The horse’s mouth blog: ‘Do horses recognise people?’ But of course we do!

By Eddy

We overheard a visitor to the yard innocently asking this the other day and it’s prompted me to write this month’s blog on behalf of the rest of the pony team.

Humans that know horses will often explain that we’re ‘sentient beings’, emotionally sensitive and intuitive. This means that we form very strong family and friendship ties. And our memories are long. A horse separated from a close friend, or a family member, can recognise them from at least a field away from their movements and their whinny, and react with joy and affection years later.

But what about our ability to recognise humans?

We do, of course, but the way we do it is just a bit different. Visual recognition is obviously crucial, but hearing and smell are really important too. And we can spot if a voice we hear matches that of a human we know and can see, which means we’re cross referring two senses (which is pretty intelligent, by the way). And when we do recognise a human that we love, expect us to get really excited, run around, and throw a joyful buck or two.

As flight animals (to avoid being preyed upon), we have to draw on all of our senses and all of the information around us, so we’re very sensitive to changes – even when they may seem slight – to survive in the wild. This is the reason why we can be confused if a human we know well wears clothes we don’t associate with them. Just like a human might struggle to recognise someone they know well, when seen in an unfamiliar setting. It’s exactly the same thing. It’s the reason why we instantly recognise Natalie when she arrives in waterproofs, baseball cap and boots, but if she turned up in a ballgown ... well, you get the idea.

Research has proved that we can recognise humans we know well from photographs. That’s pretty cool, don’t you think?

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