Ears back

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Ffithomson

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Hi all,

I’m not new to horse ownership, but I’m fairly new to understanding the importance of groundwork and learning a lot as I go...I thought the responses may be kinder here!

Over the years we’ve taken on a few rescues for retirement — mostly just cared for them with love, no riding or structured groundwork.

Recently, we took in a very malnourished Thoroughbred with almost no muscle. As part of his rehabilitation, I’ve started incorporating gentle groundwork to help rebuild and have also attended a few courses to learn more. It’s been eye-opening, and the progress has been amazing - we’ve built trust, improved manners, and resolved food aggression issues and he gives me great space.

However, I’ve noticed that during groundwork sessions, his ears are often slightly back. Not pinned flat like when he first arrived with food aggression, but consistently held back — sometimes a little more than halfway.

He’s otherwise calm and responsive, and the sessions are short (15 minutes max, no lunging). The vet suspects mild arthritis, so I’m mindful of keeping things light and therapeutic.

I managed to get in touch with a previous owner ( way back not the one who neglected him) who advised he was good overall and the only thing he mentioned was he would pin his ears and run sometimes when trying to be caught. However he has never done this with me - he always walks straight to me, waits for me to enter and no problem catching him.

My question is: should I be concerned about the ear position? Could it indicate a threat or is it just focus/listening?
 

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Ffithomson said:
Hi all,

I’m not new to horse ownership, but I’m fairly new to understanding the importance of groundwork and learning a lot as I go...I thought the responses may be kinder here!

Over the years we’ve taken on a few rescues for retirement — mostly just cared for them with love, no riding or structured groundwork.

Recently, we took in a very malnourished Thoroughbred with almost no muscle. As part of his rehabilitation, I’ve started incorporating gentle groundwork to help rebuild and have also attended a few courses to learn more. It’s been eye-opening, and the progress has been amazing - we’ve built trust, improved manners, and resolved food aggression issues and he gives me great space.

However, I’ve noticed that during groundwork sessions, his ears are often slightly back. Not pinned flat like when he first arrived with food aggression, but consistently held back — sometimes a little more than halfway.

He’s otherwise calm and responsive, and the sessions are short (15 minutes max, no lunging). The vet suspects mild arthritis, so I’m mindful of keeping things light and therapeutic.

I managed to get in touch with a previous owner ( way back not the one who neglected him) who advised he was good overall and the only thing he mentioned was he would pin his ears and run sometimes when trying to be caught. However he has never done this with me - he always walks straight to me, waits for me to enter and no problem catching him.

My question is: should I be concerned about the ear position? Could it indicate a threat or is it just focus/listening?
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I'd say he is listening for your voice and what his next instruction might be.

Read this for more info. Sounds like you're doing a great job. Don't lose heart.

www.yourhorse.co.uk

This is what a horse's ear positions tell you about their mood

Horse ear positions and movement are a great indicator of where their attention is directed, and can signal what mood they are in
www.yourhorse.co.uk www.yourhorse.co.uk
 

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Thank you, appreciate your comment 😊 fingers crossed that is the case.

I have read that article, I just can't work out if they are classed as back or not!

He's a very big horse and I guess I'm slightly anxious I don't want to miss any signs of anything that could put me at risk 😊
 
I wouldn't worry too much about it, for many horses this is a default and they may just always look a bit grumpy, not all horses are people horses. He may not be thrilled about being asked to do things but as long as he is compliant and it enables you to handle him safely then it is necessary.

If that is him in the photo then he definitely is displeased and not relaxed, you can tell by the tightness around his eye and the clamped shut mouth which puts wrinkles on his muzzle - it's certainly not engaged and waiting for an instruction so I would disregard that advice on the basis of remaining safe, it's important you don't misinterpret what he is telling you. If it is an attention thing then his ear will 'follow' you, eg: he may have one back and one forward if you're sat on his back, or it would be to the side if you are stood to the side of him. Certainly not both back and facing away from you.

My warning signs would be any escalation of behaviour, if he moves into your space intentionally, if his tail starts swishing, if he throws/flicks his head towards you (even if he's not trying to nip you). Perhaps keep your sessions shorts and then stop when he starts to disengage like the above?
 
If that's him in the photo he looks uncomfortable or stressed (I'd be inclined to think the former, but that does usually lead to mental stress as well). The expression generally is not relaxed and open but tight and guarded. It might be worth having a look at the pain ethograms available that help with interpreting facial expressions particularly.
 
Thanks everyone for your comments. I will take a look into the pain ethograms.

