How to read a horse’s body language

look soft overall. Their lips and muzzle will be relaxed too and their ears will be in a neutral position slightly lowered and rotated to the side.
One hindleg will often be resting on the toe when a relaxed horse is standing still. If theyre moving there will be a loose swing to their stride. The shape of their eye will be round.
Sexual differences in a horses body language
Mares and stallions have different postural displays in certain situations especially when it comes to sexual behaviours but generally speaking their body language is very similar. When stallions are gelded it often reduces some of their expressivity stallions can be far more expressive in their body language than geldings. Many advanced dressage riders prefer to ride a stallion as their power and exuberant movement can be an advantage in competition. Gelding a horse also means that he will display far fewer sexual and herding behaviours.
Sophisticated body language signals
Mother Nature was clever when it came to developing the horse. As a prey species that evolved to live in social groups using sounds could have put the entire herd at risk of being noticed by predators. As a result horses have developed a range of sophisticated body language signals and behaviours to communicate with each other silently and safely. Of course horses do sometimes use vocal signals but their primary method of communicating is through body language. The better you get at reading your own horse the stronger the bond and trust between you will be.