What Does a Good Life Really Look Like for Your Horse?

Every positive interaction, every thoughtful management decision, and every moment of understanding contributes to your horse's emotional wellbeing. It's not about being perfect – it's about being mindful of what makes a horse's life not just worth living, but a good one

We all want our horses to be happy, but what does that actually mean from their perspective? It's not just about keeping them healthy or well-fed – though these are important – it's about creating opportunities for them to experience genuine joy, contentment, and curiosity.

Luckily, our understanding of horse emotions has come a long way. We now know that horses have rich emotional lives, and just like us, they feel positive and negative emotions – those that we call - frustration, anxiety, or joy and excitement. The good news is that modern welfare science is starting to provide us with a roadmap for creating genuinely positive experiences for our horses, but in order to do this we equestrians need to be able to recognise both positive and negative emotional expression in our horses, and know what we can do to ensure the balance always prioritises good welfare.

From The Good Welfare for Horses White Paper cited below.

The Five Domains Made Simple

Think of horse welfare like a recipe with five key ingredients. The first four are the physical building blocks, and when you get these right, they ensure the fifth and central ingredient – mental state is positive so that your horse can truly thrive.

The Four Physical Building Blocks:

·       Good Nutrition – not just what they eat or drink, but how and when

·       Creating Positive Environments – making their living and management spaces centred around their needs – equine-centric!

·       Ensuring Good Health – keeping them good physical health, comfortable and pain-free

·       Providing Positive Behavioural Experiences and Interactions – letting them express natural behaviours, providing choice and ensuring positive human-horse experiences together

The Integrating Fifth Element:

• A Positive Mental State – when the first four are in positive balance, your horse can experience positive emotions like contentment, joy and even happiness.

Five Ways to Transform Your Horse's Life

1. Let Them Be Social

Horses are herd animals through and through. Even the best environment provided to the most pampered horse will not compensate fully for being kept alone. Horses living in isolation will often attempt to cope through develop stress-related behaviours like pacing the fence-line or other stereotypic behaviours such as weaving.

The good news? Even small or short social connections make a huge difference. If full turnout with others isn't possible, horses benefit enormously from being able to see, hear, and touch other horses over fence lines or stable/stall walls. Research has also explored the use of mirrors with some success, and some horses have been known to form strong bonds with goats, donkeys, or other companion animals.

Consider this: Watch your horse(s) when they can interact with others. You will see their ears forward, gentle nickering, and mutual grooming, as well as separation anxiety related behaviours when horses are taken away. These are all behavioural indicators of how important social contact is to our horses, and we need to be prepared to provide them with these opportunities to ensure good welfare. 

2. Create an Interesting World

Think about your horse's day-to-day environment. Is it the same four walls, the same patch of grass, the same routine? Do they look stimulated and interested in their environment or switched off and bored? Horses are naturally curious creatures and they need positive mental stimulation just like we do.

Whilst social activity can be the best form of enrichment, its not always possible so environmental enrichment is another possibility. It doesn't have to be complicated or expensive – and it could be as simple as a ball in their stable, scattering hay in different locations, or providing access to different textures underfoot. Horses love to investigate, play, and explore – and when they can do this safely, you'll see them perk up and engage with their world.

Consider this: Change something small in your horse's environment weekly. Move their feed area, add a safe object to investigate, or create a small obstacle to navigate around. Observe if they become more active, interested or curious, and if you can see a difference in your horse’s response to you or the environment.

3. Build Positive Human Connections

Your horse reads you like a book – your body language, your energy, even your breathing. Horses who experience consistent, patient, and kind interactions with humans develop trust and confidence. They actually seek out human company (your company) rather than merely tolerating it.

This isn't about being permissive or allowing bad behaviour. It's about being fair, predictable, and understanding what your horse is trying to communicate. When you learn to read their body language – the subtle ear positions, the softening around their eyes, the relaxed posture – you can respond in ways that build rather than erode trust.

Consider this: Spend five minutes daily just being with your horse without an agenda. Notice how they respond to your presence when there's no pressure to perform or work. Observe their posture and behaviours they perform to ensure that you can encourage these to be present in all of your interactions.

4. Make Training and Riding/Driving a Positive Experience

How your horse feels about learning directly impacts their emotional wellbeing. Horses trained with patience, consistency, good -timing and reward-based methods show more engagement, try harder, and retain information better than those trained through force or intimidation.

This means understanding how horses learn and using that knowledge ethically. The lightest possible aid, given consistently at exactly the right moment, followed by immediate release when the horse responds as you want, creates positive learning experiences.

Consider this: Focus on timing your release of pressure or addition of a food reward/clicker word perfectly. Watch for the smallest try from your horse and shape their behavioural response by rewarding it immediately  and consistently. Observe how quickly they offer the response and want to engage with the training.

5. Provide Opportunities for Natural Movement and Choice

Recent research highlights something many of us already know – horses have evolved to move. Not just moving for exercise, but to have the freedom to choose when and how they move throughout the day. Observations of free-ranging horses in natural environments, show that they can walk up to 20 kilometres daily while grazing. So, it’s not really surprising that this constant gentle movement is crucial for both physical and mental health.

Equally important is choice itself. Horses who can choose where to stand in relation to weather, when to rest, where to eat, and how to interact with their environment will enjoy better welfare than those with highly restricted options. Even small choices – like having multiple water sources or different areas to stand – can positively impact emotional state.

Consider this: Look for ways to give your horse more choice in their daily routine. Can they choose between sun and shade? Multiple feeding locations? Different routes during exercise? How does providing more choice affect their demeanor? Can you see positive changes in their interaction with the environment and you?

Giving your horse a truly ‘Good Life’

Creating a good life for your horse isn't about perfection – it's about understanding what matters to them and making thoughtful choices that promote positive experiences. When horses can be social, live in interesting, enriching environments, enjoy positive human relationships, learn through use of kind, evidence-based methods, and have opportunities for natural movement and choice, they can genuinely thrive.

The great thing about focusing on positive welfare is that it's usually obvious when you get it right! Your horse will show greater willingness to engage with you and its environment and show behaviours that indicate that he/she is truly content with their life.

For more detailed information check out the following document I was fortunate to be asked to develop for Eurogroup for Animal Welfare on Good Welfare for Horses. https://www.eurogroupforanimals.org/files/eurogroupforanimals/2025-05/2025-E4A-Equids-screen%20%281%29.pdf