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Mar 16 • 💬 General Discussion & Q&A
🎧 Ears Forward Does Not Mean Happy Horse...
✨ We were talking about expression, ears and communication in here recently, so I thought it might be a nice moment to highlight the very first episode of my podcast.
Episode 1: “Ears Forward Does Not Mean Happy Horse.”
In this episode I share some insights, facts, and my own experiences about how horses use their ears to communicate. It’s something that is often misunderstood - especially on social media.
Many times I’ve seen people question, or even attack, perfectly good horsemanship simply because the horse’s ears were not facing forward.
👉 But here’s the thing:
Forward ears do not necessarily mean a happy horse.
Backwards ears do not necessarily mean an unhappy horse.
Even briefly pinned ears can simply be an expression - a quick “no” or moment of opinion.
Just like us, horses need the freedom to express themselves.
Personally, I wouldn’t want to live in a world where I had to appear perfect all the time just so someone else wouldn’t think I was unhappy.
And I don’t think we should expect that from horses either.
As part of their happy language, horses will:
• Put their ears to the side
• Turn them backwards
• Wrinkle their nose
• Swish their tail
They need to do this just as much as you need certain words to express yourself.
Understanding that language allows us to become better horse people.
Just to be clear - this isn’t an excuse for poor horsemanship or genuinely unhappy horses.
The idea is simply to encourage people to look deeper, think more carefully, and learn the horse’s language better.
It’s a subject I could talk about for hours… and in Episode 1, I begin to do exactly that.
➡️ Listen on your favorite podcast app or directly on my website here:
I have several questions to ponder, pick one that stands out:
▪️When you watch horses interact with each other, what do their ears tell you?
▪️Have you ever caught yourself judging a horse’s expression just by their ears before looking at the whole picture?
▪️What have you noticed about how your own horse uses their ears to communicate?
▪️How often do we judge a horse’s happiness by appearance rather than understanding their language?
▪️Do you have concerns about what your horse is expressing with their ears?
Comment your answer and if you want, tell us something interesting you’ve noticed about your own horse’s ears, love to hear it.
🐴✨🫶
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🎧 Ears Forward Does Not Mean Happy Horse...
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