19/09/2026
So tell us something we don't already know. 8 of our mares were born here and are now 25, 24, 21, 14, 14, 13 and 7. Their mother / grandmother / great grandmother, Shines Olivia, was with us 20 years. She came to us as an aged mare at 15 and died just before her 36th birthday.
✨ How Our Relationships with Horses Affect Their Behaviour
A study in Royal Society Open Science investigated how horse personality is associated with both individual characteristics and human-controlled management.
Researchers analysed owner reports on 2,767 horses from an international survey of 2,257 owners conducted between 2023 and 2024.
The questionnaire assessed four personality dimensions: human sociability, attentiveness, neuroticism and sociability with other horses.
Breed, age and s*x were important predictors. Warmbloods had the highest neuroticism scores, draft horses the lowest, and geldings scored higher than mares for human sociability and attentiveness.
Relationship history also appeared relevant. Horses kept by the same owner for more than ten years scored approximately 12 percent higher for human sociability than horses owned for less than a year, while horses with several previous owners scored lower than those bought directly from a breeder.
Frequent unstructured interaction, such as spending time together without asking the horse to work, was associated with greater human sociability.
Horses ridden four to seven times per week scored higher for attentiveness and lower for neuroticism than rarely ridden horses. However, the authors stress that these results show associations rather than cause and effect.
Regular training may influence behaviour, but calmer horses may also be the ones selected for more frequent work.
Housing was particularly relevant to horse sociability. Horses kept alone scored lower for affiliative interaction with other horses than those housed in pairs or groups.
The paper cannot establish whether isolation reduces social behaviour or whether less sociable horses are more likely to be housed alone, but the finding supports providing appropriate opportunities for equine social contact.
Overall, the study suggests that personality is not determined by genetics and biology alone.
Management, relationship stability, social housing and the quality of human interaction are all associated with how horses relate to people and other horses.
Because the research was cross-sectional and based on owner assessments, longitudinal studies are needed to determine how these factors influence one another over time. The findings nevertheless reinforce the welfare value of stable relationships, positive interaction and socially appropriate housing.
Paper: Viitanen, A. et al. “Management practices and human–horse relationships are associated with horse personality traits.” Royal Society Open Science, 13, 260116, 2026. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.260116.
