Horse People, I need opinions....

[clipclopclip]

Ok, so for my Honors Thesis to graduate with my bachelors, I am doing a poster of Most Overlooked but Important Horse Expressions. Ok, so that isn't the title, but it will be something akin to that.

So here is my question:
What, in your opinion, is an expression that horses make that is most overlooked or rarely noticed by people?

My first drawing was of the look of chronic pain....it can be overlooked easily as "lazy" or "sleepy". The key is the lackluster look of the eyes and how the nose is pulled upwards in a slit.

Another one I will probably do is the look a horse gets when it eats something new.

Any other ideas?

 

[sallydog77]

I'm not much of a horse person, but I've been around them.

I think a mistake a lot of people make is the postition of thier ears when moving around them. I was always told to make as much noise as possible when moving behind one and make note of the postition of the ears. If they were moving back and around, it meant they were noticing my presence. A lot of people get kicked when they don't pay attention to the body language, especially the ears. This is what I've been told, not what I know to be fact.

I will make a call to aunt tomorrow who has owned and ridden horses for 30 years and ask what she thinks.

When is your paper due?

 

[clipclopclip]

Oh, it isn't due until this coming semester, but since the end product will be a professional published poster for barns, I need lots of time to photograph horses and draw them. Most posters I have seen are all about the ears and where they point them. I am trying to do more of a "facial expression" poster with little things like the way the nose is held or how the lip twitches. Also, how big and what shape the eyes are.

for example: when you scratch a horse in just the right place they extend the neck, lay back the ears a little, close their eyes (or bug them out, depending on the horse) and twitch the upper lip.

Thanks for your input and let me know what she says!

 

[sallydog77]

Oh, it isn't due until this coming semester, but since the end product will be a professional published poster for barns, I need lots of time to photograph horses and draw them. Most posters I have seen are all about the ears and where they point them. I am trying to do more of a "facial expression" poster with little things like the way the nose is held or how the lip twitches. Also, how big and what shape the eyes are.

for example: when you scratch a horse in just the right place they extend the neck, lay back the ears a little, close their eyes (or bug them out, depending on the horse) and twitch the upper lip.

Thanks for your input and let me know what she says!

I'm going to call her within the next week or so, she is also a hair dresser and I need a job done. I will ask her about facial expressions and then write down while she's giving me a dye job LOL

 

[clipclopclip]

LOl thanks

 

[kathylove]

Sounds interesting! Will you post it here when it is finished?

It has been many years since I had horses, so can't really help you. If you were doing one on cats, though... Anyway, I would love to see the finished product.

 

[Maize411]

how about the look a horse gives when it sees something as a threat..Many people think the horse is just gazing at something..but with ears perked up, eyes fixed straight ahead and nose not to high but high enough to take in a smell..it's an expression that has helped it survive for many generations..The look of knowing a predator is nearby....I dunno...just a thought...

 

[Weebonilass]

One I think that people aren't aware of or overlook frequently is the hollows that a horse will get above its eyes when it's under a great of stress.

 

[cangler]

Widening the nostrils when confronted with a new smell .
Arching the neck , excitment.

 

[clipclopclip]

Hey guys! Thanks for the great ideas! I like the idea of a horse looking up with widened nostrils ... the look they get when they are looking at movement too far away for us to see. I have heard a lot of people go "what are you looking at?"...well, you probably can't see it! Horses have amazing long-distance vision for detecting movement.

If you have any more ideas, keep them coming!

As an example, here is the one I have done already.

Triangle depressed over nose, nose flattened, lips tight, eyes lackluster. A depressed horse, either from long term physical discomfort or social stress. I have seen soooooo many horses looking like this that were older lesson horses. Very sad. It would be good if some trainers learned to recognize this face as not being "sleepy".

 

[Jezebel]

My favorite expression is the one a horse gets when they knows they
re about to get a treat. The ears tip forward even more so then when they're just alert, nostrils widen, and neck arches. Often accompanied by head-bobbing, but that would be hard to draw.

 

[Lynnea]

Hmmm...interesting thread! I love your drawing, BTW! A few things come to mind, but how about the "unsure what the heck that is", ears going different directions, head high, blowing nostrils, and eyeballing the object of their fascination sideways (always one I didn't care for when astride the horse).

 

[Widget]

Hmmm...interesting thread! I love your drawing, BTW! A few things come to mind, but how about the "unsure what the heck that is", ears going different directions, head high, blowing nostrils, and eyeballing the object of their fascination sideways (always one I didn't care for when astride the horse).

Ah...the famous "AHHH!! The tree's going to eat me" face. Which always precedes a giant leap sideways. Got to love that one.

Great idea. I can't come up with any to add though.

 

[diamondlil]

In this picture, I was holding Nuts while a cut on her foal's face was being treated. I think you can see a slight tension in her expression, despite the relaxed top lip

 

[ghosthousecorns]

I remember when I would brush the horse I used to sponsor she would kind open and close her mouth and grind her teeth. Not sure if this is right, but I heard it is a thing that foals do and as such is considered a submissive behavior.

 

[clipclopclip]

Wow, thanks for all of your opinions!

I too dread the sideways look of "it's gonna eat me!" haha!

I may add that one in along with the "tense" face. Maybe also the "I see something far away that you can't" face. The problem will be photographing those faces so I can draw them! I am gonna be spending a lot of time at the barn, just watching horses. Which is fine with me

Thanks for the picture! That is definitely a worried look! Adorable mare, BTW.

So I just finished the wiggly lip look tonight. This is the look they get when they are being groomed in just the right spot, and is usually a precursor to allogrooming (mutual grooming between two horses or between a horse and a person).

Hope you like!

 

[clipclopclip]

ps. sorry for the blurry photo!:headbang:

 

[carol]

Along with the pained face being mistaken for a sleepy face....Horses in serious pain will also yawn a lot.

 

[diamondlil]

I've got some good shots of the foals this year, pure curiosity! Some of them betray more tension than others, depending on how confident they were feeling

 

[diamondlil]

And along with the foals, their watchful mothers