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Meet the horse

Horses read human facial expressions, remember whether a person was kind to them months later, and can use symbols to say what they want.

🏡 Open grasslands; wild horses roam huge distances every day.🍽️ Grass and hay, eaten in small amounts almost constantly.25–30 years.

Friends and family

Horses have close friendships and groom each other's withers to calm down.

Foals can stand and run within hours of being born.

How they talk

Ears, eyes, nostrils and posture do most of the talking; whinnies carry across fields.

How clever are they?

Horses remember people for years and judge whether they were treated well.

What they feel

Horses respond differently to photos of angry and happy human faces — their heart rate rises for the angry ones.

Superpower: Almost total vision

Eyes on the sides of their head give horses nearly 350° of vision.

🤓 Did you know?

  • Horses can tell happy human faces from angry ones.
  • Horses have used symbol boards to ask for a blanket.
  • Horses sleep standing up, but need to lie down for deep sleep.

Living alongside people

Horses are companions, working animals and sport animals; in some countries they are also farmed for meat.

Meet more animals