Do Horses Develop Relationships?

Posted by Laura Thompson Nov 9, 2008

This time next week, I will officially be a married woman, and the idea of marriage got me thinking about relationships and horses. We like to think we have relationships with our four-legged friends, but do horses form relationships with one another?

At the stable where I grew up taking riding lessons, there were two retired mustangs living in adjacent stalls. They were turned out together every morning and were known to pitch a fit if they couldn't see one another for longer than a few minutes at a time. Their relationship got so intense, in fact, that they had to be trailered to the vet together if we had any hope of cooperation.

These two horses were not mates (as in, they were never bred to produce little horses), but they were in a committed relationship. They depended upon one another for sustenance and developed anxiety disorders when forced to exist apart. I've seen this several times throughout my career with horses, and it never ceases to amaze me.

I think it's fair to say that horses do not develop relationships equivalent to those between human beings. Nevertheless, it seems that horses do possess the capacity to develop emotional attachments, both to their human masters and to their equine counterparts.

The question, however, becomes one of good horsemanship. Should horses be allowed to develop such intertwined relationships? Is it healthy to have two horses who cannot bear to be apart?

The two aforementioned mustangs were retired, which means that they were never saddled up for a ride and spent virtually all of their time in their stalls or out in the pasture. This was ideal for their relationship because they didn't have to be apart for very long, except when one required medical care. But take that same equine relationship and apply it to two performance horses who compete every weekend in different shows.

As you can see, relationships between horses can become almost as complicated as those between human beings. The difference is that horses lack the intellect to understand their relationships, and are therefore ruled entirely by instinct and emotional connections. Their comparatively primitive relationships can be detrimental, so horse owners have to watch out for this.

If you have two (or more) horses who have developed relationships, watch for signs that their pairings might turn unhealthy at some point. You might discover that you have difficulty catching one in the pasture, or they might call to one another incessantly when separated.

In this case, it is sometimes best to separate horses indefinitely. Pair them with other horses with whom they are unlikely to develop such strong relationships.

To solidify my point, you should know that one of the aforementioned mustangs died before the other, and the second mustang passed away less than a week later. Obviously, equine relationships are deeper than we ever imagined.