life and I can always rely on the horses eye to see what he is trying to tell me.