Horses: can they really "smell fear"?

"You can't lie to your horse"

Nutmeg's "face of concern"

I call this Nutmeg's "face of concern" 👀 also known as "danger ears" when on board 🤣

I was chatting with my non-horsey friend when we were having drinks one weekend and she said the phrase that always makes me a giggle: "horses can smell fear can't they?"

Once I'd finished giggling, she then kindly gave me the opportunity to elaborate, correct what that actually means, discuss the potential consequences... and explain why it's completely WRONG.

A more accurate phrase might be that they SENSE fear. They do this through body language predominantly BUT they ALSO use something called: ✨️ the vomeronasal organ (VNO) ✨️ also known as the Jacobson's organ.

Which incidentally humans DON'T have - or more accurately that there is some evidence to suggest that there is a part of the brain which is in theory capable/a VNO type structure but is "dormant" and not useable anyway.

This organ senses pheromones and hormones and the reason this "6th" sense gets confused with the sense of smell is because - as the name suggests - its located in the soft tissue of the nasal septum (as an accessory of the nose auxiliary olfactory [smell] sense organ). This is also the reason a horse "fleshes", curling their top lip back to lock in the scent of something to analyse. NOT to smile, sorry to disappoint you!

This is also the reason you can't lie to your horse!!! 😉

They can already sense "danger" chemicals - such as cortisol and adrenaline - from your exhaled BREATH. These steroid chemicals kick in when danger is perceived. Cortisol is produced when stressed (why it's often referred to as the stress hormone) and adrenaline gets produced to prepare the body for flight.

This is also the reason horses often go to sniff your face/mouth/nose sometimes during training sessions (obviously not whilst riding!). I witnessed Nutmeg do exactly this to Maz once when some foreign cows appeared in their field - she perceived potential danger, went to sniff Maz's nostrils to check if she was producing "danger" chemicals, she wasn't - she had her head stuffed in the hay feeder, so no need to panic! Nutmeg then went on to investigate the cows herself and realised that she could actually torment them!

"A rider or handler lacking in confidence can be the start of a downhill spiral"

Going back to "sensing fear" - what does that mean for us as humans?

Unlike a predator - who can also sense this "fear" in the same way, using the VNO mechanism, signalling a potential "weakness" and therefore advantage over its prey, which could trigger an attack - the horse, as a PREY and HERD animal (depending on its companions for communal survival) sensing fear in another is MORE LIKELY to signal 🚨DANGER🚨 and that they should also be afraid of something.

This is why a rider or handler lacking in confidence can be the start of a downhill spiral of miscommunication and lack of trust from their horse.

It's not that the horse wants to hurt you (not usually anyway!), it's that they think they need to take their life into their own hands.

So let's rephrase this:

"Horses can smell fear [and are therefore dangerous and will try to hurt you]"

To:

"Horses can sense if you are scared, and so will also get scared [you might get hurt if you get in the way of their flight response]"