Unless that magician is me!
Horse owner or not, a laughing horse creates a giggle. Until I owned a horse, I had never bothered to wonder why a horse would laugh.
Continue below if you wish too know the reason…
Let the magician reveal his trick – what is the ‘laughing horse’ face?
When someone asks me to get The Horse to make the face, my first response is – What face? He has one face; one big, goofy face. But of course I know what they mean.
I give The Horse something tasty (or foul, but that would be mean) and right on cue he performs his most reliable party trick – The Flehmen response.
The sciencey bit:
…horses display the flehmen response to facilitate transfer of inhaled scent molecules (pheromones and possibly some other substances) into the vomeronasal organ (VNO), a specialized chemosensory structure found in many mammals.
In all my research on this topic it is stated that this response is most common in stallions (male horses with their dangly bits attached) as they use it, possibly, to scent when a mare (female horse) is ready to make a baby.
My research also found that geldings (male horses with their dangly bits removed) are lease likely to have the Flehmen response.
There are a number of forums, with a number of threads that with tell you otherwise. And as an owner of a gelding, I agree!
Reasons why a horse may use the Flehmen response, according to horse owners:
- Something tastes good
- Something tastes bad
- Something smells good
- Something smells bad
- Horse wants something
- Horse is insulting you
- Horse knows how to get on your good side
I’m sure there are many variations of these reasons that a horse may use the Flehmen response. However, in my personal experience if The Horse wishes to express an opinion, especially regarding a new food or smell…
