The sense that is most important to a horse is the sense of smell, because a horse's anatomy is such that most of its neurons and proprioceptors lie in the front part of its mouth. Discover how a horse can discern detailed information about other horses, including their gender and whether or not they're pregnant, through their sense of smell with information from an applied behavioral ecologist in this free video on horses and their senses.
Hi! I'm Mary Ann Simons. I'm an applied behavioral equine ecologist. I live in Vancouver, Washington and I'm here to talk to you today about what senses are most important to horses? I've spent my life studying wild horses since 1970s, 2, and have spent a lot of time debating what senses are important. I don't think that we have agreement in science but I can tell you from working with horses what sense is most important to them. I had watch blind horses coming off the ranch and be able to function just fine because they can smell. The horse's brain is such that most of its world is in smell and taste and most of the neurons proprioceptors in the front part of the horse's mouth, in the nose are all tied up with some form of smell and taste. So, visual stimulus is important. It helps the horse become alert to see what's around, to protect it. The ears are important to go forward to see if they can hear things and horses have very good hearing and pretty good eyesight. The ability to have sight alerts them of a predator or just some warning. It also can tell the if their friends are around. Sound is also an important one and some horses have better hearing than others. The sensory input in horses or how they perceive senses can be different but across the board I would say that smell is probably the dominant most important sense for a horse. They can tell by smelling manure whether the horse was their friend, or another horse. They can tell if it was a mare or a gelding or stallion. They can tell whether it's pregnant or not pregnant. They can tell whether it had last had water. There is so much information communicated in the sense of smell for a horse. It's often like it would be the language for a horse. Where we would on our cellphones, a horse would much rather go smell manure and get a complete download on how the health of that animal is and where they've just been. So, from a horse communication standpoint, I'd really go for smell is the best sense for a horse.
Specialty: Holistic Horse Health
