Horses make this funny sound when they are happy

When horses are happy, they sniffle, according to a new study published today in PLoS One. The discovery could help improve the treatment of these domesticated animals, say the authors.

The sniffles are just as cute as I had hoped. Listen:

The research comes from scientists at the University of Rennes in France, who have noticed that horses tend to sniff when they are transported in better conditions like large pastures with lots of food .

"There are three important things for horses: they are very special animals," Alban Lemasson, an ethologist at the University of Rennes and co-author, told Gizmodo news agency. of the new study. "Being isolated for a long time is not something that they like, they are social. They also like to graze for long hours, not three discrete meals a day. And they like to walk a lot outdoors. Thus, in good conditions, outside, in a large pasture, with friends, grazing all day long, the horses should theoretically sniff more as a sign of happiness. The researchers decided to test their hypothesis by counting the snors of horses in various contexts

The team, led by ethology PhD student Mathilde Stomp of the University of Rennes , observed 48 horses in three different environments: horses that lived in two merry-go-rounds and spent varying periods in stalls and pastures, and a group of "naturalistic" horses that were still wandering in the pastures.

They kept track of the frequency of snoring in different contexts, and also how often the horses showed other behaviors that would indicate their mood and overall well-being. For example, if the ears of a horse are pointed to the back, they communicate discomfort or pain or side ears, on the other hand, communicate positive emotions. In addition, horses that face the walls of their stalls or act aggressively towards humans are not happy horses, as you can guess.

Stomp and his colleagues used these observations to calculate each horse's chronic stress score. is, and compared the note to the frequency with which they sniffed. The less the horse was stressed, the more he snored – and indeed, horses in naturalistic environments, free to socialize, walk and graze, sniffed much more than horses housed in riding schools

. between horses of different sexes or ages, and horses sniffed as much as 10 times more often when they are moved to a pasture with new food sources. The authors also wrote in their article that horses probably do not sniff to get rid of nose dust because the stalls are much more dusty than pasture. Still, Stomp said that she wants to replicate the study to know for sure that sniffing is really related to positive emotion. And although the study took place only in France, Stomp said the results should be applicable to horses around the world.

At least one ethologist not involved in the work was in agreement with his conclusion.

"This is a very easy indicator that everyone can rate," Gizmodo Katrina Merkies, an ethologist at the University of Guelph, told Gizmodo. By being more aware of the different situations in which a horse sniffs, she said, we can we put them in these situations more often. "By doing this, we can promote better welfare for our animals."

And this finding of snort is only the beginning – other non-vocal sounds could be signs of emotion in horses. While vocal horse sounds, such as neighs and neighings, have been studied to some extent, non-vocal sounds are unexplored territories, says Merkies

Stomp says she would now like to study about the sounds of the voice. Other non-vocal sounds, such as strokes: Smoother and uninterrupted exhalations that are sometimes confused with sniffles, but rather indicate that a horse feels threatened or alarmed. More work could clear up what these different non-vocal sounds mean for a horse's mood, which could prove crucial for providing horses with the best possible living conditions.

"When we evaluate the stress and welfare of animals, the negative because it is easy to measure," said Merkies, such as monitoring heart rates and cortisol levels, the hormone stress. But providing the bare minimum is not enough, she continued. " We must do more than just provide an animal with what it needs to live – we must provide them with a life worth living – and if we can measure that, [a life worth living] is much easier to provide. "

[PLOS ONE]