Is Your Horse Depressed?

Certain behaviors indicate that horses can and do experience depression, which can compromise their health and performance. Learn some of the causes, symptoms to look for, and how you can help remedy depression in horses.

- Justine Harrison, Chbc, With Jennifer Von Geldern

We know humans experience depression, considered a major mood disorder, but do horses? Yes, evidence indicates that they can experience and suffer from depression. Domestic horses may live in a state of chronic stress, depending on their physical health, living arrangements, social interactions, type and duration of work, training methods used on them, and even their feeding schedule.

Here, we’ll review the pioneering study that identified depression in horses. We’ll examine some of the causes, list signs to watch for, and give tips on how to help alleviate equine depression.

Study Finds Evidence

A study in France evaluated domestic horses for signs of depression by comparing their behavior to that exhibited during depressive states in humans. For six months, researchers observed the spontaneous behavior of 59 working horses in their home environment, focusing on bouts of immobility in which the horses displayed atypical posture.

The study also evaluated the horses’ responsiveness to their environment and their levels of anxiety, plus measured the amounts of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood.

A mix of breeds and sexes, the horses were from three riding schools; all had the same type of stabling, feed, and work parameters. The study focused on two elements—the spontaneous expression of “behavioral despair” and unresponsiveness to a variety of environmental stimuli (tactile/visual, human/non-human).

Researchers recorded all behaviors, giving special attention to immobile moments in which they recognized a particular posture, termed “withdrawn,” as distinctly different from other typical stances.