Look angry and a horse is likely to give you a sideways glance: using its left or sinister side. Its heart rate will increase, too. And both are indications that a horse can recognise a human emotion.
Psychologists at Sussex University, who last year compiled a dictionary of the facial expressions that might indicate emotions in a horse, report that they have just turned the experiment on its head: they have explored the equine capacity to read a human face.
And man’s favourite neigh-sayer can not only tell whether a human might be in a bad mood, it can do so from a photograph.
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