Can Horses Be Jealous?

Bronzz and Brandy with me

Can horses get jealous? Not resource-guarding, but jealousy as protective of a relationship. I think so. I saw it in Bronzz early on. If I paid too much attention to any of the other 18 horses on the farm where he lived, Bronzz glared. When possible, he warned other horses away from me. No, I was not training with treats. When Brandy came, I was careful to greet Bronzz first, play with him first, and speak to him by name while spending time with Brandy. I do not see jealousy between them as long as I make a point of giving each of them quality attention. All mammals share the same 7 Core Emotions: SEEKING (curiosity), PLAY, CARE (bonding), LUST, FEAR, GRIEF (separation distress), and RAGE. In every species each emotion is associated with the same types of neural pathways and neural chemistry, in the same areas of the brain; this is well documented. However, science has not yet tackled the question of whether horses also experience more “complex” emotions such as jealousy. I think that as usual observant horse people are way ahead of the research. I posed the question on facebook: had other people had seen jealousy in their horses? The answer was overwhelmingly yes. A few people suggested that "jealousy" is simply resource guarding. This might be so if the person is associated solely with food. However, when a horse is protective of his relationship with a person, we must define that as jealousy. Or we must re-define human jealousy as resource-guarding!

References and more details on Core Emotions in this article: The 7 Core Emotions We All Share