As we all know by now, horses communicate 95% with their body, so in order to better interpret and understand their behavior both in the herd and alone, we must learn to understand and read their "signals".

In particular, horses can communicate a lot through facial expressions since on the horse's muzzle (as in our head) there are eyes, ears, mouth, nose that are movable and therefore can move in many directions and make different expressions. The researchers found that the horse has the ability to make 17 different facial expressions, 10 less than humans but 1 more than dogs and 4 more than chimpanzees. It is important to know that each part of the horse's muzzle can express various types of moods such as tranquility and serenity, fatigue, aggression, attention, fear, restlessness, etc. If we learn to read and understand how the parts of the muzzle move and how to interpret them, we will have a much deeper and more confident knowledge of what the horse wants to communicate at a given moment.

As is known, ears back are a sign of aggression and intend to move away those close to them, or ears that continuously move back and forth, in various directions are a sign of attention to what is around, to a sound or noise whose origin is not clear. Low ears in mid-air almost horizontal are a sign of relaxation and tranquility. Ears straight and fixed forward are synonymous with attention towards a precise direction (perhaps towards us or towards an approaching predator). The same goes for the eyes which can take many different shapes according to the mood of the horse. Taken together, the movements of the various parts of the muzzle (together with other parts of the whole body of the horse, such as the tail, the limbs, the muscles of the side, etc.) create the "language of the horse" just like for we humans. Learning to read these movements carefully will make us horsemen as we will be able to quickly read and interpret these signals to understand what to do and how to move at any time with the horse.