What horse people tell themselves:-
“She’s so relaxed she’s sleepy!”
“She loves being lunged/ridden/round penned, because she yawns right after, so I know she’s super relaxed!”
“She yawns after I take the bit out and saddle off, so I know she’s had a good time and is super chill!”
But what are some of the actual reasons horses yawn?
I find it interesting what becomes normalised in the equestrian industry. It’s also interesting that those who push to normalise these things are trainers who create this behaviour in their own and their students/clients’ horses. Horses looking away, avoiding, giving calming signals, dry licking and chewing and being hard to catch, seems to have become the norm. This is not normal!! This is indicative of how they feel about you and about the time you spend together.
I’m a Positive Reinforcement (R+) trainer and my aim is for no force, coercion or “pressure” in my training and certainly no fear or stress. I train with food, with choice and control where possible, I don’t train with pressure and release (Negative Reinforcement), therefore I don’t cause the horse physical, mental or emotional discomfort deliberately.
Therefore if I see these kinds of behaviours (calming and appeasement behaviours), I consider it an error on my part and I’ll change my behaviour and training approach. But I don’t really see these behaviours in most of my equines, who are all experienced R+ trained animals.
I also don’t often see these behaviours when they are just hanging out in their space. This is because the way I train causes them to like me and I’m someone of value to them. I also generally don’t see them act this way towards each other, because I train them and keep them in a way that they don’t need to be adversarial with each other. Equines (especially my donkeys) are generally friendly, sociable and cooperative and performing agonistic/aggressive behaviours is usually about management of resources and the environment. It’s not fun or relaxing for the horse or donkey to be constantly guarding and aggressive towards other animals.
Next time you see a trainer or anyone suggesting that the look away or non nutritive licking and chewing, yawning, licking objects or people, etc is a good thing, really question it. I say this, because it’s not actually good at all, it’s kind of sad. Worse, after the horse has given a signal they want distance, the trainer ignores that communication and catches and halters them anyway.
I look at these types of behaviours as something I want to avoid, NOT something I use in training. There is always an emotional association with all behaviour, therefore a horse sending out this message is pleading for space and non confrontation. They want you to leave them alone. This is not something I want to trigger in any animal I am training.
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“The fact that the new study highlights two behaviours – snorting and non-nutritive chewing – however, can now be eye-openers. “A main finding of this study is that non-nutritive chewing is actually not a behaviour indicating a relaxed state, as a lot of people believe, but rather indicates that the horse is trying to relax himself because he’s in a stressed/aroused state,” Baragli explained. “This is actually the opposite of many schools of thought, especially among horsemanship trainers. And the distinction is critical.” “
You can read the article here:-
“Since a high frequency of yawning was related to increased frustration in horses kept in a restricted stabling environment (Fureix et al. 2011), it may also be supposed that the lower frequency of yawning in horses observed in undisturbed social groups may reflect increased welfare in equine groups living in favourable conditions satisfying their behavioural needs. Increased occurrence of yawning in domestic situations could thus attract the attention of caretakers to make the alterations to improve the welfare of their horses.”
Study: Investigating determinants of yawning in the domestic (Equus caballus) and Przewalski (Equus ferus przewalskii) horses,
Authors: Aleksandra Górecka-Bruzda, Carole Fureix, Anne Ouvrard, Marie Bourjade and Martine Hausberger.
Read more here:-
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27542092/
Always remembering that it is extremely important when evaluating any type of equine behaviour, that we note and observe the context and environment and antecedents (what came before) the behaviour.
“Physical discomfort or emotional stress are the most likely reasons that your horse is yawning. It might be in anticipation being bridled or ridden; however, what happens before he yawns—such as being groomed, saddled, or girthed—is probably a more important clue. This is because animals tend to yawn after the stressor is taken away (for example, many horses yawn at the end of a strenuous work or when the bit is removed).”
(Robin Foster, PhD)
Read more here:-
https://thehorse.com/…/why-does-my-horse-yawn…/…
“This licking and chewing in response to resuming salivation, along with a cluster of other responses, such as itchiness, sighing, and sometimes yawning and stretching, are used to monitor what is going on in the nervous system.”
(Sue McDonnell PhD)
Read more here:-
https://thehorse.com/…/what-does-licking-and…/…
I also wanted to share a short video I took of my mini donkey Paddy, from the early days of his arrival and training.
I thought I would introduce the clicker, to see how he reacted and he was quite frightened of the sound. Even muffled behind my back, it sent him running away and he was quite scared of me after that. Unfortunately I think I lost what little trust I had built. I took this video after. This is him clearly being very scared and stressed, it is not him relaxing or feeling comfortable at all.
These type of behaviours indicate fear and the equine attempting to calm and asking others, myself in this case, to de-escalate and not scare him. This is not a good thing to see and thankfully I have not scared him since.
Watch little Paddy here:-