Horses and eye contact

[right_horse_at_the_right_time]

I love these stories you guys, thanks.

Yup, there seem to be some horses who are just like this, nature v. nurture, whatever. But the behaviors you’re describing are just like mine’s behaviors.

Ok more. He will come up to me and put his forehead to mine. All the time. And then close his eyes and rest his forehead against mine.

I also “kiss” him all the time and also blow him kisses. He will also kiss me and “talks” with his lips and kisses me.

That’s all for now, but you get the gist.

[Pocket_Pony]

To me it is obvious when a horse is looking at me or looking beyond me or looking away. There’s just a look in their eye that indicates to me where their visual attention is (regardless of other signs like ears).

All of my horses look at me. I do find that with the deer that hang out on our property, I don’t look them in the eye if we’re relatively close to each other. If they are farther away, then we’ll look directly at each other, but within a radius of 10 feet or so, I’ll look down and adjust my body language so as not to be intimidating to them.

Just the eyes themselves are so expressive - the way they can be soft or hard, have a look of worry or anxiety or calmness or interest or whatever.

Princess Fancy Pants has been fun to observe. As the newest in my herd and the youngest at 2.5, I watch her watch everything and it is pretty cool. For example, I see her deliberately look at the other horses to see how she should react to something. In the beginning, the tractor was scary. Then I saw her look right at the other horses when I would come out with the tractor. She was looking to see what she should do. They didn’t care so she decided she didn’t care. Now she’s very curious about it and will come up to me if I’m on it and will sniff around it and sometimes try to play chase with me. Same with the garbage cans that I have to roll down the driveway or the ATV or Mr. PoPo on his bike. She definitely looks right at me - all the time. She’s very curious and friendly and interested in whatever I’m doing.

Perhaps it is because he’s the lead horse, but Mac is often looking out at anything that might be a threat. When he does look at me, he looks right at me and engages with me, but he also spends a lot of time in general observation/potential alert mode. Paddy is all about the food. If there’s food to be had he doesn’t care so much about me. But if I’m preparing it, then he’s all about paying attention to me. He’s also the one to whom I say “kiss kiss” before I put them to bed and he sticks out his nose so I can kiss the end of it. It is very sweet.