I often see videos and descriptions of happy horses, or playing horses or horses generally having fun.
But when I look at the horse’s body language and the context, where they are often in an arena with a human, a human who is often waving a whip or their arms around and running about, sometimes even wearing a food pouch. Or it might be a horse alone in a paddock or arena, let loose in a strange or scary environment, then I don’t think it’s fun for them at all. Often there’s a lot of conflict behaviours being shown.
Horses can play, but it’s with other horses and often it’s static play with lots of attempts to bite and head jousting alternating with quick bursts of chasing and then more static play *with other horses*. Good fun play is always reciprocal, they take turns.
Head flicks, arched necks, tail swishes, tense faces, walking away, staring into the distance and chasing humans with food, is not evidence of fun or play.
Always question and always look at the environment and context of the behaviour. Sometimes putting yourself in the horse’s hooves can help, even though we are not horses, but we are both social emotional beings. We don’t like to be teased or chased or pressured or threatened either.
Watch the video, playing and having fun, or ? ?