Ever feel like your horse is in a bad mood? Well, according to a British equine behavior research team, you could be right. In fact, team members said, paying attention to all of horses’ main psychological factors–temperament, moods, and emotional reactions–is key to ensuring their mental well-being and their success.

"To attain optimal individual performance within any equestrian discipline, horses must be in peak physical fitness and have the correct psychological state," said Daniel S. Mills, BVSc, PhD, MRCVS, Dipl. ECVBM-CA, European and RCVS Recognized Specialist in Veterinary and Behavioral Medicine at the University of Lincoln in the United Kingdom. Mills and Sebastian McBride, PhD, associate lecturer in equine science at the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences at Aberystwyth University in Wales (U.K.), recently published a paper on the topic.

"Psychological state" is made up primarily of three psychological factors: temperament, mood, and emotional reaction, the team said. Temperament is a basic, long-term attitude. Developed from genetic factors and life experiences, a horse’s temperament usually remains essentially consistent throughout his life.

Mood, on the other hand, is a short-term attitude. Just like people, they said, horses can have good moods and bad moods, motivation and grumpiness. And as for emotional reactions, these are the most immediate kind of attitude. They are the way a horse reacts to a specific situation, whether it’s an open umbrella or a separation from his pasture buddies