Horses as emotional sensors

Experiments show horses can detect human emotional states (fear vs joy) from sweat odors and that those odors reliably alter horses’ behavior and physiological responses. This implies horses are not passive recipients of human cues but active interpreters whose welfare and safety depend on handlers’ emotional state. — If animals routinely read human affect, that matters for therapy programs, equine‑assisted interventions, public safety at stables, and legal/regulatory standards for working‑animal treatment and handler training.