Horse communication

[vicksey]

Posting on behalf of a friend.

My friend has the sweetest gelding (old man now in his 20's), most gentle thing ever and they have a great bond. Her horse very often nuzzles her face very gently and just blows or breathes on her face, he will happily stand there for minutes just breathing and sniffing her face, she is convinced its some form of communication. Does anyone know, or have any nice ideas what it means or what he might be telling her in horesy language

 

[debsey1]

That he loves & adores her?

 

[vicksey]

She will love that

 

[noblesteed]

My gelding does this to me. He also gives me a 'kiss' on the cheek! A bit slobbery though sometimes. I have had him nearly 4 years. I read somewhere that horses greet each other by blowing gently into each others nostrils, so I think that's why he does that and I do it back, like a horse would.
I think the kissing thing is more to do with me giving him a kiss on his nose, he has learned to do it back because he is very motivated by positive reinforcement, ie he does it to me and gets a good response so does it again. I have to add is isn't a bitey kiss. He knows not to do that, he has had a slap in the past for being mouthy and so has never bitten.

 

[vicksey]

I think so too, thanks everyone

 

[ArabianGold]

I often have a quiet moment with my mare, when I hold her head and snuggle in to her I blow gently on her nose and she loves it.

Also the same if she is laying down I sit with her rubbing her ears and she dozes off in to a deep sleep..

I love quiet moments, although I do have to watch Whisper sometimes as she can be a bit full on sometimes forgetting that she is so big and head butting me instead of nudging softly..

 

[Fantasy_World]

Posting on behalf of a friend.

My friend has the sweetest gelding (old man now in his 20's), most gentle thing ever and they have a great bond. Her horse very often nuzzles her face very gently and just blows or breathes on her face, he will happily stand there for minutes just breathing and sniffing her face, she is convinced its some form of communication. Does anyone know, or have any nice ideas what it means or what he might be telling her in horesy language

It is her horse's way of greeting your friend. Tell her to go and buy Talking with horses by Henry Blake for a full explanation. A fantastic read, would recommend to everyone who wants to either get more from their horse or to understand them more as creatures at their level not ours. As humans we tend to anthropomorphize with our animals. However this is the wrong way to try and understand and communicate with our pets.
Horses will quite often go up to others in the field and sniff and blow at them, it is their way of greeting, assessing each other and re-affirming friendships with one another.
According to Blake he believes that the continuation of the gentle blowing and other friendly movements is saying to the other horse ( or even person) I am a friend.

 

[Kaylum]

Its funny I was reading this stuff years ago in Horse and Pony magazine when I was 8. Thats where I learnt a lot of communication techniques.

 

[Calcyle]

I read the same thing when I was young, about blowing gently into the nostils - that it is a form of greeting. I promptly started to do so with just about any horses I met, and the vast majority will stop and gently do the same back. Though it was a lot easier to do when I was little girl and people didn't think anything of it - it's more difficult to get away with with random horses as an adult!

 

[Fantasy_World]

The book in question was published in 1975 and the author is not a recent writer, but one who has been studying horses for a number of years. My copy was bought secondhand I think is a first edition from a charity shop in Wales last year. It had previously been used in a school library in a grammar school. Good to know that that particular school enjoyed a varied book selection

 

[vicksey]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Will have a look at the book