In that photo he was just standing still, not doing any work - but I felt it captured how I think he looks a lot of the time doing groundwork. They kind of flick between that, up and then a bit of both. I will try and watch next time we go out whether one flicks in and out like you said AShetlandBitMeOnce. Would you mind explaining what you mean by tightness around his eye? They always look like that so just trying to work out what you mean. He always has his mouth shut too - unless dozing, then he gets a major droopy lip!! 🤣

The only time I see him with his ears actually forward are when you walk up to the stable, or take him out to the field.

Obviously he is new and still settling in so it would be perfectly normal for him to still be anxious about his surroundings and us..he only joined the rest of the herd 2 days ago outside.
Especially if he's now being asked to do some work after a long time of being neglected. He was in a very dire state - think the worst RSPCA adverts you see of skin and bone.

He's on a diet of custom senior feed, tumeric, cracked pepper, spirulina, seaweed, garlic and then has the Equine of America muscle suppliments after any work. Hoping these will help any discomfort he has - although vet said it was mild / early stages of arthritis. I assume these take a few weeks in the system before they start to have any effect.

There's been no tail swishing or any other signs of aggression (aside from the food initially before we worked on that). He can be a bit bulshy coming out the stable - but he corrects that when you remind him now we've done some work.

Do you think some of it could also be he's had no 'leader' for a long time too and he's unsure about being told what to do?
 
I've managed to get some snippets from a video as I'm doing some groundwork with him. They flick about a lot, but the mainly do this half back when walking forward following me or when he's asked to back up a little.
 

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Oh and thought this one might be relevant, he was very relaxed (it felt like anyway) and you can see his droopy lip is out - but they were still in that position.

Sorry for going on - I think my husband is sick to death of comments about ears the last couple of days!! I just want to make sure I'm doing everything right for him.

Thank you x
 

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Agree in the first pic he looks uncomfortable. The other pics look better, his eye looks softer etc, although the quality is lower as it’s from a video so it may miss some of the subtleties of his expression.
 
Ffithomson said:
Oh and thought this one might be relevant, he was very relaxed (it felt like anyway) and you can see his droopy lip is out - but they were still in that position.

Sorry for going on - I think my husband is sick to death of comments about ears the last couple of days!! I just want to make sure I'm doing everything right for him.

Thank you x
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That looks like his normal resting face, he's just chilling. I don't sense any aggression there.
 
Hopefully the below helps some, I have tried to find Dex showing different expressions so I can display what you can look for and what signs there will be.

The below I would say is soft and engaged, I was doing some groundwork with him at liberty in the field. One ear is on me as I am speaking to him, one ear is behind him as I was about to ask him to backup. You can see that they are both fairly central, as in not super forward and not super back. You can see any tension lines in his face (this will be clearer in other photos) and his eye is soft, no whites showing, no pronounced 'eyebrow area' and his head is angled towards me which in my book shows a desire/willingness to engage with me whilst respecting my space so he's not trying to 'over power' me.
1756312533942.png

This one was at his first show, and you can see both ears are very forward and alert and his head is held high - this is indicative of him being higher in adrenaline. His eye is wide and staring, but no whites showing so he's alert but not above threshold, you can see a more pronounced dip/eyebrow area (some will be due to angle, but it also shows there is some tension there). I would say that whilst his mouth is closed, he has a fairly soft muzzle here still.
1756312688203.png

This one is p!ssed off. If I didn't know him so well I would be leaving him well alone at this point, as this sort of face can be safely assumed to be followed by physical consequences if ignored. The nostril is much more oval/narrow than usual, it's more rounded when he's soft, and those wrinkles are a visible sign of tension through his muzzle area. You can see the lines in his lower jaw are more pronounced which is another tension indicator, ditto by his eye (which I wouldn't say is that angry of an eye, and it's as he doesn't really mean it) and then again through the neck wrinkles. His neck is tense here and coiled back which would tell me it's likely that a lunging bite would follow (Dex never would, but if you don't know the horse, then this is a warning sign!!). Both ears are back and pointing down towards the neck which shows he's not focusing behind him, he's telling me he's cheesed off.

1756312944888.png


Conversely this is the sort of ears back expression that I wouldn't be so concerned about, he's pulling a grumpy face but his jaw is relaxed, his mouth is open and his lips are soft, no wrinkles on the nose and no tension in the eye, his ears also aren't back and down, and his head/neck are in their normal position- it's a half assed communication effort by him.
1756313101729.png


And then this one I would say is soft and happy but not particularly engaged, just a screensaver type 'watching the world go by' expression albeit his ears are more forward than his totally relaxed face as I was walking toward him and he'd spotted me.
1756313204238.png

I don't have a pain face one as I have always tried to listen to his whispers before he has to shout so it's never really gotten to the point that he's in horrid pain.
 
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